Seiko 7A38 - by the numbers

I probably should have read Artcurial's Trust Pilot reviews before bidding. The first two are pretty damning.


Note the partial sentence: requests for quotes take 10 days to process;

In case readers are wondering why there have been no updates, here's the current status quo .... I did indeed pay Artcurial's invoice by bank transfer, using Wise, early on the morning of Thursday 30th October. The transaction took a matter of seconds and by 10:30 am, I had received a polite acknowl...

While I was typing these posts, Artcurial's invoice arrived in my inbox attached to a lengthy email in French ! :x First thing I noticed was that their total with sales commission and taxes paid (but not including shipping) was €1986 Euros, as opposed to the €1968 shown on that screen print of recen...

I must admit I spent some time looking whistfully at Lot # 90 , or at least the photos of the Franken Yema N81W63 which it included. I found it quite attractive, even if it was a 'wrong un'. rsz_yema-n81w63-gold-whitedial-frankenprototype-artcurial-oct2025-geraldroden-injoblot-lot#90-1.jpg rsz_yema-...

To get a feel for Artcurial's brand of online auction, I duly logged on at 11:00 am on Tuesday morning, half expecting to see a button inviting me to join the live auction. There wasn't one. :( So I stayed on the main lots screen, constantly refreshing it and gradually scrolling down as the lots fin...

Here are the photos of the other Yema Spationautes from Lot 29. rsz_yema-spationauteii-artcurial-oct2025-geraldroden-injoblot29-1.jpg rsz_yema-spationauteii-artcurial-oct2025-geraldroden-injoblot29-2.jpg rsz_yema-spationauteii-artcurial-oct2025-geraldroden-injoblot29-3.jpg This looks like a nice cle...

Before I go any further, I'm going to upload the photos from Lot 29. Artcurial's photos are high quality, well lit and sharply focused. Most are 4000x3000 pixels and 1MB in file size, so bear with me while I re-size and upload them. rsz_yema-spationauteiii-artcurial-oct2025-geraldroden-injoblot-1.jp...

I'd previously bid using many other online auction platforms, including liveauctioneers.com, the-saleroom.com, and Drouot, another major French auction house, but had never used Arcturial before. So I registered on their site. It was all in French, naturally, so I had to guess at / 'fudge' one or tw...

On Sunday afternoon, in a moment of boredom, I did my usual thing and googled images on Yema Spationaute III, to see if there was anything new. Scrolling down, I noticed a few thumbnails tagged 'YEMA' and 'Artcurial'. It didn't take long to find the source - an online auction that was already 6 days...

If you've read all the way though the Jean-Loup Chrétien's Yema Spationaute III thread, you may recall reading this post . Below follows a partial quote of the second half of it. Besides Michel Tognini's # 04, I'd known of the existence of one other (non space flown) Yema Spationaute III factory pro...

My collection includes more than 20 examples of the 43mm diameter Yema Spationaute III, model N80P76, varying in condition from NOS to 'beaters', including a few with the 'cadran drapeaux' limited edition mission flags dial. I guess you could say it's my favourite watch. In June 2022, I bought Jean-...

Although he still hasn't managed to sell the previous example (due to his laughable $525 asking price), profiteering US eBay re-seller flobaca is always on the lookout for his next fast buck. Here's my prediction for his next 7A38-702H - a rather grubby example whose 5-day auction ended yesterday, ...

Actually I could have made this prediction five days ago. When I first saw this US eBay listing for a 7A38-7069, I immediately thought to myself - flobaca fodder. 8-) But I decided to wait for the outcome of the 5-day auction. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/306548555212 7A38-7069-Stainless+Gold-SilverFa...

Oh dear, what a shame. Looks like that 'sale' has fallen through. Profiteering UK eBay re-seller hollizaak007 's overpriced (and frankly far from stunning) gold-tone 7A38-7289 is back on eBay this evening, re-listed for the umpteenth time. :lol: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/187656962575 7A38-7289-Gold...

Although he still hasn't managed to sell the previous example (due to his laughable $525 asking price), profiteering US eBay re-seller flobaca is always on the lookout for his next fast buck. Here's my prediction for his next 7A38-702H - a rather grubby example whose 5-day auction ended yesterday, s...

He may have got lucky with that stainless 7A38-727A, but profiteering UK eBay re-seller hollizaak007 clearly has much to learn about the comparative values of less popular Seiko 7A38's. Earlier this evening he listed this only average worn condition gold-tone 7A38-7289, with what appears to have be...

In the early hours of this morning, profiteering US eBay re-seller rtm127 , a.k.a. Ryan Marucheau of Watch and Jewelry Exchange, listed yet another ex-Yahoo Japan JDM 7A38, with an extortionately marked-up asking price of $1400 bucks ! This time it's a relatively common 7A38-7110 SJS048 in frankly n...

The bots continue to swarm around the forum in ever increasing numbers, but so far are having little or no effect on response times. I missed their latest high count yesterday evening, when it reached a new record of 1725 !

He listed another 7A38 a few minutes later - a 7A38-6109 'Diver', fitted with a non-original replacement 'President' style bracelet. Again, a 7-day auction listing, with a risibly over-optimistic opening bid price of $325. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/357703931117 7A38-6109-(Divers)-Gold-WhiteFace-Wro...

As I predicted in my previous post, profiteering US eBay re-seller flobaca listed that average worn two-tone 7A38-7270 overnight as a 7-day auction with a typically unrealistic opening bid price of $275. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/357703914291 7A38-7270-Stainless+Gold-CreamFace-eBay-Oct2025-(Re-sell...