Got to finish up one last project with Jonathan
Sept 3, 2014 19:38:24 GMT -8
Groundhog66, mariod, and 8 more like this
Post by seikoholic on Sept 3, 2014 19:38:24 GMT -8
Let me preface this by saying that Jonathan, a very good friend, was more of an artist than he was a technician. He had deep artistic instinct, and a flair for design, but sometimes technical nitpicky stuff wasn't something he was overly worried about.
One of the things that came out of Jonathan's estate was his personal, most-worn watch. Jonathan modded everything. He didn't have a single stock watch, not one. This one was a heavily modified 6139-600x. Jonathan used an aftermarket white helmet dial and a bleached out indicator ring as a starting point. He created his own bezel in white by creating a transfer on his computer, printing it on material (not sure what) and then clear-filling over that, and hand-polishing to make a clear-topped bezel. He took stock 6139 hands and using some kind of bluing on them to turn the chrome essentially black, and then lumed. Black sweep and minute counter hand. He repolished the case, and put in a domed crystal. The caseback was sterilized, spun clean on the lathe. Anyway, this was his daily, his signature piece.
Shawn bought it from the family as he knew this watch and really wanted something super-special to remember Jonathan by. He realized that the watch barely ran, and opened it up. He was amazed and faintly horrified to see a very worn movement inside, clearly unserviced, and pretty dirty. He sent it off to me. Jonathan had created this mod, done all this work, and had used a terrible movement. I'd never thought one could use an "A" chronograph bridge on a "B" movement, but slap me silly, Jonathan had done it. The whole movement was rough, and dirty, and totally unlubricated. Chronograph wheel clutch was all jacked up, and only worked for about 50% of the circuit. Sweep and minute-counter hands were non-Seiko, and glued in place. It was a mess. Thankfully, when Shawn was there he'd also bought some loose movements, and he included one. By design or stupid dumb luck, he'd chosen a beauty. Nearly new, the movement was shiny and bright. After a service, it was cruising with amplitudes in the 250 range, and zero beat error. Solid.
I built the watch around this newly serviced good-condition movement. I put in a genuine Seiko black sweep and minute-counter hand. All new seals in the case. And I signed inside the caseback "KVW + ETM" - Klein Vintage Watch & EastTech Manufacturing. Our last mod together. I didn't think I'd get to do another one, what with him gone and all, but I got one more.
Here's one shot I took post-reassembly. I'll take more shots tomorrow.
One of the things that came out of Jonathan's estate was his personal, most-worn watch. Jonathan modded everything. He didn't have a single stock watch, not one. This one was a heavily modified 6139-600x. Jonathan used an aftermarket white helmet dial and a bleached out indicator ring as a starting point. He created his own bezel in white by creating a transfer on his computer, printing it on material (not sure what) and then clear-filling over that, and hand-polishing to make a clear-topped bezel. He took stock 6139 hands and using some kind of bluing on them to turn the chrome essentially black, and then lumed. Black sweep and minute counter hand. He repolished the case, and put in a domed crystal. The caseback was sterilized, spun clean on the lathe. Anyway, this was his daily, his signature piece.
Shawn bought it from the family as he knew this watch and really wanted something super-special to remember Jonathan by. He realized that the watch barely ran, and opened it up. He was amazed and faintly horrified to see a very worn movement inside, clearly unserviced, and pretty dirty. He sent it off to me. Jonathan had created this mod, done all this work, and had used a terrible movement. I'd never thought one could use an "A" chronograph bridge on a "B" movement, but slap me silly, Jonathan had done it. The whole movement was rough, and dirty, and totally unlubricated. Chronograph wheel clutch was all jacked up, and only worked for about 50% of the circuit. Sweep and minute-counter hands were non-Seiko, and glued in place. It was a mess. Thankfully, when Shawn was there he'd also bought some loose movements, and he included one. By design or stupid dumb luck, he'd chosen a beauty. Nearly new, the movement was shiny and bright. After a service, it was cruising with amplitudes in the 250 range, and zero beat error. Solid.
I built the watch around this newly serviced good-condition movement. I put in a genuine Seiko black sweep and minute-counter hand. All new seals in the case. And I signed inside the caseback "KVW + ETM" - Klein Vintage Watch & EastTech Manufacturing. Our last mod together. I didn't think I'd get to do another one, what with him gone and all, but I got one more.
Here's one shot I took post-reassembly. I'll take more shots tomorrow.
