I like to compare Auctions with Casino’s: in the end the house (auctioneer) always wins. For starters because they charge a fee for their services, and it's not uncommon to charge both the buyer and seller a auction fee...
I do have some authority on the matter since I’ve worked for Europe’s biggest online auction house for 5 years. I was mainly involved in industrial and bankruptcy auctions, but over the years I've been involved in selling and organizing the sale of the most crazy things. I'll save that for another blog article ;-)
Back to the auction fee: Auction houses do offer a great service for that auction fee, they bring buyers and sellers together and leverage the marketing of a platform, rather than you as an individual trying to market your listing.
Add to that the psychological game of being the highest bidder and already having that dream watch on your wrist, and then the sore desperation of getting sniped, and going over budget because “you already had it.. “ and you have something that just works really well when it comes to selling in auction form.
On the other hand Auctions do offer oppertunities for those patient, willing to deep dive through all the (shitty) listings, and spotting things that others might not spot, and sometimes taking a (calculated) risk.
One man's trash is another man's treasure
When I spotted this Seiko 5H23-7060 scrolling through an auction it grabbed my interest. I come across the white-dial version quite often and you can find it in stock every now and then, but the black one I assume was less popular back then, and probably still is.
It was listed as: "spares/repair, battery dead, and described as “scratches, dirt and dullness due to long-term storage”, no returns, no warranty, per usual, and combined with bad pictures I think it didn’t draw attention of many others.
There's two ways to intrepret this kind of waiver and the gamble is to make a good educated guess which one it is:
1) The seller knows it isnt working, and does waive any returns/issues with it this way.
2) The seller wants to get rid of it and have no returns, is not a watch-seller, or might not know enough about it to tell, and at that point it's just a standard copy-pasta that they have in every listing, which you can also find in almost every ebay listing.
So, let's take a look: If the first picture looks like this, many people glance or scroll over it.
So not the most promising description, not the most promishing first picture, but then I saw this picture of the bracelet/clasp and to my surprise it looks like it doesn’t have a single scuff or hairline, which naturally happens so fast when you wear any watch, so either the bracelet is newer, he wore it on another bracelet or strap, or, the watch in general hasn’t been worn (much) yet. My gut feeling tells me it could be the latter choice here :)
I guess you could say it is somewhat of an calculated guess/gamble - but hey, I ended up being the ONLY bidder taking it home for approximately 20 euros after auction fees, tax and shipping.
You can image I was pleasantly suprised when it arrived, my calculated guess was right, because there is indeed some dirt and spots on the front of the case, but it literally looks like this watch has been in a drawer for 30 years.
Seiko Chronos Series
I love my 1970s/1980s Vintage Quartz Seiko - and the Seiko Chronos series fits right in. A bold range of watches with sporty, yet simple looks and even though it was an entry level range of watches, they all did feature anti-magnetic and screw-down casebacks with higher water resistance compared to other (more expensive) models.
I popped the caseback off and found a perfecly neat- and clean movement, no leaking battery and just putting a new one in solved the last hurdle in this gamble.
Price
I generally sell models like this between 50/65 and 135 euros, condition being the most important factor in pricing it but you can find them for that on ebay, vinted or other marketplaces aswell. There is a few more rare calibers like the 5C25 which has a LED On the dial with an alarm, and some less common radio or solar calibers.
But in general, most of these models have been made in big numbers so they are definetly not rare or sought after, but many of them have been worn for 30+ years, so finding a minty one like this doesn’t happen every day.
Specifications
What I think is very interesting is the specs this watch already had, considering it was an entry-range watch from 1987, and it’s one of the reasons this era of seiko watches is so appealing to me, basically ANYTHING they made was well designed, feature-rich, quality made.
Caseback
Seiko is also - especially compared to some other brands - really good at consistantly, and well thought-out putting information about the watch on the caseback. You can really decipher alot about any Seiko, just by turning it around, knowing what all the small marks, abbreviations and codes mean!
You might spot the wave first and think, huh, but this is not a diver? I have that on my Seiko SKX too? Well, that’s one of Seiko’s “Systems” - a way of putting information about the watch on the caseback, where the type of wave (single, double, tsunami) tells what the water resistance rating of the case is.
You can also read ‘Antimagnetic 60g’, which basically means that this watch is able to run with minimal deviation when exposed to a certain level of magnetic field, which Seiko solves here by having a sort of soft-iron highly conductive shell all around the movement.
Then last but not least we find the material on there, ofcourse stainless steel, and you can see it’s made by the Daini Factory as their factory stamp, the Daini ‘Lightning Bolt’ is printed, and this watch is from December 1987 as we can decipher from the serial number, the first digit being the last year, and the decade you have to place yourself, in this case both Chronos andthe 5H23 were both 80s.
I’ve also checked the vintage watch catalog and this is model SWJL058 as seen in the 1987 Catalog with a price tag of 20,000 yen, which confirms also that this is the correct bracelet for this model as it is pictures and you can cross-check the bracelet reference, normally on the inside of the end links or lugs.
Dial
I can understand why the white-dial version sold more and appealed to the public more, because its’ very hard to beat any snowflake-ish frosted dial made by Seiko.
I do think it’s nice they went with a matte-black finish here, it really makes it so that the watch is very legible with the lumed-written out big hour markers and the “fat” paddle-shaped hand-set, which is something that to my knowledge is typical Seiko, they continued to use it in SQ150 Sports and other sporty-bold design watches, and I think it’s really gives exactly that vibe to it.
It’s actually quite cool to see, how much a dial can make a difference, as this is the exact same case reference, but looks like a totally different watch..
Case
So, If you ever handled older quartz watches, or mid- to high range watches from this time period, this is really where the difference lies, the quality of the higher-range cases, let’s say Seiko QR/QT is higher. They are normally a bit heavier, nicer edge lines and finish.
That being said, maybe no zaratsu polished corners here, they did brush the front and high-polish the bezel and sides, which is is just another small thing that I interpret as that everything that came out of their factory back then was just on a certain quality treshold, I do kind of miss that philosophy honestly, cough 400 euro snxs revival moneygrab cough.
Bracelet wise, this is also where there is a noticable difference, its a very flimsy, folded links bracelet, the fit on the lugs isn’t perfect fit, the end links are really thin and therefor soft and are going to bend over time, which is then creating a gap between your endlink and case, which is really ugly (and annoying) and honestly, they still haven’t fixed this.
I think it’s one of the reasons so many Japanese watches don’t have the OG bracelet anymore, they just went to any watch store and bought a bambi or bear bracelet, basically like how you replace a leather strap every few years, and it doesn’t look like it’s ever going to improve.
Movement
The 5H23 is actually a very decent, durable movement. Many people don’t get any enjoyment from quartz, and if you open up any modern movement, I get that, but Purely on the fact how often I can get 5H23 movements running again after 15-20 years of being in a drawer alone, they seem to be very durably designed, which is ofcourse true because the 5H23 is still partly mechanical, has 3 jewels and also due the antimagnetic case it boasts an accuracy of ±15 seconds/month AND already had an EOL indicator.
Also, this was definetly not true for every caliber at that time, some calibers are terrible to get back to live, looking at you 8123 or 7123!!!!
I think the reason the 5H23 movement not holding really any name is because there isn’t a sought-after model powered by it.
There is some really nice export SQ 150 diver models that have the 5H23 which aren’t super common but, those have nowhere near the cult status a 6548 or 7548 caliber Seiko Diver has obtained for example, and with it its quartz calibers.
Final Thoughts
Let's take a look at some positive, some negative things and ultimately: my personal opinion.
These Seiko Chronos Watches just pack a punch for it’s price point nowadays.
I realize this might sound like preaching my own parochy here, but there's not that many widely available vintage watches from a reputable brand, with decent specifications and unique design that you can get at the 100 euro price point. And yes, I get it; Quartz Vintage might sound less sexy, but it’s also easier to maintain and cheap.
Granted, the case is lightweight and, as many vintage models, relatively small to todays standards (I don’t mind, I have small wrists) and you have to take the arm-pulling terrible-to-resize bracelet into account, which does have affect on how comfortable it sits on the wrist and the wearability of the watch, but generally speaking I’m a massive fan of this model, and the whole Seiko Chronos series in general.
I always am on the lookout for these models, so if I peaked your interest, feel free to take a browse, I drop new watches every weekend including Seiko Chronos models!
Auction paid of this time, but that doesn’t mean it does every time. I might share a succes story today because it is good content, but I have a bag/box full of failed (auction) purchases that didn’t work out in my favor. And I can really say I’m experienced in auctions, but I still get carried away sometimes in the hope of finding that gem in the rough, the potential profit or just emotions…. You’re not alone, happends to the best of us!
Thank you for reading, see you next time!
