I figured this deserves a post, as I’ve been watching some of those Ukraine and Argentine sellers make thousands of dollars off deliberately forged frankenwatches from unsuspecting eBay buyers.

BUYERS BEWARE! When you buy a vintage watch from the Ukraine, Russia or Argentina, you may not be getting what you are paying for!

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I’d been searching for a pocket watch conversion style of watch, like many on ebay are. My concern of course was the authenticity of a peice if I were to buy something that was a bit more pricey than your usual $150-200 fare. Like one of those Hy Moser or Longines WWII watches that seem to be so abundant in the Ukraine.

Seeing watch after watch listed every week in the dozens, I started to question whether or not these watches were in fact real.. especially since most of the movements had what looked to be to be incorrect markings or in many cases missing markings for the dial that was attached. I did a bit of research and looked on several boards all over, and there definately seems to be a consensus. Most of these watches are forgeries or frankenwatches with parts procured from many different places. That is the problem with buying vintage stuff. You never know when it’s real.

Below I’ve linked one of many posts on the subject. If you google around, you will find a handful of other discussions in the matter as well:
http://forums.watchuseek.com/showthread.php?t=215080