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Fake Marathon GSAR


gasebah

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Interesting.I didn't know that Marathon was being replicated?  Is that a gen or rep Marathon case? I had a TSAR which I gave to my grandson for Christmas. I really like Marathon,. they are truly "tool" watches.

What are the "Tells" with the fake watch? I noticed the dial doesn't have the orange tube @12  but the photos are so bad it's hard to really pick up details. 

 

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The orange tube is the most obvious giveaway. The tubes are not real tritium tubes they are lumed with luminova. They all have the same serial number which is obviously the reason for the blurry pics.  The engravings on the back are way off in placement, font, everything is wrong.

I would like to show the watch I wanted to build today but I messed up the keyless, when I removed the stem so I have to start all over again. Grrrrr......

The complete case sets can be bought from a guy in the UK. He also sells Seiko bullhead cases. Problem is the movements are incredibly hard to find nowadays.

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Thanks very much great information!! What movement does the GSAR use? Another question could you use his case and drop in a quartz like the TSAR movement?

Speaking of the Tritium tubes, I almost bought and old TSAR last summer. The tritium was pretty much gone. I called the Marathon company in Canada and asked them about a replacement dial. NOOOOO!! Those tritium dials are very closely regulated and the old dial has to be disposed of properly according to the Marathon Rep. long story short, with shipping and insurance back and forth to Canada, cost of new dial and labor, almost as much as buying a new watch!! In fact If I'm not mistaken, they have to send the watch back to Switzerland for the dial exchange. Way too much drama for a 700.00 USD watch. I ended up buying a new TSAR.

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The GSAR uses a standard 2824-2. So many options here: ETA, Selitta, asian clone... But I do not think a quartz would fit. 

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Exactly. I was referring to the Seiko Bullhead. I have a case here but movements are hard to come by. I guess it is exactly for this reason. People are ripping apart any Seiko 6138 Chrono they can get to build a much sought after bullhead. It is my assessment that almost half the bullheads you see on eBay are fake. There is a lot of reps/fakes whatever you want to call it out there. There is a lot of tinkering going on outside what we know from the TDs or vintage Rolexes.

And the more affordable brands (Longines, Seiko, Marathon even vintage Omega) fly under the radar so to speak. That is why they bother to rep a Marathon. Do the math, 160 USD for a complete case with dial and hands. Throw in a cheap 2824 clone from China and your are good to go. That is 240 USD give and take and you sell the watch for 600 USD as a used genuine on the bay. Nice margin. It is a mess. Just to make it clear: I do not in anyway condone this. The watches I build are solely for my own pleasure of putting stuff together.

Edited by gasebah
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One other question, Have the Quartz TSAR's been repped? Doesn't make a lot of sense to me as used ones are selling anywhere from 250.00 USD to 400.00 USD. Just wondering asI'm looking to buy a used one as my everyday "working in the yard" watch>

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28 minutes ago, panerai153 said:

One other question, Have the Quartz TSAR's been repped?

Not that I would know of.

 

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On 27.2.2017 at 5:31 PM, Sogeha said:

I like these a lot @gasebah share your build in a thread please my friend

I finally finished it only after dismantling the movement 3 (!) times because every time I tried to insert the stem once in the case I coudln't get it in and messed up the keyless works. There is something about that crown with its wobbly spring that makes it extremely difficult. Positive side effect is that most of the movement is properly lubricated now.

Should make for a nice summer beater:

IMG_0260.thumb.JPG.d8f7058c9c766b3839b946491c3dc4e0.JPGIMG_0259.thumb.JPG.1b8eb20f3563d8c24fea77ff4cc6c226.JPG

 

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