Seiko World Time - Vintage DIGITAL Models

[dapellegrini]

And today the silver Frankenstein arrived from Australia.  Needed a reset (same light hangs it sometimes problem as the A708's), new crystal, quick clean-up and bracelet resizing.

My Hardlex crystal removal survival rate is around 75%, and in case of shattered crystal during removal, I have found it best to have a damp paper towel underneath it - this stops the shards from spreading, and is easy to throw away.  Sure enough, this one was a bust.




I think the dial frame is faded, and suspect the faint gold lettering and markers to have originally been orange




Frankenstein's (monster's) head, ready for cleaning and reinsertion of brains...





The only obvious difference between this A718 and the A708 modules are these two gold colored springs...  I guess they have something to do with the alarm / beeper






Thankfully this kind of work is simple, and completely doable by someone like me:



After removal of shards and general clean up, the crystal gasket is getting reused



Dial frame then fitted, and new crystal popped in.





The case back gasket was completely shot, so I used my web tool to look up the size, and found an appropriate replacement





Greased



Then placed on a case vice to get it closed again, using a thin piece of plastic to protect everything





The bracelet is the correct original as well - woot!





Up and running



Then correct time set

[dapellegrini]

Open spots left in this box on either side of the silver Frankenstein - left-side - for a SGP A239-5020 "WORLD TIME" (in the mail) and on the right side a SGP A718-5030 - still on the hunt...

[inboost]

dapellegrini - Oh no! Another freezing with light press? I guess it adds up, the A708/718 are nearly identical and the dual springs you point out are indeed for the piezo element glued into the back of the caseback. I wish I could have figured out the fix for this but it's just the way it is.

Speaking of which, how about an update on the timekeeping of the three A708s?

Great write up on A718 Frank! Thanks for all the great photos too. The broken glass is a bummer, and I think it's becuase the dial frame forces too small of a footprint for the pushing anvil to work against the hardened crystal gasket. Did you try heating it up first? Maybe next time give that a try. I know I will as I busted both of my M158 crystals removing them. They were pretty trashed anyway, but no one needs shards of glass all over the place. Especially worrisome are bits of glass dust on the dial frame.

Inboost

[dapellegrini]

Par for the course it seems with the A708/A718

Here's where the A708's are at

 - SGP, -8
 - SS, bang on
 - SS, -23

[dapellegrini]

The SS one that is exactly on is the green-dot one!  Well done on that

These are sitting in a room that is just about always 74 degrees...

[inboost]

Wow, that's pretty good that the 'green' one is spot on! Thanks for updating me!

Honestly my confidence in tuning these has been a bit shaken by my Casio CFX-200 which was tuned at the same time. It's been ping-ponging about from +2 to now nearly +6 but it's nice to see that it's doing roughly the same as the SGP A708 just in opposite sign. Mine's been in the watch box ever since that day (21 APR 2022) so now at +11 days it's roughly at 0.54 sec/day which is in spec (just barely). I'd hoped to get it tighter than that.

When my QT-2100 arrives I will re-test and if needed reset the CFX-200 to see if it can do better. By the sound of it and the 'Green' A708 it may well be able to!

Inboost

[dapellegrini]

And then there were 19



This one rounds out my A239 collection, with one version of each of the LCD/Bracelet combinations - for 6 in total.



This last one is a A239-5020 SGP



Last one to find might be an SGP A718-5030 (John Cleese).

[dapellegrini]

I've finally finished my initial write-up of the A708-5000 - here:

seikoworldtime.com/articles/A708-500X

I tripped on something interesting to me while doing this write-up.  This is the ONLY Seiko World time from 1964 through 1988 with a dial code that ends in "D" instead of "T".  It is also the only digital watch with a domed crystal...  and seems more domed than any of the mechanicals I have.  I wonder if the "T" vs "D" might have something to do with the crystal that is meant to be fitted to the dial?  I think all of the T types are Hardex (glass) crystals, and mostly flat.  Maybe nothing, but intriguing to me.  The Crystal No for the A708-5000 is SA7W06GN00.

EDIT: The A708-5000 is also the only watch in this lineage with a JAPAN D on the case back.  The others (all T dial codes) are various ... JAPAN S, G, F, and J

[inboost]

Bravo dapellegrini, another highly admirable well laid-out tribute to world time Seikos. I love your work!

Very interesting observation on the 'D' dial / case designation. This has to mean something, and you seem to be on to it. I sense another decoder coming to seikoworldtime.com

[dapellegrini]

Thanks for the kind words.

I just posted a first revision article on Frankenstein's World Time:
seikoworldtime.com/articles/A718-5010

I need to flesh out the "sales features" a little more with a clear head.

[dapellegrini]

And now I've got a John Cleese write-up done.

seikoworldtime.com/articles/A718-5030

That wraps up my main goal on this digital generation of world times - which was to create a timeline (link below), and document each model from there.

seikoworldtime.com/timeline-digital

Whew....

I will no-doubt be fixing typo's etc for a while, but I think the next chapter will likely be some videos (maybe a youtube channel) and possibly random write-ups about things I find interesting having each of these models in hand to compare and live with.

[dapellegrini]

New to the collection is a Gold John Cleese in very good shape







This leaves a Gold A358 still on my list to complete the set!

[dapellegrini]

Alright, I now believe I have the full set, AND correct bracelets on all but one of my examples below. So here is the run down:

First we get the M158 (PAN AM), released in 1977. It was not the first digital world timer (that honor goes to the Casiotron), but it was very close, and far more sophisticated than the Casiotron. There were three versions, the 5000 with full city names was the JDM version (in SS only), and the 5009 in SS and SGP with abbreviated cities





Next up is the A358 (Alarm), in 4 variants I am aware of. It's a little hard to tell, but one of those dial frames is white and another is silver.





Around the same time we get the A239 (Atlas) in six versions. Here are the WORLD TIMEs - I suspect these were for the Japanese Domestic Market, w/ traditional pressure fit clasp:





Then we have the WORLD TIMER ALARMs with sliding / adjustable hook style clasp:





And here are all six versions:



Fun side note, the blue dial frames here had a green hue LCD, the black dial frames got a black LCD and the SGP cases with brown dial frames got a red LCD. It is subtle but distinct in person

Next we got the A708 (TWA), which feels very much like the true successor to the M158. Only two versions this time, SS and SGP





After that we got the rarest of this set, the A718-5010 (Frankenstein), also with two versions, but no SGP case here:





The black dial frame above still needs an original bracelet (very hard to find), but you can see it on the white dial frame anyhow...

And finally we get the A718-5030 (John Cleese). Here we get the SS and SGP versions





Finally sourced the original bracelet for the SS version above.

I believe that is the full set!

[inboost]

I absolutely LOVE this collection dapellegrini! I'd pay admission to enter the museum to see these without hesitation!!! Well done on putting it together, I'm very impressed

[bombora]

Great collection Dall. Your love of world timers has been made clear. 😀
Excellent website too. 👍