I'm not sure if it is from a catalog. Just rumours for now I guess.

Not hard to get a diver below 1K now but in the future. That was the news coming out from HK watch fair a year+ ago. Rumours then were Citizen were going to set up shop in Swiss industry (Citizen have since bought over a Swiss brand that produces high end movts). Seiko wants to move upmarket as well and launched Grand Seiko to the US and European markets. They need to improve their branding tho in that part of the world. Hard to do that when the gwailos associate Seiko with cheap and affordable watches.

Flipped my SKX009 Pepsi recently. It was either the 009 or this one, my one and only Seiko Pepsi now, a 7002. Doubt many would appreciate the faded bezel, dirty dial+markers, etc., so the 009 went.

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Added on March 20, 2012, 11:07 pmBought from here?? How did I miss this one!? Great addition bro!


This post has been edited by iamadrianlee: Mar 20 2012, 11:07 PM

You're asking about a specific watch or the brand?

As long as it was bought new from the AD, your warranty will stand for 3years. If it's grey market, the shop will take care of it for you. Just pray first before you walk into the shop.

As long as its still within the 3years warranty period, Citizen will repair it either via a movement swap. They might have to send it back to Japan though. I think Catnip's case is his watch is no longer covered under warranty.

News of Seiko phasing out 7Sxx in favour of 4Rxx movts was 1st mentioned 2years ago at the Hong Kong Watch fair. Some collectors jumped on the Seiko Stargate (and Seiko5 FF) after the news broke, assuming that the Stargate is the last diver with 7S movts. While some were disappointed that the Stargate didn't get 4R movts, insiders cited that the Stargate was released to "rid" whatever existing 7S stocks were left.

I don't think that 7S movts will be used in any future Seiko models as so far 4Rxx movts has been used in newer releases including newer Seiko5 models. Interestingly I've noticed the average price of new releases has been between 1.2-1.6K (retail price) which makes me assume that it will be hard to get a decent 200m diver under 1K.

Just a head's up to those who often buy from ebay. There has been an increase in reports about fake Seiko/Citizen being sold as genuine. Not referring to the aftermarket parts** but downright fakes with chinese movts and slightly off parts in them. Some were bought from the reputable dealers from SG/HK. Must stress that no one is saying that the reputable dealers sold them knowing that they were fakes but perhaps they themselves were dubbed.

We all know that fake G-Shocks are rampant everywhere. Just do a search on mudah.my. But we have not had this many reports of fake Seikos until now. Amazingly even some seasoned Seiko collectors have now found fakes in their collection. Late last year a couple of vintage Seiko 6138 Slide Rule surfaced with all having the same serial number 4D8364 and upon comparing with a genuine one, found there were some slight differences. Many thought then it was simply a one off case.

But since then we had fake Citizen Nighthawks with chinese quartz movts instead of Eco-drive movements. Fake Velaturas with wrong date wheel. SKX171. Badly faked monsters.

Here's an example of a SKX421. Bezel is slightly off.


Caseback. If you own a Seiko diver, compare your tsunami logo with this one.



Here's a Nighthawk. Dont pay attention to the different text as N.America and Asian versions have different markings. Pay attention to the poor quality of the hands, the markers, the date window. The crown on the fake one also doesn't screw down.



Even the F-91W is faked. Right one is the fake.



** Aftermarket parts are parts made by third parties. Often to replace parts that are hard to find or no longer produced by Seiko. Or just to upgrade say from a Mineral crystal to a Sapphire, etc.