I'm not saying it's the case in this particular instance, but many Instagram posters use the platform to surreptitiously plug watches they are trying to sell. This innocuous-looking gold tone 7A38-7280 was posted on Instagram about an hour ago, by the self-appointed lord_of.the_watches, another Italian collector who's been dabbling in 7A38's recently. You really would have to know your 7A38's very well indeed, to recognize that this watch is potentially a 'bitza wrong un'.
I was about to add a cheeky comment: 'Don't you mean a 7A38-728A ?' when my unerring sense of Déjà Vu kicked in. You see, I'd actually fabricated something very similar myself, 10 years ago, when I was trying to fill a void in my collection. I later realized my slight oversight. This is real anorak-level stuff and it's very subtle.
Now, unless this is some rare undocumented 'Italian market special', there are 4 known gold-tone 7A38-728x variants:
7A38-7280 SAA124J with the white 7250XS14 Arabic number dial - generally a worldwide export model.
7A38-7285 (model code and dial part number unknown) - locally produced ZFM version of above for Brazil
7A38-7289 SAA112J with the gold 7250XG14 Arabic number dial - the US export market model variant and ....
7A38-728A SAA130J with the gold 710LXG18 dial (also used in 7A38-7190 SAA056J) - a German market model.
Back in the very early days of my 7A38 collecting (over 10 years ago), I'd initially been concentrating on acquiring examples of every variant of Seiko 7A38-727x and 7A38-728x. Having created my own 7A38-xxxx Excel spreadsheet database in mid-2009, I knew what theoretically existed. At that stage, I hadn't actually seen a gold-tone 7A38-728A, but quickly interrogating Seiko Oceania's database, it seemed a relatively simple matter to cobble one together. So that's exactly what I did. I took the 710L dial / movement from a gold-tone 7A38-7190, with badly worn plating and transplanted it into a second string gold-tone 7A38-7289 case / bracelet. The resultant watch is on the right of this trio.
O.K., so it had the wrong (7A38-7289) case-back fitted, but it served as a placeholder. I started seeing a few genuine gold-tone 7A38-728A's on eBay Germany and eventually bought myself a half-decent example in March 2012 for €82,50. Here's an old wrist shot of it. I've probably taken another couple since, but this one serves to illustrate my point nicely.
By that time, I'd already realized my little oversight in creating a 'make-do' cobbled together franken. Notice that the sub-dial hands are black with gold bosses. They're Seiko p/n 04E14AL. The gold 710L dial in a 7A38-7190 SAA056J uses all-black sub-dial hands - Seiko p/n 04E14AB. Hence the reason I say lord_of.the_watches 7A38-728? is a wrong un.
Spotted a 'Wrong Un' gold tone 7A38-7280 on Instagram
Re: Spotted a 'Wrong Un' gold tone 7A38-7280 on Instagram
Incidentally, there's an average gold-tone 7A38-728A that's been listed on eBay Germany since mid-September last year:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Seiko-Speed- ... 4865181468
Over-optimistically priced @ 265 Euros; hence remains unsold, but it's an example with the correct sub-dial hands.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Seiko-Speed- ... 4865181468
Over-optimistically priced @ 265 Euros; hence remains unsold, but it's an example with the correct sub-dial hands.