Zen Market Accessing Watches from Japan

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]Over the past few years, I've started to spend a little bit more money on watches, buying luxury watches or entrylevel luxury watches. But as I've done so, I've still been very budgetconscious.

[00:00:13]So, I've been looking on the secondhand market. And as I've been looking for luxury watches or these entrylevel luxury watches at good prices on the used market, I've noticed something that has really stood out because the best versions of the watches that I'm looking at that are priced the best all seem to be located within Japan. So, I've been looking at how to further access this Japanese market to get my hands on and get the best models at the best prices of luxury watches into my own personal collection.

[00:00:56]Hello, watching James. My name's James.

[00:00:58]You're watching me and I am talking about watches. And as soon as I start to dive into finding used watches, both at the more affordable range through to the entry level luxury range through to the fully luxury range of watches, I find a website that stands out to me that has an ability to access the Japanese domestic market at really good prices, but also a website that allows for easy access and easy use. And that is Zen Market. Zen Market is one of these platforms available online that allows you to access the Japanese domestic market. Items that are being sold to Japanese by Japanese, not just watches, pretty much everything that is for sale domestically, but we as people outside of Japan get to get involved and access this market. They effectively purchase it on our behalf. But beyond that, they also create a platform that allows us to view, identify, read, translate, and have easy access to having a look at.

[00:02:04]And when I was looking at some of the watches that I wanted, well, there's been one that has been in the back of my mind that I've wanted for some time, but the price of it and the access to it being a JDM only version has slightly put me out of the ability to purchase it. So, when I was looking for it, well, I found that it was probably the easiest way to find this one for me was through Zen Market. And I reached out to Zen Market and said, "Hey, I'd love to be able to access some watches through you guys." And they were nice enough to give me a little bit of credit to utilize.

[00:02:36]And because I use that credit, well, I will put that sponsored icon up there.

[00:02:40]And I'm going to leave links to Zen Marketplace, how to log in, and maybe even some other information for you. But let me show you their website and just how you can access it and how I've gone down the rabbit hole of finding watches and then stick around to the end to see which watch I actually purchased for myself. So the first thing I notice about Zen Market is just how easily and accessible it is to English speakers.

[00:03:07]Obviously this is a Japanese website accessing other Japanese websites so that you can access the Japanese domestic market. But of course, as a non-Japanese speaker, it's a little bit difficult to have a look. But this particular website has made everything super easy. It translates everything for us. It spells out how we can use things.

[00:03:28]I I know I've used services like this in the more distant past, and there were some hurdles to try and wrap my head around. Well, those hurdles have all disappeared because it's made it really, really simple. It's really obvious, very easy to read. And the translation services when you actually click on individual things that you're looking at are very nice and clear and and and obvious. And also the search function is really good as well. This here here you'll see it's Raku 10 is one of the stores that they can access to look at.

[00:03:57]But there's a heap. You can either search by everything. You can search every single store website that this particular website accesses on your behalf like Amazon and Rocket and JD direct and all these things and you can search all of them by pressing all and then typing in what you want or you can search the individual stores or the things that they are accessing themselves. And the one that I have found the best watches and the ones that I've been most looking at is a Rekuma.

[00:04:28]And the good thing about this specific store is that it is particularly good for watches. And almost every watch that I found that I'm interested is on this one. And of course, you can then just search that store by typing in something very simple like Seikko. There are some subcategories and you can put in some filters there. But what I've enjoyed most doing is not searching specific, just searching all of Rkuma, coming down, clicking on men's watches, and then just seeing what comes up.

[00:04:59]Because one of the most exciting things about the Japanese market for watches and websites like this that allow us access is just to see the sheer variety of watches. Now, I have to admit, I do put a couple of filters in. I've utilized the uh the pricing because that's probably the best to do. Let me just say $300. Now, be aware you need to put an extra two zeros. Imagine there's a a decimal point in there up to say $1,000.

[00:05:27]Press search.

[00:05:29]Let's do high to low.

[00:05:34]And you'll then see obviously there's not a specific brand because this is not a specific brand website. You're going to see SEOs, Mara Lacrosse, Oceanas, Tiso, Tag. You can see most of them are secondhand. But the watches that are on this particular one, Rekuma, which is the one that I've been looking at most, is good because they do sort of appraisal services and examinations of watches prior to them being sent out.

[00:06:00]They are all generally in very, very good condition. And it's certainly something that I've noticed about watches that I bought out of Japan in general that the condition is outstanding. It's actually quite funny when you actually look at some of the watches. They list them as good condition, but when they arrive, certainly I'd be considering them as great condition. And I'm not sure if that's a Japanese thing that they are sort of underelling the condition and that is just partly a cultural thing or perhaps they're just being mindful that if you buy something online that they don't want it sent back, so they sort of underell the quality of them. Either way, we can end up getting better watches than what we expect. And the prices are brilliant. But the prices are also varied because they are from people individually selling within Japan. Be mindful it's not a specifically going to be every watch being cheap. They are going to range. Look at them individually. But what I've found is when you're looking at a specific watch or type of watch or you're looking for watches, overall the prices are the lowest that I've found worldwide. And what's great is as you're searching through all those lists and just searching endlessly through thousands of watches, which is what I've been doing, you can just save them to your wish list. And here they pop up on your wish list. And these are all the ones that I've saved and considered buying. Yes.

[00:07:16]Well, you can see there's quite a bit of variety. Let me just show you a couple of them that have really stood out to me. This Well, I've got this one because I' I particularly like this watch. I've I've always loved this watch. I've always wanted this watch, but I wanted to show you because the condition of it is really good compared to others that I've seen. It is a sort of neo vintage Bulgari, the As I think it's called. You can see it's by Bulgari there. The condition of it looks absolutely fantastic. And the price there is right in the good sort of price range for this one. And I've been watching this one for oh 5 to 10 years. So I sort of aware of the pricing of these ones. Of course, if you want to access Crdor watches, well, they're all pretty much Japan based. So, you're either buying secondhand locally or buying from Japan. The price of this one's fantastic. You can see that the translation across to English has been done really well. Tells you the even the uh the quality of it. When you scroll down, you can see that all the information that's been listed by the seller is on there and is now put forward to us in English. You know, obviously this has not been done automatically by the seller themselves because they're selling locally as far as they're concerned. So, it would have originally been in Japanese and vintage.

[00:08:28]And I definitely specifically wanted to show you a vintage watch because if you're buying vintage, vintage Grand Seiko, well, this is definitely one of the places for it. And specifically price-wise, I pay attention to a lot of the vintage watches that are for sale in Australia and on Chrono24 and other websites like that. And buying vintage, especially things like Grand Seiko, which is the sort of more expensive vintage watches, tends to be the best priced when you're looking on websites like Zen Market. And again, everything translated, so it's nice and easy. The condition of it is also nice and listed out, which I think the Japanese in general do very well. So, it's it's really sort of understandable about what you're going to get if you buy this one.

[00:09:10]But even watches which you can sort of buy still new, and this is actually one of the turtles that I've been quite keen on. I've always wanted a Patty Turtle or a Patty Prospect watch in my collection and I like this one and that's a really good price. I've looked at a lot of them and it's actually hard to get them any cheaper than this. And this is effectively probably a brand new one.

[00:09:31]They listed as no noticeable scratches or dirt which I'm going to say is going to effectively be brand new. And then there's also watches which are hard to find or hard to even be aware that they exist. like this crossover between tic tac and seikko looks a little bit like one of the alenus but it is something very different it's actually priced really well it's a great looking watch and because it is a access to Japanese market watches it is something meaning that you get access to watches that you may not find anywhere else but it's not just Japanese watches which is why I wanted to show you this Hamilton I actually like this particular one it's been one that's been on my list but you can see again nice and easily spelled out. You can use that search term. So you could have just searched Hamilton car key in the search and you would have found it but priced well Swiss watch in good condition shows you all the links.

[00:10:22]Shows you what comes with it. So not just Japanese watches, it's Swiss watches as well. And I do like that. So well Japanese micro brands are popping up on here too. Remembering this is well Japanese selling to Japanese domestically. So of course somebody in Japan has bought a Japanese watch and then they may sell it just like we do elsewhere. So and well that's a really good price as well. So just a sheer variety of Japanese micros, Swiss watches, uh exclusive Japanese Seiko models, normal sort of prospects watches, vintage watches, Creedor watches which are neo vintage but accessible and other neo vintage interesting watches. and you end up going down a big rabbit hole both searching the SP stores specifically like Rakuma which happens to be the one that I've found the best watches at the best quality but then of course searching all as well so what happens is you then pick what you want you can then select and say I wish to buy it then Zen market then purchase it on your behalf they do charge a small commission that's obviously how they conduct their business it's only a small amount they buy it on your behalf. It is easy to then add funds to your account if you want to do so. I used PayPal personally.

[00:11:43]I clicked on this add funds section here. As you can see, you can use your credit card or PayPal. I personally like using PayPal. So, I added some funds to my balance. I then utilize that balance to buy the watch. Then market then went and bought this watch on my behalf, came back to me and then gave me some postage options to send it to me. So you need to be mindful that first of all you need to add funds to this website. I use PayPal.

[00:12:10]Easy to do. They purchase it on your behalf. It goes to their warehouse and then you then have to pay additional postage because of course it's being posted from Japan through to wherever you happen to be in the world. But they give you a heap of different options.

[00:12:25]So, just keep in mind there is some additional postage. And the watch that I ended up purchasing, well, it's one that I've been thinking about for a long time, but it is a watch that I wanted the JDM version of. And I I'm not even sure why exactly I did want that, but it was just something that I thought was special for me. But I then placed the order for it, and when it arrived, well, it came really nicely packaged and had been repackaged by the people working at Zen Market. But let me show you. Well, let's show me the watch that I ended up purchasing for myself. Yes, that is correct. You may have already picked it.

[00:13:03]This is the JDM version of the Seikko Prospects reissue, the SBCDC 101, or as we sort of like to call it, the 62 Mass. You can get this one that has been made outside of Japan. And essentially it's the same watch, but for some reason we as watch collectors tend to be a little bit weird and we want to make and buy the ones from within Japan.

[00:13:26]So that's what I've been able to do. And as it says, they're Japan made. These watches are well, they're quite loved because they are a Seikko reissue of a particularly wellknown watch. And it is a beautiful watch with a charcoal dial, great bezel action, great movement, okay bracelet, but realistically this is not a review of this specific watch. I will come back to this one in a future video to give a full actual review of the watch. What I want to show you today is just how it arrived. And you would have seen that it didn't come with the original packaging. And that is because again we are accessing the domestic market. people selling watches within Japan to each other that are secondhand.

[00:14:12]This one is secondhand. It was missing the packaging, but it did come with spare links. So, it's just like buying off other platforms that you're buying from other people, but we're just being able to access those domestic markets, domestic watches as well and getting at them at amazing prices. These watches I've been sort of watching for a long time. I've been looking at the nonJDM versions and there just been a little bit outside of my price range. It just seems to be a bit of a demand for this style of this particular watch and especially the JDM version. So, buying it through Zen Market has allowed me to access firstly options of these. There was multiple of them. This is just the one that I chose. I got to choose the one that was the right quality and the right price. And it arrived in great condition as I just showed you. And I'm really really happy now to have this watch in my collection because I never actually thought I'd end up with one of these because of the prices of them. I know I saved at least a couple of hundred Australian as a result of getting this one via Zen Marketplace.

[00:15:18]Even when you take into account the extra shipping as well as the small fee that they charge, it was well and truly worthwhile because I was able to access it at the domestic market price. Zen Marketplace bought it for me. They gave me some pictures of it as well so that I knew that it was the watch that I was after and the condition that I was after. I picked the postage that I wanted. For me, I picked the quickest one as possible because I wanted to get it into my collection. But having those different variations of postage give you some variations of different prices as well for the international postage and now it's in hand on my wrist. And stay tuned for some more videos around watches that I've purchased including this one. I'll do a full review. But until then, here's a couple other videos you could watch next.