Day 14 WRUW Friday October 14 Wear A Serviced Watch

[cd_god]

OK

It is October 14th (somewhere)

Do you realize how many numbers / dates in a row end in a "TH"

Day 14 of the October WRUW daily theme.

Today's theme is "Wear a watch you paid to have serviced (or if you are one of the skilled that YOU serviced)”

I have said this before and I will say it again:  DO NOT GET YOUR WATCH SERVICED!

Maybe it is not so prevalent now like it was 15 or 20 years ago when there were only 2 or 3 trusted people to send your watch to to get serviced or "restored" without them pulling a Rolex move and replacing the dial and hands and bezel and bracelet.

Back in the day and maybe still now (depending on the watchmaker) the wait time from you sending your watch off until you got it back may be 9 months to 1 1/2 years.

Do you know how many watches you come across in 1 1/2 years that you want to buy?

And when you finally get your watch back you have purchased 3 or 4 new favorite watches.

Plus now your restored watch is too nice to wear for fear of losing $100 every time you put a scratch or scuff on it.

How many sales ads have you seen that read "just got back from servicing" and now it is for sale?

And like paying to get your classic car restored or remodeling your house and then trying to sell it your ROI is usually a major loss.

As they say at Barret Jackson auctions when a vehicle sells cheap "You couldn't build it for that"

Someone else's loss is your gain.

[Rod]

Well this 6105-8110 Proof/Proof was always going to be a keeper as it's nice and original, so i sent it to Duncan "The watch Bloke" for a strip and inspection. 

[rainier]

My 6139-6009 from March 1970, serviced by SirAlan way back in 2019.

[tempelkim]

VII 22 Kim is written on the inside of the caseback.

[leffemonster]

I’ve serviced numerous watches over the past few years which is always a constant source of amazement to me as I’m not at all mechanically-minded. I started off changing crystals and took my first steps into proper tinkering with a 7009. Early results were as to be expected - poor - but the more I’ve done, the better the results have become. I still struggle with mainsprings, so tend to leave them alone, and I’m still not that confident with more complicated movements - for example, the Bellmatic I serviced didn’t hold up too well…

Of all the watches I’ve serviced this is the one I’m probably most proud of. It wasn’t running at all well, had no chrono sweep hand and the dial lume was pretty grotty. I gave it a full service, mainspring replacement, full NOS handset, and a dial relume. 6139-6000, from late ‘69 or early ‘70.

[rossr]

Well there was no way that I was going to service this one myself! 3923-5010.

[trilo]

[russtmurray]

I had this one repaired about a year and a half ago, if that counts



But since I'm not timing anything today, I'll be switching to this..

[ouroboros]

I'd have chosen from dozens of pieces I've worked on, but this one screamed at me as it's been neglected for a while.

[pip]

As some of you know, I’m now an inveterate and reasonably competent (at least I am sometimes) tinkerer. I’ve serviced lots of watches, three handers, Quartz, chronos. I enjoy it.
But, for this challenge I chose one of the two that I paid to have serviced before I had taken any steps on that path myself. I’d only just discovered WS, had yet to even know about TOF, and came across Duncan’s name in some thread or other. So a couple of watches went to him. He said they were somewhat crap (he was spot on) and his recommendation is that they were not financially worthwhile for me to pay him to do (which inadvertently soon after sent me down the servicing rabbit hole) and so I sent him two better watches which he did service for me. This is one of them. I bought it for far too much money as I was very inexperienced and because it is my wife’s BYM and so will always be in that special part of the collection. (Still looking for a March 2011 for my son btw!).

All working tip top and lovely. As it should be as I almost never wear it! I really need to get a better strap or bracelet though.

[inboost]

I'll join pip on the Bellmatic train today!  MY entry would be "Mr. Bell" by my Wife's naming convention and whom I endearingly call my "Blendermatic" as it's a mash up of two far eastern movements. I think of all my service work this was certainly the most complete in that I touched or changed  everything about it. It's a 27J movement under the hood, I relumed the dial and hands (after painting them), I laser marked the date wheel and alarm chapter ring, and even the bracelet (not correct to watch) had to be repaired with hand made parts to suit it.

I smile every time it rings, no matter what the mood.

My 4006-6070

[small]

Day 14 a Serviced Watch

Today’s entry came back when if it said Seiko on the dial, I was a bidder. This came for $1 and $15 shipping out of the Philippines. There was a now deleted member that had said I was cleaning out South East Asia. I had gone down the buying cheap rabbit hole in a big way. I kept saying it’s only lunch money but I didn’t eat out nearly as often as I was buying cheap watches.

The watch was said to be in nonworking condition and I was kind of surprised I still won it for a buck…I posted this month a 6309-808X that has a very similar case shape. A circle on a square, at the time and to some extent now I still am finding the design quit appealing. The hour markers (monuments) are fairly uncommon on 7009’s.

7009-8580 by the case design I’d say it was made in Feb of 1980? The 0 seems to be in a slightly different font and almost presents like a D. Which I think has happened in the past on some models…Creating a bit of controversy as to authenticity. But just showing that Seiko doesn’t ever do the same thing “always” errors and oddities abound.

The dials got a pink hue and there is a scorch mark at 4:30 where the hour hand must have come to rest years before. Case seems to have been lightly polished no major nicks. This model sports a Roman Numeral Day disc. I am anti Roman numeral for dials and not huge for the day wheel but figured I’d show it off for the occasion .

This was my first successful attempt at servicing a 7009, or any automatic for that matter. I wear this guy from time to time around the yard have a few old man stretch bracelets (OMSB) but got a bit lazy this morning and tossed a bond colored NATO.

[SteveX]

Another Bell.. This was my first Bell-Matic- Got it in May 2006 from the Bay for $38.01. Would stop and start, had a local guy service it. (Dial was already scratched)

[raz]

I was so close of not being able to post anything today (had a number of watches serviced over the years - not by me thankfully (or not…) - but unfortunately ended up selling most of them …)
This one just arrived literally 30 minutes ago from Adrian! So happy! Thanks Adrian-VTA!

[saldog]

This one was serviced for the first time a few months ago. Long overdue.

[suntzu]

Hands were realigned and new battery and gaskets.

[dapellegrini]

It’s been a little over two years since my dad gifted me his Seiko World timer - which is a topic for a future WRUW. However, that gifts started an avalanche of Seiko collecting, culminating in this, my latest (vintage mechanical) Seiko World Timer - a watch that until recently I was not convinced was a legitimate OEM setup. After a lot of data collection and research, I can now say I do believe this is an original watch, and it has quickly become one of my favorite Seiko World Timers.





The bracelet is an alternate (and almost certainly legit) H-link version that is much more substantial than the more common “railroad” variety. The white/silver bezel is a nice match to the black dial with the gray 24-hour outer ring.

This is my 9th mechanical Seiko World timer, and 36th Seiko World timer, all things considered (mechanical, digital, quartz, or otherwise). You could say I have a “thing” for these. You could also say I wrote the website on them, and you would not be wrong - see here:

seikoworldtime.com

Nearly all of my Seiko World timers have been serviced. The mechanicals were mostly sent to Canada, where Ashton Tracey did the honors. This latest one was sent to another member from this forum - in the USA. He did a great job, and was even able to save/polish the original crystal.









Before:


After:


Here are my there 6117-640X’s together:

[59yukon01]

Trial by error regulation has started....

[Myles]

Oct 14, 2022 9:28:22 GMT -8 59yukon01 said:

Trial by error regulation has started....

Was it easy to remove the case-back? Seems like modern Seiko dive watches have their case-backs tightened by Sumo wrestlers.

[cd_god]

Today's Seiko golf tip of the day: when teeing up your ball, find a spot that is truly flat.

Yesterdays Seiko golf tip of the day: on every sand shot your feet should be anchored in the sand.

Must be Friday

#1 is out sick, #3 is off on Fridays, the guy to the left took the day off even though he ran out of vacation days 41 days off ago, the guy who makes his own schedule scheduled himself off today, and the guy to the right had to leave at noon

This is one of the first 2 vintage watches I purchased.

I got them off of Ebay back in 2001 or so.

I started collecting Bulova's because at the time the only information I could find online via forums or wherever seemed to be about Bulovas.

There were no Seiko or Japanese watch references or forums at the time.

And of course both didn't work when I got them.

I went to several jewelry stores and no one would work on them.

Some said they might be able to send them off somewhere.

I even stopped at the fancy jewelry store where my local watchmaster works (I don't think he worked there at the time) and they said they would have to send it out.

I stopped by a grungy pawn shop by my parents house and the guy who owned it (he was in his 30's) said he could fix it.

Turns out he was the cousin of some woman my mother worked with.

3 degrees.

Anywho he fixed this one and I had him fix a few others after that.

His price was $50 per watch for a movement service.

Unfortunately he passed away a few years later.

Then I met my local watchmaster.


This watch is a 1970 Bulova hand wind with sub seconds.

It is extremely thin and only slightly thicket than a half dollar.

The crystal was replaced when I had it serviced and I think the dome is higher than the original was.