What is my Japanese watch worth?
This is the most-asked question about a watch somebody has inherited or found in a drawer, and the honest first answer is that nobody can tell you from a description. What follows is how to work it out yourself.
Start with what it actually is
Turn it over. The caseback carries a number in the form 6139-6002 or 67-9313 — a movement calibre and a case code. That, not the words on the dial, is what identifies the watch. Two Seikos that look nearly identical can be worth $80 and $2,800.
On most Seikos the serial number is also on the caseback: seven digits, the first of which is the last digit of the year and the second the month (with O for October, N for November, D for December). A serial starting 1D on a watch of that era is December 1971 — or December 1961, which the reference itself will settle.
Then find what the same reference actually sold for
Not what it is listed at. Asking prices are aspirations; completed sales are data. Sold listings on eBay, the sales archives on collector forums, and auction results are all worth more than any price guide.
Match on the reference AND the condition. "6139-6002" spans a range from a non-running project to an unpolished example with an original bezel, and the gap between those two is often a factor of five.
What moves the number, in rough order
- Is the dial original? A redial costs most of the value.
- Does it run, and when was it serviced? A non-runner is a project and is priced as one.
- Has the case been polished? On collectible references, substantially.
- Are the bezel, hands and crown correct?
- Box and papers. Adds meaningfully on modern watches, less on 1970s ones where almost nothing survives.
- The bracelet. An original steel bracelet can be worth hundreds by itself.
What Tokyo Time will and will not tell you
This site does not value watches and does not authenticate them. There is no algorithm here that will tell you what yours is worth, and there is not going to be one — a number generated from a description nobody has checked is a number the site cannot stand behind, and it would be believed anyway.
What it can do is show you what comparable watches are being asked for by their owners right now, which is a real fact about a real market. Browse by brand and model line and look at what is listed alongside yours.
If it is not worth much
Most 1970s and 1980s Japanese quartz watches are worth between $30 and $150, and that is fine. They are wearable, interesting, and the cheapest entry into a hobby that gets expensive quickly. Not everything in a drawer is a find, and a watch being worth $60 does not make it a bad watch.
Tokyo Time is a classifieds site, not a dealer or a valuer. Nothing here is an appraisal of any particular watch.