Day 13 WRUW Thursday October 13 Wear A MOD'd Watch

[cd_god]

OK

It is October 13th (somewhere)

Day 13 of the October WRUW daily theme.

Today's theme is “Wear a MOD’d watch” It can be as simple as swapping in a different bezel insert all the way to a full on custom.

Almost caught a Friday the 13th to go with Halloween

Wear a MOD'd watch.

What is a MOD'd watch some millennials and late comers to hobby may ask?

It stands for a "Modified" watch (not that other Mod shit that happened in London in the 1960's)

Back when all of the watch manufactures made ugly ass watches or the Big 5 classic designs were priced out of your reach a couple of guys (Bill Yao / MKII, Noah Fuller / Ten Watches, Yobokies)  heard the voices of the watch collecting masses on the forums and ventured out and sold dials and hands and bezel inserts to allow the average WIS to transform their 2 or 3 most common watch cases and movement to look like a fancy Swiss big name watch.  Other forum members had connections with AD's or wherever and could source genuine Seiko dials and hands and bezels.

There were some OK factory watch designs out there but maybe there was something or a pet peeve (discussion for another day) that was just off that made you not like the watch.  Now you could change it to build your perfect or at least enjoyable watch.

It was sort of like the putting Lambo kit or Ferrari kit for your 1980's Corvette or Fiero.

This led to closet watchmakers and tinkers to customize their watches or even branch out to offering their parts swapping services to other members and for some it ended up becoming a job. 

And it even evolved into those first parts suppliers designing their own watch designs or issuing their rendition or interpretations or homages to classic watches at an affordable price before the surge of Microbrands.

With the said influx of microbrands there are many many many choices fro you to choose from that you might find the watch that meets all of your criteria for a perfect watch.

So let's see your MOD'd watches.

Anything from a simple hand swap to a full blown custom build with a different movement and custom case finish or coating or reshaping and different dial and hands and bezel and insert and crystal and bracelet and  . . . .

[trilo]

This watch has module 9020 (if I recall right) instead of the original 9025. The original 9025 would show seconds on the home screen and date when preassing "Read". It also has a light. Currently thisb watch shows seconds when pressing "Read" and no date at all. No light on the module 9020 either. Also, who needs AM/PM markers?

I have an identical NOS case waiting for a working 9025 (if you have one, let me know!).

[raz]

I may not fully qualify to post this… it is my first (and only) Mod … but no longer in my possession… could not stand the golden accents of the 011 so did this

[Rod]

I think from memory that I built this around 2010 when 6309's were under $100 and 6105's a horrendous $300!! At the time we were all into mod's and these 6105 dial and hand sets had come out about a year earlier. Well i built this one up and was so pleased with it even today it's still a great looking watch. I still have the original dial and hands and may some day convert it back to original..maybe.

[pip]

This one will have to make an appearance again as my only mod, albeit a very subtle one. (I have a couple with the wrong hands but they’re not mods, just incorrect as I consider a mod must be intentional).

I decided to change this one to an Arabic daywheel from the standard English/Spanish one. Why? To be honest I just love day wheels that are in a different type of script. Who doesn’t love a kanji after all?

[thebeardedwatchmaker]

I've admittedly been a little lazy playing along but since I love modding, I just had to make an effort today.

Funny enough, I modded this the other way around - all original hands, dial and movement - but heavily changed the case finish.



The case was bead blasted and then coated with a clear Cerakote for durability. It looks like it's painted but that's raw steel with just a clear coating. The bezel got a titanium Cerakote and recessed legends painted in black. Only reason I went this route really was because of how it looked initially.



Bezel was epoxied onto the case and was a right pain to remove it all - it even covered the crystal. What grabbed my attention was that dial, it's probably one of the prettiest dials I have in my collection.

[tempelkim]

This came with 285V03GN - which unfortunately is used in the famous KS 5246-6000 as well. So I was forced to 'mod' the crystal and glue something else in the original V-frame.

[rossr]

Do I have a mod? I guess I do. I think of it as an upgrade. A suped-up 62MAS similar to what Martin has done a couple of times - though he ratchets it up to GS movements! This is powered by a 24 jewel 6205 rather than the pitiful, laughable 17 jewel stock movement.

[russtmurray]

Well I guess I'll start with this....



....and then switch to this

[inboost]

Hmmm, a mod'd watch you ask for today?

For me that would have to be my 6309-8009 which came to me in very rough shape. My guess was that it belonged to a plumber as it has all kinds of odd colored gunk in it plus some brazing splatter on it. The case had been filed down by the previous owner to remove some of the slag. I had to fix his coarse repair and then decided to media blast the whole thing with #8 glass bead to give it a soft and smooth matte finish. The crystal originally had a silver tension ring but I changed it to gold to try and pull out the subtle gold toned hands, indices, and badging. I did polish up the bezel ring and crown to give some contrast. Finally the movement it's self was a horrific train wreck of a 6309A from my Rescue Turtle thread. I managed to repair it quite nicely, and that included adding an additional jewel making it now an 18J!

So this is undoubtedly my most 'modified' watch and interestingly enough it's not a diving watch

Here was how it came to me:

And on the wrist this morning!

A shot to try and capture the tension ring, bezel, and crown

[suntzu]

[small]

Day13 A Mod…

Another great thing about this forum, giving insight and confidence, to people that have no business opening up their watches…I remember a guy trying to remove the hands from a pristine 6105?? While they were moving, not realizing that placing a baggy on them would stop them… and save the near perfect dial. At least it was…

This mod is more of a repair. The watch started out life as a small Seiko Field watch SNK80? Measures in at nearly 35mm. At the time it was grey market, no box, no papers, out of the Philippines and IIRC it was about $90 delivered. Might be more than 20 years old at this point. Still found on eBay for about the same money. Not sure if they are old stock and which version of the 7s they are. This one is an early A.

This was my daily for several years until it took a hit and one of the dial feet broke. Moving the dial around under the glass. I tossed it in to the drawer for sentimental reasons…For some reason, with a renewed interest in watches, on the repair side, I started looking around, I found the aftermarket for dial and such. I saw this one on the less expensive side, maybe $30 and took a plunge. The maker is a Chicago “start-up” that is now doing full customs using Seiko movements. He really does have a nice selection of wares; from dials, hand-sets, cases, and bezels to fully assembled watches.

And yes there are some scratches on the dial now. Seems someone (me) was in a hurry after seeing the hands weren’t “Perfect” and rather than take their time, rushed and the scar is there as a reminder…take your time…







.

[cd_god]

There is not one original part on this watch going all the way down to the NOS 7548 SAMPLE case.

Every part including the movement was NOS (Sample case, movement, crown and stem) or custom (dial, hands, chapter ring, bezel insert, crystal) or modified (machined bezel, Cerakoted bezel and crown)

I was going to do a background story with the lead in from yesterdays watch and roll it into tomorrows but I don't have time to type it all up right now.

[rainier]

Closest I can get to a mod'd watch is my SKX007J - swapped out the day wheel with an EN/Kanji wheel and replaced the scratched Hardlex with a sapphire non-AR crystal from Crystal Times. 

[dapellegrini]

This:



Ok, some back story. First the mods. The Halloween sticker (a theme I am thinking about carrying through the end of the month now), is one of two mods I have made to this watch - and an important one. It’s purpose is to increase my 3-year old grand-daughter’s interest in and attention span for watches - from zero, to something slightly longer than that. I have a bunch to choose from here:



The other “mod” didn’t require opening the case back, but was not as straight forward as I was expecting. It is the addition of this rally-style bracelet with solid end links that almost didn’t work out on this case:





I selected this watch because to me it represents an homage to mod-culture, direct from the manufacturer. It even comes with this insert in the box explaining the origins of the various parts:



You can read my recent unboxing and review here:

wristsushi.proboards.com/thread/23846/review-time-sonar-edition-srpj41

I also received the other dial variant this week:

[59yukon01]

[inboost]

Oct 13, 2022 5:15:16 GMT -8 cd_god said:

I was going to do a background story with the lead in from yesterdays watch and roll it into tomorrows but I don't have time to type it all up right now.

We'll be here all day (and night) @cd_god, don't tease us with a good time

dapellegrini - That is a very clever way to get your Granddaughter involved. My Wife teaches 3-4yr olds and if she sees this I'll be forever peeling stubborn stickers off her watches.

WD40 is your friend

What do you think of the rollerball bracelet? Looks very heavy (I'm not scared) but still fits the theme! I'm curios to know what the trouble was. Maybe a write up in the SRPJ41 thread?

Inboost

[leffemonster]

I guess most of my vintage watches are ‘modded’ to an extent as there aren’t many of them on their original bracelet or strap 😅 but I’m going with my SARB035 with cyclops crystal. Not modded by me, but the previous owner.

[ouroboros]

[inboost]

perfect strap for that one ouroboros - what a killer looking watch!