Watchlords

I am trying to find a first generation model, non-hacking. I would like the dial to have the Orient Star on it, but not a deal breaker. I few months back they were all over the place. Now that I have cash, I can't find one. I would prefer a black dial, or yellow, but those seem even harder to find. Any help from you guys would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks Lords for taking the time to read this.
kahuna

Nice pick. I'm keeping mine though

Kahuna,

I know this is a little above your price point we discussed, but it is brand new with warranty (and free maintenance/checkup at the two year point). It is also the hacking/hand-winding version of the Orient Star, which seems a little rarer. Beyond that, it seems to be about the only Orient Star black dial (or any dial) 300m on sale new or used anywhere in Japan via the usual suspects other than the few scalpers w/exorbitant prices. The price is the typical discounted retail price back when these were in production. Poking around the site, looks like it is just a bit of old production they have around, probably half-forgotten. Shop looks active, has reviews, pretty decent ones, most recent one a couple of months ago.

Might be a long shot, might be worth looking into. If you don't buy it, I just might, not a whole lot of these around in unused, warrantied condition from AD:

http://store.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/oltime/h42002.html

I would go for this one robatsu. I have no idea how much it is or how to read Japanese?

Looks like 961.00

Thank you ocean.

Kahuna,

Here is a proxy purchasing service that will buy the item for you from Japan Yahoo Shoppingd then ship it. Site seems reputable. Their fees look quite reasonable - I don't think I could do it myself any cheaper from yahoo shopping given paypal, exchange rate, etc.

I've never used them, for obvious reasons, but again, there are a number of these services for JDM shopping, it is a legitimate sector.

http://www.fromjapan.co.jp/title/about

They have a fee calculator, I put in estimated weight/size and shipping to U.S., they spit out $1050.

As for reading the site, use Google Chrome browser, it should offer to translate for you. It won't be a perfect translation and won't translate text that is part of images, but usually good enough for the gist of it.

robatsu wrote:Kahuna,

Here is a proxy purchasing service that will buy the item for you from Japan Yahoo Shoppingd then ship it. Site seems reputable. Their fees look quite reasonable - I don't think I could do it myself any cheaper from yahoo shopping given paypal, exchange rate, etc.

I've never used them, for obvious reasons, but again, there are a number of these services for JDM shopping, it is a legitimate sector.

http://www.fromjapan.co.jp/title/about

They have a fee calculator, I put in estimated weight/size and shipping to U.S., they spit out $1050.

As for reading the site, use Google Chrome browser, it should offer to translate for you. It won't be a perfect translation and won't translate text that is part of images, but usually good enough for the gist of it.

Thank you for this. Much Mahalo.

Okay I am set up with an account. Now how do I link over to this watch from there?

dam I feel so lost in this.

Kahuna,

I just went through the drill on this, figured it might come in handy for me sometime.

After you log in, click "home" on upper left. Then, scroll down on right side bar to the button that says "Place an order (Shopping)". That takes you to a page:

http://www.fromjapan.co.jp/special/order?lang=en

At the very bottom, after all the warnings, disclaimers, you can enter the URL of the item and, although I didn't click through it, presumably you go through a standard checkout process.

I guess for my own disclaimer, I'd like to add that I have no experience/connection with this site or the merchant selling the Orient 300m but at the same time, I'd be comfortable doing this purchase. Online shopping is at least as reputable/efficient/trustworthy, probably more so in my experience, in Japan as it is in the U.S.

bedlam wrote:Nice pick. I'm keeping mine though

Not funny. I almost was going to tell you to go fuck yourself. I am stressed out over this. A picture of a watch everyone knows what the watch looks like. No where in my post did I ask any member here if they wanted to sell theirs. What I asked was if they happened on to one for sale and they were not going to buy, to pass it forward!!!! conj, BL, and a New Member(robatus) seem to be helping me with this and I can't thank them enough. ocean also has helped and it is appreciated. robatsu even went so far as to help me set up an account, which is done, and tomorrow I will finish this purchase(I hope). We have members all over the world, which is why I reached out, glad this could be seen as funny to a few(one),,,,

robatsu wrote:Kahuna,

I just went through the drill on this, figured it might come in handy for me sometime.

After you log in, click "home" on upper left. Then, scroll down on right side bar to the button that says "Place an order (Shopping)". That takes you to a page:

http://www.fromjapan.co.jp/special/order?lang=en

At the very bottom, after all the warnings, disclaimers, you can enter the URL of the item and, although I didn't click through it, presumably you go through a standard checkout process.

I guess for my own disclaimer, I'd like to add that I have no experience/connection with this site or the merchant selling the Orient 300m but at the same time, I'd be comfortable doing this purchase. Online shopping is at least as reputable/efficient/trustworthy, probably more so in my experience, in Japan as it is in the U.S.

I got it thank you so much and I mean that.

Kahuna74 wrote:

robatsu wrote:Kahuna,

I just went through the drill on this, figured it might come in handy for me sometime.

After you log in, click "home" on upper left. Then, scroll down on right side bar to the button that says "Place an order (Shopping)". That takes you to a page:

http://www.fromjapan.co.jp/special/order?lang=en

At the very bottom, after all the warnings, disclaimers, you can enter the URL of the item and, although I didn't click through it, presumably you go through a standard checkout process.

I guess for my own disclaimer, I'd like to add that I have no experience/connection with this site or the merchant selling the Orient 300m but at the same time, I'd be comfortable doing this purchase. Online shopping is at least as reputable/efficient/trustworthy, probably more so in my experience, in Japan as it is in the U.S.

I got it thank you so much and I mean that.

One thing to be ready for is that they might come back and say it is out of stock. Some of these smaller shops aren't the best about keeping up their online stores after they make an over the counter sale. I've had that happen to me on occasion. This one looked like they were keeping their inventory relatively up to date, but you never know. Anyhow, it isn't real common, but it happens often enough that it just occurred to me to toss this out. And if it does, it isn't a scam, you won't be getting counter offer or bait and switch, the times it has happened to me, I just get a profuse apology, shop owner offering to commit seppuku for all the trouble he has cause,etc. etc.

robatsu wrote:Kahuna,

I know this is a little above your price point we discussed, but it is brand new with warranty (and free maintenance/checkup at the two year point). It is also the hacking/hand-winding version of the Orient Star, which seems a little rarer. Beyond that, it seems to be about the only Orient Star black dial (or any dial) 300m on sale new or used anywhere in Japan via the usual suspects other than the few scalpers w/exorbitant prices. The price is the typical discounted retail price back when these were in production. Poking around the site, looks like it is just a bit of old production they have around, probably half-forgotten. Shop looks active, has reviews, pretty decent ones, most recent one a couple of months ago.

Might be a long shot, might be worth looking into. If you don't buy it, I just might, not a whole lot of these around in unused, warrantied condition from AD:

http://store.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/oltime/h42002.html

Good work there, Robot. Interestingly, this is the first I've heard of any retailer who offers free a free two-year maintenance, no matter what brand--I'm sure there may be some Swiss brands/retailers who offer this, but like I said, I haven't heard of it. Honestly, for the price of many mid-to-high end watches, this sort of after-sale CS should be the rule, not the exception.

Kahuna74 wrote:

bedlam wrote:Nice pick. I'm keeping mine though

Not funny. I almost was going to tell you to go fuck yourself. I am stressed out over this. A picture of a watch everyone knows what the watch looks like. No where in my post did I ask any member here if they wanted to sell theirs. What I asked was if they happened on to one for sale and they were not going to buy, to pass it forward!!!! conj, BL, and a New Member(robatus) seem to be helping me with this and I can't thank them enough. ocean also has helped and it is appreciated. robatsu even went so far as to help me set up an account, which is done, and tomorrow I will finish this purchase(I hope). We have members all over the world, which is why I reached out, glad this could be seen as funny to a few(one),,,,

Take it easy, brother. Buying JDM, for us Yankees, can be a real chore. This is why I myself tend to go with one of the Big Three (Higuchi, Chino, or Seiya--I use Seiya and have never been disappointed) instead of treading the Engrish listings of Rakoten or others. I understand that send a grand US to Japan over the interwebz can be more than slightly disconcerting. However, Robot has already made his bones with Gerdy, and seems all right to me. Carl was just breaking your balls a little bit. Relax and enjoy the ride. I myself am loking forward to your pics of that fine and rare (a handwinding and hacking Orient Star OS300? I didn't even realize they existed) watch.

conjurer wrote:

robatsu wrote:Kahuna,

I know this is a little above your price point we discussed, but it is brand new with warranty (and free maintenance/checkup at the two year point). It is also the hacking/hand-winding version of the Orient Star, which seems a little rarer. Beyond that, it seems to be about the only Orient Star black dial (or any dial) 300m on sale new or used anywhere in Japan via the usual suspects other than the few scalpers w/exorbitant prices. The price is the typical discounted retail price back when these were in production. Poking around the site, looks like it is just a bit of old production they have around, probably half-forgotten. Shop looks active, has reviews, pretty decent ones, most recent one a couple of months ago.

Might be a long shot, might be worth looking into. If you don't buy it, I just might, not a whole lot of these around in unused, warrantied condition from AD:

http://store.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/oltime/h42002.html

Good work there, Robot. Interestingly, this is the first I've heard of any retailer who offers free a free two-year maintenance, no matter what brand--I'm sure there may be some Swiss brands/retailers who offer this, but like I said, I haven't heard of it. Honestly, for the price of many mid-to-high end watches, this sort of after-sale CS should be the rule, not the exception.

Some of the other higher end Orient Stars they also do this - this is actually offered by Orient, not the retailer, FWIW. That Clubman Chrono I pictured earlier is coming up for its 2 year tweakage. I'm pretty sure they do it for the Orient 300m Sat divers if you buy them in Japan. Kind of a model by model promotional thing, and is something they will use as a benefit/feature of a specific model. Orient is the only one I've seen this on, although I haven't really researched it much, so I couldn't say for sure that other brands don't occasionally do it.

conjurer wrote:I myself am loking forward to your pics of that fine and rare (a handwinding and hacking Orient Star OS300? I didn't even realize they existed) watch.

They did a fairly short run of these in black and yellow before the rebranding of 300m as plain old Orient. One visible difference is that the hacking/hand-winding Orient Stars have a non-gothic logo/labelling whereas the non-hacking/hand-winding 300m have the older gothic script/logo.

Like I said, until Kahuna get a shipment confirmation, there is a chance that it is out of stock at this shop, although I think their site was relatively up to date since they showed a lot of contemporaneous models out of stock and they show recent activity. Sometimes you run across zombie sites full of unobtanium and think you've hit the mother lode until you figure out it is a dead site. Anyhow, assuming it all goes well, it may well be that Kahuna has obtained the last brand new OS300 (not Orient, but Orient Star) in any dial color available from AD anywhere in Japan. There may be some hoarders charging 2x retail or more, but I didn't even see any of them. There was one other guy selling a non-hacking/non-handwinding yellow one that I was thinking of getting, but he seems to have sold that the past few weeks.

conjurer wrote:

Kahuna74 wrote:

bedlam wrote:Nice pick. I'm keeping mine though

Not funny. I almost was going to tell you to go fuck yourself. I am stressed out over this. A picture of a watch everyone knows what the watch looks like. No where in my post did I ask any member here if they wanted to sell theirs. What I asked was if they happened on to one for sale and they were not going to buy, to pass it forward!!!! conj, BL, and a New Member(robatus) seem to be helping me with this and I can't thank them enough. ocean also has helped and it is appreciated. robatsu even went so far as to help me set up an account, which is done, and tomorrow I will finish this purchase(I hope). We have members all over the world, which is why I reached out, glad this could be seen as funny to a few(one),,,,

Take it easy, brother. Buying JDM, for us Yankees, can be a real chore. This is why I myself tend to go with one of the Big Three (Higuchi, Chino, or Seiya--I use Seiya and have never been disappointed) instead of treading the Engrish listings of Rakoten or others. I understand that send a grand US to Japan over the interwebz can be more than slightly disconcerting. However, Robot has already made his bones with Gerdy, and seems all right to me. Carl was just breaking your balls a little bit. Relax and enjoy the ride. I myself am loking forward to your pics of that fine and rare (a handwinding and hacking Orient Star OS300? I didn't even realize they existed) watch.

Thanks John. Nothing personal. I was just a little stressed and had a few cold ones in me. Nothing but love from me to all my Lord brothers. I have learned a lot here over the years and been helped many times over, by many.

On top of this I should be studying for my medterms. Not smart on my part, letting this watch purchase take over.