SEIKO EL-370 - How Does It Work?

[Adrian-VTA]

As a few of you know, I've been messing around with electronic movements lately for a bit of variety.

I did a video on how the darn thing works, as well as a 500fps slow-mo video of the movement running. My camera has the capability to do that and I finally have the right set up to test it. The flashing light in the video is actually the oscillation of the light tube.

I know I sound like I'm drunk, but I'm not, I've got an awful radio voice and I'm out of practice with public speaking

Anyway, here they are -

[28A]

Interesting movement! That mate of mine you sent up the black 6139 rotating ring actually has one of these, he got it in that parts lot i told you about ages ago with the couple of 6139's in it. It works great, is in REALLY good condition as well.

I thought you just sounded Australian haha.

[cobrajet25]

Great videos, Adrian.  There isn't much info available for these 'orphaned' Seiko electro-mechanical movements.  From what I have been able to gather, these were only made from 1971-1973. 

You have probably single-handedly doubled or tripled the amount of info out there on these!

IIRC, these actually have a double balance wheel, with one wheel/magnet over the coil and one under the coil.  Makes them, uh...'fun' to reassemble sometimes.

[Adrian-VTA]

Thanks!

I thought some of this oddball stuff might be a bit fun to do rather than the 126th 6139/6309 video.

Yeah you have to take the coil off first before you remove the balance wheel.

The double balance wheel, in my opinion negatively impacts the amplitude. The EL-330 is a traditional style balance and has a dual pole magnet on the pallet fork, effectively driving the watch from there. More elegant if a bit more old-fashioned I'd say.

Mar 1, 2016 0:32:06 GMT -8 cobrajet25 said:

Great videos, Adrian.  There isn't much info available for these 'orphaned' Seiko electro-mechanical movements.  From what I have been able to gather, these were only made from 1971-1973. 

You have probably single-handedly doubled or tripled the amount of info out there on these!

IIRC, these actually have a double balance wheel, with one wheel/magnet over the coil and one under the coil.  Makes them, uh...'fun' to reassemble sometimes.

[Adrian-VTA]

They're really cool and worth keeping I reckon. They're not massively dodgey like the Swiss ones and are fairly well designed. The 370 is a bit more robust than the 330, but not as accurate I think. Which continued my opinion of daini = better movements suwa = better cases.

I now have a MINT ELNIX here to strip, which is the 0703. They are the hi beat version by Daini. 

At the time they were the same price as an entry level 56KS or a 6138 (20,000 yen).

Fun facts - SEIKO made a bunch of these for STELLARIS, that were sold through Sears & Roebuck. I reckon they're damn hot. These are 3302/3's. There was also a brand that retrofitted the circuit etc to an ETA mainplate and put the battery in the place of the barrel. I forget who this was right now, but it sucked anyway.

Feb 29, 2016 23:39:19 GMT -8 28A said:

Interesting movement! That mate of mine you sent up the black 6139 rotating ring actually has one of these, he got it in that parts lot i told you about ages ago with the couple of 6139's in it. It works great, is in REALLY good condition as well.

I thought you just sounded Australian haha.

[tritto]

Great little videos Adrian and your public speaking is very good. Not the voice I had in my head though :-)
I'm curious so please excuse my ignorance here. In the slo-mo video the balance rotates through about 450 degrees. Is this the amplitude of the watch, or is amplitude half that? Or do I have it completely wrong?

[tritto]

Ps, I'd have one of those blue rally divers!

[SeikoPsycho]

Mar 1, 2016 1:20:19 GMT -8 Adrian-VTA said:

They're really cool and worth keeping I reckon. They're not massively dodgey like the Swiss ones and are fairly well designed. The 370 is a bit more robust than the 330, but not as accurate I think. Which continued my opinion of daini = better movements suwa = better cases.

I now have a MINT ELNIX here to strip, which is the 0703. They are the hi beat version by Daini. 

At the time they were the same price as an entry level 56KS or a 6138 (20,000 yen).

Fun facts - SEIKO made a bunch of these for STELLARIS, that were sold through Sears & Roebuck. I reckon they're damn hot. These are 3302/3's. There was also a brand that retrofitted the circuit etc to an ETA mainplate and put the battery in the place of the barrel. I forget who this was right now, but it sucked anyway.






 
 

Feb 29, 2016 23:39:19 GMT -8 28A said:

Interesting movement! That mate of mine you sent up the black 6139 rotating ring actually has one of these, he got it in that parts lot i told you about ages ago with the couple of 6139's in it. It works great, is in REALLY good condition as well.

I thought you just sounded Australian haha.

Great Video Adrian!

 I actually have a couple of these Stellaris Rally divers in excellent non-running condition which are on the back burner due to limited free time. Do you work on these?

[Adrian-VTA]

Sure do. They're a really nice little movement.

Mar 1, 2016 3:59:39 GMT -8 SeikoPsycho said:

Mar 1, 2016 1:20:19 GMT -8 Adrian-VTA said:

They're really cool and worth keeping I reckon. They're not massively dodgey like the Swiss ones and are fairly well designed. The 370 is a bit more robust than the 330, but not as accurate I think. Which continued my opinion of daini = better movements suwa = better cases.

I now have a MINT ELNIX here to strip, which is the 0703. They are the hi beat version by Daini. 

At the time they were the same price as an entry level 56KS or a 6138 (20,000 yen).

Fun facts - SEIKO made a bunch of these for STELLARIS, that were sold through Sears & Roebuck. I reckon they're damn hot. These are 3302/3's. There was also a brand that retrofitted the circuit etc to an ETA mainplate and put the battery in the place of the barrel. I forget who this was right now, but it sucked anyway.

 

Great Video Adrian!

 I actually have a couple of these Stellaris Rally divers in excellent non-running condition which are on the back burner due to limited free time. Do you work on these?

[west.au]

Mar 1, 2016 1:20:19 GMT -8 Adrian-VTA said:

Fun facts - SEIKO made a bunch of these for STELLARIS, that were sold through Sears & Roebuck. I reckon they're damn hot. These are 3302/3's. There was also a brand that retrofitted the circuit etc to an ETA mainplate and put the battery in the place of the barrel. I forget who this was right now, but it sucked anyway.

Tried to buy one of these the price got out of hand... so I walked

fyi ... you sounded comfortable with your topic ... definitely not drunk & definately aussie (maybe slightly south oz ...  )

[Adrian-VTA]

I really wanted a voice like Pete Smith but lucked out...that shows my age!

Mar 1, 2016 2:40:36 GMT -8 tritto said:

Great little videos Adrian and your public speaking is very good. Not the voice I had in my head though :-)
I'm curious so please excuse my ignorance here. In the slo-mo video the balance rotates through about 450 degrees. Is this the amplitude of the watch, or is amplitude half that? Or do I have it completely wrong?

[Adrian-VTA]

Thanks!

I'm notorious for preferring to stay non scripted. Occasionally I forget stuff though. Main reason being I think for the most part it makes it easier to connect with your audience, because it sounds more like a conversation, it also puts the pressure on me to be entertaining enough I don't need gimmicks like darn PowerPoint! I used to do a lot of public speaking / running seminars in previous jobs, but I've been out of the game for a bit. I can't begin to tell you how many speakers I've seen that are so darn boring that you try to look for really mundane things like count how many segments in the background colour shading gradients there are on their PowerPoint presentation. I'd rather give a 5 minute talk that shoots information at you like a machine gun than be boring.

Mar 1, 2016 4:24:51 GMT -8 west.au said:

Mar 1, 2016 1:20:19 GMT -8 Adrian-VTA said:

Fun facts - SEIKO made a bunch of these for STELLARIS, that were sold through Sears & Roebuck. I reckon they're damn hot. These are 3302/3's. There was also a brand that retrofitted the circuit etc to an ETA mainplate and put the battery in the place of the barrel. I forget who this was right now, but it sucked anyway.

Tried to buy one of these the price got out of hand... so I walked

fyi ... you sounded comfortable with your topic ... definitely not drunk & definately aussie (maybe slightly south oz ...  )

[Mr.Jones]

Thanks for doing these, Adrian. I don't think you sound drunk

[west.au]

Mar 1, 2016 4:34:05 GMT -8 Adrian-VTA said:

Thanks!
 
I'd rather give a 5 minute talk that shoots information at you like a machine gun than be boring.

Mar 1, 2016 4:24:51 GMT -8 west.au said:

[west.au]

ok (so repost of the deleted comment) re: machine gun delivery of facts, I can relate to that, I would rather finish a presentation and have the audience look at me like deer in the headlights ... than watch people wake up!

and (most importantly) D-Gen/Late show ... classic tv, yup it does show your age but who cares ... Rob, Santo, Tony & Tom were some of the funniest bastards ever!

[Adrian-VTA]

Yeah, I'd say the D-Gen was the high point of comedy here. It was before political correctness hit us, so there's all sorts of stuff which is actually funny. Most Saturday nights at that time I'd watch D-gen, then a film, and then RAGE until around 4am. Fun times!

When I discovered alcohol and women, I told them I don't go anywhere until after The Late Show.

Mar 1, 2016 5:19:05 GMT -8 west.au said:

ok (so repost of the deleted comment) re: machine gun relivery of facts, I can relate to that, I would rather finish a presentation and have the audience look at me like dear in the headlights ... than watch people wake up!

and (most importantly) D-Gen/Late show ... classic tv, yup it does show your age but who cares ... Rob, Santo, Tony & Tom were some of the funniest bastards ever!

[cobrajet25]

Mar 1, 2016 4:29:35 GMT -8 Adrian-VTA said:

I really wanted a voice like Pete Smith but lucked out...that shows my age!

Mar 1, 2016 2:40:36 GMT -8 tritto said:

Great little videos Adrian and your public speaking is very good. Not the voice I had in my head though :-)
I'm curious so please excuse my ignorance here. In the slo-mo video the balance rotates through about 450 degrees. Is this the amplitude of the watch, or is amplitude half that? Or do I have it completely wrong?

Very funny!  I love how they even thought to include the long scarf tied to the mic stand...ala Steven Tyler.  Added realism! 

[sweephand]

Nice videos Adrian  - do any of the Elnix / EL-370 models run at faster speeds? Citizen's first X8 / Cosmotrons (080) started at 18,000bph, then went to 21,600 (084 / 484), and later to 36,000 (78). They got to 43,200bph with the 58 movement, so I wondered if Seiko did this as the technology improved. 

Stephen

[Adrian-VTA]

D-Gen - The Late Show was probably our high point in late night comedy shows.

Check out some of the sketches on youtube, you won't be disappointed! The context with this clip would be a bit obscure, but long story short, we used to have a kid's show here where the main character was a puppet, and he was renowned for feeling up the host under the table and making a lot of jokes that shouldn't have been made at 7am in a kid's show. This went on for years.

Mar 1, 2016 6:37:09 GMT -8 cobrajet25 said:

Mar 1, 2016 4:29:35 GMT -8 Adrian-VTA said:

I really wanted a voice like Pete Smith but lucked out...that shows my age!

Very funny!  I love how they even thought to include the long scarf tied to the mic stand...ala Steven Tyler.  Added realism! 

[Adrian-VTA]

Geday Stephen,

The highest beat electronic was the 0702/0703 ELNIX. They are a 28,800. SEIKO didn't make any higher beaters than that. In a way they were behind CITIZEN in tech by a few years and finish on the movements, they were "dodgier" looking than the X8 and looked much less professional. I've got some X-8's and ELNIX's here, and will do some videos on them when I get to them.

Mar 1, 2016 9:43:46 GMT -8 sweephand said:

Nice videos Adrian  - do any of the Elnix / EL-370 models run at faster speeds? Citizen's first X8 / Cosmotrons (080) started at 18,000bph, then went to 21,600 (084 / 484), and later to 36,000 (78). They got to 43,200bph with the 58 movement, so I wondered if Seiko did this as the technology improved. 

Stephen