# Seiko Millitary On Ebay



## imp1254 (Nov 29, 2009)

I love the look of the Seiko Military watches and have seen one on ebay HERE

Are these good watches? I have contacted the seller and he says it has just been serviced at Seiko so i guess it should keep good time.

Does anyone wear one of these every day?


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## Openended (Nov 4, 2009)

Don't know but he's putting a massive massive premium on this just because it apparently was an army issue watch. I think the regular version of this watch goes for something like Â£100 new, or less.

Personally I'm a total sceptic and he could have just engraved the markings on for Â£10 so I don't think it's worth that inflated price. I'm not sure about the P on the front and what it means. Legit or not, I don't think it's worth that price compared to the identicle/very similar new version which you can get new today. E-bay "Seiko military" / "Seiko chronograph" and you'll soon see.


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## Robert (Jul 26, 2006)

Someone was asking about one of these recently with a link to an ebay auction. Have a search of the forum - they get mentioned from time to time.


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## MarkDavey (Jan 9, 2009)

How about one of these? Similar looking watch but for a fraction of the cost


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## DaveS (Dec 7, 2009)

Openended said:


> Don't know but he's putting a massive massive premium on this just because it apparently was an army issue watch. I think the regular version of this watch goes for something like Â£100 new, or less.
> 
> Personally I'm a total sceptic and he could have just engraved the markings on for Â£10 so I don't think it's worth that inflated price. I'm not sure about the P on the front and what it means. Legit or not, I don't think it's worth that price compared to the identicle/very similar new version which you can get new today. E-bay "Seiko military" / "Seiko chronograph" and you'll soon see.


First, I agree that the initial asking price was far too high for this watch. Even the final selling price (Â£400) to my mind is far too high. For Â£400 you should be able to get the much superior Gen 1 with the 7A28, 15 jewel movement.

That's where our agreement ends I'm afraid.

As far as I know the Gen 2 was not "an army issue watch". I believe it was issued to the RAF fighter and Navy helicopter pilots. A non-luminous version was also used in submarines.

The fact that it IS an issued watch DOES mean that collectors are prepared to pay a premium. Whether you agree with the worth of the premium is frankly irrelevant.

The "regular version" 7T27-7A20 (aka Gen 2), by which I assume you mean the "civilian" version is no longer obtainable new. If you can get them for Â£100 new, please let me know where they are and I'll have a van load. I bought one new in 2003 from Ernest Jones and it cost me Â£180 and that was a reduced price.

The seller could as you suggest have engraved the markings (I have seen at least one such fake on ebay) but the font and number is absolutely correct for this watch. My view, for what it's worth, is that this is a genuine RAF issued Gen 2, albeit overpriced.

The P on the dial indicates that the luminous material contains Promethium 147 as the radioisotope. Promethium was completely useless as it only has a half life of 2.6 years so virtually all of the radioactivity has now decayed. The later (civilian) versions used non-radioactive Lumibrite and have an L on the dial to signify this. I've personally never seen an issued Gen 2 with L dial - that's not to say there aren't any, just that I haven't seen one.

As you suggested, I searched ebay for "Seiko military" / "Seiko chronograph". As I expected virtually all of the hits are military style watches. That doesn't make them "military watches" which in my book means a watch that has been approved by a government depatment eg MoD and issued to someone serving in the military.

If you want a military watch, expect to pay a premium.

If you want a "military style" watch, I agree, the choice is endless.

Just my 2d.

Dave


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## DaveS (Dec 7, 2009)

MarkDavey said:


> How about one of these? Similar looking watch but for a fraction of the cost


This is the civilian version of the MoD issued Pulsar (not sure if it's still on issue, I believe it is). Even these are getting a bit scarce now - the civvy version I mean. The issued version has the L for Lumibrite on the dial and a slightly different set of hands, as I recall. It has a rather "interesting" reset "feature". Instead of the chrono hands snapping back to zero as you would expect, they wind backwards! Not much use if you want to start timing something else as you have to wait for the thing to wind back and reset to zero. Also, there are reports that the stem can pull out of the watch if you exert too much force when setting the hands.

Dave


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