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Stainless Steel Grand Seiko 3180
A good friend who knows the people from GrandSeiko management help me ask them about the existence of Grand Seiko SS 3180.
Grand Seiko management told him that many people had asked them this question over the years. They did investigate about this with not only old sales record but also old records of their factories' archive.
So if it is watch that's not for sale but for internal use, it will at least appear in the manufacture record. Knowing how meticulous the Japanese can be, this is something that it's quite unimaginable that they will miss.
So they said their official answer to this question is SS3180 did not exist.
This then become something interesting. How does one 'frankenstein' those SS3180? I would imagine it's not difficult to get the movements but how about those case? Are those case from the 14K coating being stripped down to its core metal? I find it interesting that people will actually go all the way to franken this watch and I must say the result is actually pretty impressive 
I do hope one day I will get to see this piece in metal to examine it
*John
Stainless Steel Grand Seiko 3180
A good friend who knows the people from GrandSeiko management help me ask them about the existence of Grand Seiko SS 3180. Grand Seiko management told him that many people had asked them this question over the years. They did investigate about this with n...
They exist.
I have it on extremely good authority (two sources) that these actually do exist. However, it is alleged that there are fake examples out there, and I'm pretty certain that one sold recently Here are some photos of mine... The quality of my one is extraor...
What a response!
I bow to your knowledge Gerald! Learned a lot - and as there are so few of these out there, it\'s fantastic of you to share this - no other sources for us
fantastic info...
& wonderful watch...simple & humble dial. Thanks for sharing Gerald ! Best, mahesh.,
I'm aware of these...
hence I'm impressed by option 2 and option 3. There's ton of vintage Omega that are nicely franken too, with beautiful dial. Why not Grand Seiko? It's very desirable. Note that I'm not the one who claims these are 'fakes'. It is Seiko themselves. You said...
Very desirable...
Here's the thing. If these are so desirable, how come there are so few of them? How come we don't see them up for sale all the time? The "make it with whatever they can find" doesn't make sense. Carved dial 3180's in good condition are hitting close to $4...
Hi Gerald...Not to disagree with you.
I was just stating the official reply from Seiko. I don't know how come your source from Seiko is different as mine said this is the official answer since they find no sales record and most importantly, no manufacture record. Even if they do it for intern...
I'm sorry if I offend anyone here with this sharing...
if I do hear otherwise from Seiko, I will share. Franken or not, this is a beautiful watch. No doubt about that. Still, your V.F.A still win the fight any day, without any dispute.
No reason for anyone to take offence
Hi John - I don't think anyone should take any offence from this. Certainly from my perspective, it's a fascinating discussion. Clearly you and I have different contacts who have different perspectives on the matter. Hopefully one day there will be an off...
Thanks...
Hi Gerald...Can you educate me why you are so certain that the recent SS3180 is a fake one while it looks very similar to those that you mentioned that are real? It also has the chronometer medallion, similar dial, movement and case. So what make this par...
The hour indices...
... are totally wrong. Have a look at a Seiko Liner Chronometer...
I think this latest example...
illustrated an important point. It literally has the correct dial, correct case and even the correct medallion. But it has a different hour indices. All the other examples that you think is real have various variants but they are consider authentic? So ho...
No, I did not say that. Please don't misrepresent what I have said.
What I said was that according to two different sources, the SS3180 exists as a real watch made by Seiko. I made no claim that the ones that I am aware of are considered to be authentic. I even specifically said with regards to my own personal watch "I sh...
Officially, they do not exist.
But they do. Why and how? The best guess from the God of Adjustment at SEIKO is that there were bunch of prototype parts made in SS, and someone assembled the movement from the spare parts and put them in the prototype SS cases. His best guess is the SS i...
Medallion?
Hi Ken - Is your medallion steel or gold? It's hard to make out in the photo. Interestingly we are now seeing differences on the inside of the case back as well. The markings on mine are identical to yours. One of the other ones out there is very differen...
Brilliant reply and insight :-)
WOWOWWOWOOOWWOWOWOW.....you know the Seiko God!!! I heard he is phenomenon. Kudos to you . You must introduce me to him one day
Sure I will - he is the one of the team members who re-started GS line in the modern days.
When he finishes his current task - training the customer service center watchmakers all around the world. He seldom is in Japan, at the age of around 60. Poor old man. He is so underappreciated and I really think that he deserves some national medal, whi...
Ah my friend this delves into another interest/collecting obsession of mine, maybe the Medal of Honor or Order of the Rising Sun? I know a lot of watchmakers have received Japan's Medal of Honor (Civil Division of course)
but has there ever been one that is so worthy of receiving the nation's Order of the Rising Sun? It seems to be the case here He has certainly advanced his field and made a significant contribution to it. P.S. Just a related question, what ribbon do watch...
An update...
I hope it's ok posting this link here. TGSG is a commerical site, but more than that I expend a significant amount of time and money on research and sharing insight with the wider community, so it's not all about selling watches. Here's 6,000 words on the...