E-mail from Reader : Buy New or Pre-Owned?

I have a few blog entries that I intended to write upon, pursuant to the Chinese New Year celebrations. However, I received the attached e-mail from a reader, which requested for some advice on whether to get a piece of pre-owned watch. I thought that I could answer him in a few days' time but he had followed up with another 2 e-mails in a span of a couple of hours, so I thought that I would take a bit of time and have this entry for him up.

Attached was the e-mail as received from Michael :

Well, Michael, I generally loved a good bargain and from my purchases, you could gauged that I was not a snob for pre-owned pieces too. I flipped watches pretty regularly too. Generally, you tend to get a good bargain with pre-owned watches.

In reference to the Armand Nicolet MO2 watch that you forwarded to me, I must add that I have had no prior liaison with the seller; so whatever I posted henceforth was my personal thoughts and not skewed towards any parties. In this regard, I generally thought, "Hmmm, would I buy this watch with my own monies at the proposed RM12.5k?"

Pro :
1) Watch was fairly new and still under lots of warranty.
2) Full calendar with moonphase, was an attractive complication.

Con :
1) Price maybe.

Why the price, you may ask. After all, it was already severely discounted from RM23k to RM12.5k, for an almost new watch.

Well, that's the power of the Net. A simple keying in the model no. and many options came about. Generally, the prices would not differ too significantly for BNIB pieces; although the online pricing may be cheaper overseas as the 6% GST was not factored in as yet. However, I found that both the local and overseas pricing were generally cheaper (for new pieces) compared to the seller's asking price (pre-owned); which had me wondering if the seller did actually purchased at the RRP (in which case, he had not done his homework), or did he get a good discount but was not passing it on. I clicked on a few links and generally, none of the sellers were selling at the RRP prices. A very healthy discount was adhered upon.

I would opine that Armand Nicolet was an under-rated old brand with lots of history and given its design and workmanship, it would seemed to be a good buy at around RM12k. However, if the price of pre-owned was higher than that of the new piece, I would generally prefer to buy a new piece. Unless the pre-owned piece was of historical importance or owned by someone of importance by my reckoning.

So Michael, it's your own choice to make. Perhaps the seller factored in the "rare" rotor in the pricing or otherwise. If you were really interested, Michael, I would suggest that you get in touch with the seller and checked if you could get a better pricing from him.

United Colors of Benetton

No, I ain't getting a UCB watch for today's post. But I thought it was apt as I have been adding colours into my watch collection, and I already have an in-coming burgundy piece going the green piece that I have in my winder. But I digress.

Green
I love the lively colour of green. Nature is all around us and green is the colour of live. For that, I have the Submariner Hulk when I am green with envy :) And the military Rangeman for the outdoor activities, of course.

Orange
Who doesn't love a tinge of orange in their watches? I thought so. And the orange GMT hand on the Explorer ii really does stand out to the contrast of the black dial.

Blue
You won't be singing the blues when you have these beauties strapped onto your wrist. The domed sapphire on the Poseidon bronze piece really made it a very attractive watch. The 50th Anniv Bluefin Tuna was one of the more comfy Tuna as it had a scalloped caseback that followed the contour of one's wrist. And I can't comment on the 125th Anniv Genesis as yet, as it was still pending arrival into my collection.

Pepsi
The re-issued Turtle Prospex was a real beauty and I just added her into my collection. Off went the rubbery strap and in went a thick military-spec Zulu Extreme sourced from overseas. It was really a beautiful piece and I can see her getting lots of wrist time.

Grey/ Black
You won't get many watches with genuine carbon fibre dial, and the Kirium Ti5 had the real deal. No faux CF for this top-of-the-line Kirium, and when light catches onto the dial, it simply looks electric! The Military Camo had not seen much wrist time, but was still an attractive piece in its own regard. Time to put it to more service time then, if you get what I mean. And the PAM0005 with its sandwich dial was just too sexy to describe over words. You simply had to see it to admire it.

Panda
A Speedy Panda, and in colours as per the picture. Picture perfect!

Burgundy Red
An in-coming piece, which I had not seen or touched in person and backed up the Kickstarter project purely based on the design, passion of the maker, and the quality parts to be utilised. Rest assured that a review would be forthcoming when this piece arrives in due course.

There you have it- the United Colours of Benetton in my collection during the interim period (or soon to be, pending the arrival of the ordered pieces).

E-mail from Reader : SBDX014 A Good Buy?

I received an e-mail from a reader in KL whom asked me if I thought that the Seiko SBDX014 was a good buy? His brother was coming back from abroad for CNY and was able to help him procure the said watch for circa RM10k, as pricier Seikos had been going for discounts after Christmas was over.

Well, I must say that I have always have a soft spot for the Seiko MarineMaster Tuna with its 1000m WR, and larger than life watch size. It was big and hefty, and won't wear well under the cuffs. But it was an attractive watch for the weekend wear nonetheless.

I checked at some shops that I had previously checked and the historical prices that I had previously blogged about and could see the following movement :

1) When it was first released circa October 2015, it was selling at USD3,300 :

2) By December 2015, price had reduced by 25%, to USD2,498 :

3) By January 2016, price had reduced by another 5%, to USD2,398 (circa RM10k) :

With more time, I believed that the real street price would further reduce to circa USD2k. But even at the current USD2k+ or RM10k, it would still be worthwhile if the reader derives pleasure from that piece. To wait or not to wait, that was for the reader to consider for himself really.

In fact, looking at the decreasing pricing, I contacted a grey seller whom had assisted me to flip a no. of my watches successfully, if they could consider bringing in the Seiko Turtle and Seiko Tuna MarineMaster at prices lower than the MYR RRP; and they were opened to the idea if there was demand from fellow readers. So it looked like we could get even more competitive pricing in due course.

Balls 4 Sale

The Malaysian economy ain't a walk in the park these days, and more and more investors were exiting to neighbouring countries with better prospects. It ain't easy operating in such an environment, but for true blue Malaysians, we'll find a way to weather the storm somehow.

Which also occurred to me that there were more ads for nice watches these days going out for a song, by owners whom needed fast cash.

Earlier the day, I spotted 2 Ball watches for sale as per the following :

Now, the Ball Engineer Hydrocarbon "Mad Cow" was an interesting piece, and I have missed this piece after flipping it back in 2014 @ http://andywristwatches.blogspot.co.id/2014/09/wts-ball-engineer-hydrocarbon-titanium.html. As I was currently overseas on rugged terrains, I saved the advert and made a mental note to contact the seller to take a look and probably take the unit off his hand.

This piece was a collectible, and I have seen collectors wanting south of RM10k for such a piece in better times. The owner stated in his advert that he needed funds urgently, which could explain the low asking price.

The Ball Spacemaster was also an interesting piece, although I would place a collectible premium more on the "Mad Cow" piece.

Let's see how things go- I may just add back a "Mad Cow" piece into my collection in due course pursuant to my return.

Good Deal : Tudor Heritage Chrono Blue x2 (RM8,500 - RM10,500)

Here I am, deep in the jungles of Kalimantan, and surprisingly to many, I still have Internet access vide satellite Internet here. So I could continue to indulge in surfing about watches as the crickets play Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in the background.

I have always been a fan of Tudor Heritage Chrono Blue and if there were any fans of the same watch amongst my readers, you were in for a treat.

Deal no. 1 @ http://www.malaysiawatchforum.com/index.php?topic=15595.0 :

There was a chap whom I had liaised before over a watch forum, and he had a mint 2015 Tudor Heritage Chrono Blue for sale. He had earlier placed an advert for the watch in Oct 2015 for RM13,200 but there had been no catch, so he had progressively reduced it till RM10,500 today. I had no doubt that it was a genuine piece, and if I was in Malaysia now, I would be contacting him to take the watch off his hands. If any of you readers were interested, you have to act fast as such a great deal would not likely last.

Deal no. 2 @ http://www.mudah.my/Tudor+Heritage+Blue+Chrono-43632888.htm :

The second deal was seen on Mudah, where another chap was selling another Heritage Chrono Blue for RM8,500. This was a no-brainer of a deal, and if the piece was a genuine piece, then it was literally a fire sale. I had e-mailed the chap to ask about the watch and apparently, he had the whole set but he was not willing to wait for me to return to Malaysia to deal with him. He was looking for a fast deal at the (non-negotiable) price that he had set, and he wanted the monies by the weekend. I don't know him so I can't speak for his watch; but if anyone was interested, it would be good to contact him and deal with him at an AD to grab the crazy deal.

Good luck to you readers in Malaysia now and make a quick grab for these watches if you were in the market for one. God speed.

Weekend Watches...

Casual wear for the weekends, I have just the answer here... Different shades of blue though.

Prometheus Blue now paired with blue Iso.

Seiko Tuna Bluefin, looking great.

Which Next Seiko To Add?

There are quite a few new Seiko pieces on the market, not to mention some LEs meant for other countries were starting to be sold in Malaysia, so we were really quite spoilt for choices. Previously, I almost always prefer to get my Seiko pieces from a neighbouring country as I was able to get good prices being a repeated customer, but the Forex these days meant that the savings was no longer as significant as the past. And if I don't bring it in myself, there was the GST that would kick in and that could wipe out the savings made altogether. Sigh...

Anyway, I meant to get another Seiko piece soon and had my eyes set on the new turtle i.e. SRP755 (black/gold with bracelet) or SRP759 (Pepsi with rubber), or SPB029 (Sumo Thailand LE). Weeks ago, these pieces were commanding a premium but the pries had since settled down to a more norm bracket. In Malaysia, you could get these pieces between RM1,500 - RM1,600. From an overseas forummer, I was informed that he could help me to get the Pepsi Turtle at USD250 (RM1,100)- so with courier and GST, it could be here for circa RM1,300.

Meanwhile, the Sumo Thailand used to go at circa RM4,000 but the prices on online stores were now in the region of RM3k+. A reader informed me that he managed to net his at RM3k after negotiation, and by cash payment (so no credit card merchant charges to the seller). I guess the demand was not as high as Seiko had anticipated, even though it was limited to 1965 pieces and released in Thailand only. The normal Sumo was around the RM1,500 mark minus the LE packaging, the snorkel mask, the cyclops, etc. Most collectors would there go for the normal Sumo to scratch the itch.

And now that the New Turtle was out from Seiko, modders whom used to sell the 6309 Modded Turtles were now charging lesser monies for their Modded Turtles. For instance, the Dagaz Modded Turtles were now going for USD375 (circa RM1,650) whereas they used to be able to go for a higher premium. Competition lowers the market pricing, which was good news to us collectors.

And then, there were some micro-brands coming along with Seiko's VK-series meca-quartz chronograph movement. This was an interesting movement in that it was a quartz movement but instead of having separate motors to control the chrono registers, there was a single motor powering the gear train that connects the hands. Therefore, the chrono was similar to the mechanical type whereby the second hand swept at 1/5th speed with instant snap-back reset; yet it had the additional benefits of better energy efficiency, stiffer and more tactile pushers, and the ability to set the time while the chrono was running.

I was pretty much sold on this 70s-inspired piece i.e. StuckX Bullhead Blue, which costs less that RM2k (pre-order price) inclusive of courier to Malaysia...

when I saw another vintage-inspired piece utilising the same Seiko VK-series movement, that just had to make me pull the trigger. Watch out for its review as it comes to our shore in a few months' time...