Don't buy at Punggol Plaza

Guess most of you guys already know this by now: don't buy from less reputable stores, especially those in pop-up outlets. But I learnt this lesson the hard way...



I walked past this store while on my way to NTUC Fairprice, and saw a SKX009. Since I had the time, I decided to take a closer look at it. I asked the owner if he has SKX007, he wasn't familiar with the Seiko timepieces lineup and had to call his Seiko salesman. He got off the phone and told me there's one piece available, and he's willing to give me a big discount, provided I pay a small deposit first. Thinking that it's quite cheap (I didn't know of this seikoclubsg forum back then), and since it's such a beautiful watch, I paid the deposit.



After I collected the watch, I realised the bezel is not aligned to the hour markers, the hour hand is not in the correct position when the minute hand is at 00, there's a strange noise from inside when I twirl it around, and the watch is fast by 40plus sec/day. I thought this is normal for a watch of this price, until I did some research online. The watch is still fast even after a few months' running-in period, so I decided to go Thong Sia to seek their opinion.



To my dismay, I was told a rotor was damaged. I was asked if I dropped it before, which I'm now guessing that it happened before I bought the watch. I've been to Thong Sia twice already, the first visit didn't rectify all the complaints. Right now, it's still there, and I'm hoping I can collect it before I go for my long 2-month trip in June.



I really like this watch, in fact I wear it more often than my Submariner. It's hardy, classic-looking and a good fit for my small wrist. I do hope that it can be back in tip-top condition. Meanwhile, I will stick to buying from reputable sellers and will advise everyone else around me to do likewise. Planning to visit Bencoolen and K2 soon, but only after my trip. Don't want to get poisoned again =)

wats the shop's name?



so that other people will be aware.



sorry to hear that, did you try going back there after you found these issues?



but why the need to pay a deposit in the 1st place, this I do not understand, esp frm B&M shops :?:

Is the watch genuine with box and papers?

Yes, it is genuine, with box and papers too. Had to pay a deposit if not he wouldn't order it in.



Precious Hour at level 1. I believe it's the only watch shop at Punggol Plaza. I didn't go back there, as they won't be able to service the watch from there. In fact, when I collected the watch, I was told specifically to go to Thong Sia if I have any problems. Now that I think about it, it sounds so fishy...

"walk_on_by"

After I collected the watch, I realised the bezel is not aligned to the hour markers, the hour hand is not in the correct position when the minute hand is at 00, there's a strange noise from inside when I twirl it around, and the watch is fast by 40plus sec/day. I thought this is normal for a watch of this price, until I did some research online. The watch is still fast even after a few months' running-in period, so I decided to go Thong Sia to seek their opinion.

Sorry to hear about your bad experience. I would be very perturbed by the bezel misalignment (not unheard of, easy DIY fix), and extremely perturbed by the offset of the minute hand (also easy fix, DIY-able, but I wouldn't). The manual for this calibre though, I recall, does not make any claims on out-of-the-box accuracy.



The accuracy of any movement is an average. So for a COSC piece, the average rate over 15 days, at predefined positions and temperature, is allowed to be -4 secs to +6 secs per day. I cannot remember off-hand, but do remember that simply observing up to a +16 secs/day variance doesn't necessarily indicate that the movement is performing out-of-spec.



A watch-maker who is trusted among a lot of us here has remarked to me before that a +40 secs variance in rate is within spec for the calibre, unless special regulation has been, and even then the 7S can only be regulated to a limit, unlike other movements. And as a rule-of-thumb, as the movement gets dirty, it runs faster.



I'm curious, what did Thong Sia say?

good that you found this forum.

I am sure you will benefit greatly with the infos you can find,else you can always start discussions regard any watch issues .