Post by Adrian-VTA on Oct 20, 2015 5:48:07 GMT -8
This time I will be going into a little detail on the SEIKO 6105 "Apocalypse Now" Diver. I recently did a restoration of a very nice and pretty much original example for a customer and would love to share the enjoyment of this piece with the rest of the world. This is a repost from my blog.
So what is the 6105 diver?
The 6105 Diver was originally introduced by SEIKO in 1970 and was made until around 1977. They were the first "serious" dive watch by SEIKO and followed on from the 6217 diver, incorporating some of the lessons learned. I will cover the 6217 in a later article but there were significant improvements in the 6105 series over the 6217.
The 6105 diver was worn by Captain Willard in the film "Apocalypse Now".
Williard - Apocalypse Now. Image linked from watchesinmovies.info
What are they like to use and wear?
The 6105 saw the introduction of a "Hardlex" mineral crystal on SEIKO divers, and is held in place by a fairly soft rubber gasket. The idea of this is that as the watch is deeper under water, the crystal will compress against it and slightly raise the water resistance, at the same time providing some cushioning for the crystal so it doesn't just shatter under higher pressures.
The case itself is a very attractive shape and has a lot of presence. You can understand why these watches are so sought after. They just look cool and have a real tool watch feel. It's not overly heavy and sits on your wrist very comfortably. The bezel is a click style bezel which uses a spring loaded ball to control the click.
The dial is simple, and should have integrated/stamped indices. The indices were stamped into the dial then the tops polished and nickel plated. They can be marked RESIST or PROOF. Fake dials often have applied indices. Legibility is fantastic. The hands are a simple style, the second hand has a unique "traffic light" look. Hand corrosion is a big issue with these watches and it is not so easy to find OEM replacements. There are some fairly good reproduction hands out now which are the ones installed on the featured watch. On comparison to the original hands they are basically identical except they look a little more rounded. Only a highly trained eye would really spot them and in my opinion, a good reproduction set will not spoil the enjoyment of the watch. The dial indices are quite prone to mould and lume degradation.
The crown is a locking style crown and has a fairly large rubber gasket installed. The locking is achieved by a little pin in the crown indent, which locks on to a recess in the crown. The intent here is to try to prevent the crown from being opened inadvertently by a knock. I would say in practice this system was fairly unsuccessful in it's goals as future models had a full screw down crown and the amount of 6105's that have clear signs of water ingress. Because of this, I would be reluctant to trust the watch to be water resistant beyond a dip in the sink, assuming the gasket is in good condition. Which brings us to a major issue for collectors of these watches - the crowns have been unavailable for quite some time and are hard to find due to the unique shape and function.
What's unique about the movement?
The 6105 movement is the date only version of the middle grade 6106 movement which SEIKO used in a lot of the SPORT and mid to high end SS/DX models. For the diver, it was the 17 jewel variant. Parts are mostly interchangeable with the other variants.
The 6105 is a 21,600 v/ph movement and has a lever style hacking system which is connected to the keyless works. When you pull the crown, the hacking lever stops the escapement wheel from moving, which stops the movement from running.
The 61 series movements are prone to corrosion on the auto winding weight and excessive wear to the barrel arbor pivots. In this case the wear was quite severe, which is what took this watch out of action. Beyond that, there are no serious faults with this movement.
So what did this restoration involve?
When I received this watch, it had been fitted with a replacement 6309 movement, which at the time would have been an economical repair for the watch. The day wheel was still installed and had been turning just like normal behind the dial. The customer also included the removed original 6105 movement. After an assessment on this movement, it was clear that it could be restored to running condition with great timekeeping.
The major point of concern was significant wear on the barrel arbor bushes. Fortunately, I have recently managed to source an upgrade kit for this area, which replaces these pivots with jewel bearings.Fitting is fairly simple but does require a staking set and some jeweler's broaches.
With these installed, I continued with the rebuild which went very smoothly. I decided to swap out the balance assembly from the included 6309 movement as they are interchangeable and it was in better condition.
After the movement rebuild was complete, I got a fantastic result on the timegrapher. Time to move on to the dial.
The dial had been previously re-lumed however the binder used on the on the lume work was clearly not up to the job. The lume had gone powdery and there were some large chunks of mould growing on it. This commonly happens when a small part of old, crusty lume is left in the index and not cleaned out correctly. I promptly removed this and ensured all old lume was completely removed.
The lume on these dials is quite difficult to work with. To achieve something that resembles the stock look, the lume needs to be applied fairly thin, but must have a thick consistency so it looks solid, but also must self level. After some experimentation, I managed to get a mix that achieved a fairly stock look on the dial. This is some of the more challenging lume work I've done. After the dial was done, I also did the hands so that the lume was all the same colour. There's nothing worse than having mis-matched lume.
After some poking and prodding, I determined that the crown gasket was still OK, and keeping in mind the non-availability of these parts, decided to treat the gasket with silicone grease and leave it well alone. Hopefully in the future someone will be able to re-manufacture these parts cost effectively.
On to the final leg now, and I've test fitted the movement assembly into the case. All was good so I added the hands, replaced the bezel and back gasket, and the job is complete.
This is easily one of the most enjoyable watches I've ever worked on and always enjoy handling such an amazing piece.
So what is the 6105 diver?
The 6105 Diver was originally introduced by SEIKO in 1970 and was made until around 1977. They were the first "serious" dive watch by SEIKO and followed on from the 6217 diver, incorporating some of the lessons learned. I will cover the 6217 in a later article but there were significant improvements in the 6105 series over the 6217.
The 6105 diver was worn by Captain Willard in the film "Apocalypse Now".
Williard - Apocalypse Now. Image linked from watchesinmovies.info
What are they like to use and wear?
The 6105 saw the introduction of a "Hardlex" mineral crystal on SEIKO divers, and is held in place by a fairly soft rubber gasket. The idea of this is that as the watch is deeper under water, the crystal will compress against it and slightly raise the water resistance, at the same time providing some cushioning for the crystal so it doesn't just shatter under higher pressures.
The case itself is a very attractive shape and has a lot of presence. You can understand why these watches are so sought after. They just look cool and have a real tool watch feel. It's not overly heavy and sits on your wrist very comfortably. The bezel is a click style bezel which uses a spring loaded ball to control the click.
The dial is simple, and should have integrated/stamped indices. The indices were stamped into the dial then the tops polished and nickel plated. They can be marked RESIST or PROOF. Fake dials often have applied indices. Legibility is fantastic. The hands are a simple style, the second hand has a unique "traffic light" look. Hand corrosion is a big issue with these watches and it is not so easy to find OEM replacements. There are some fairly good reproduction hands out now which are the ones installed on the featured watch. On comparison to the original hands they are basically identical except they look a little more rounded. Only a highly trained eye would really spot them and in my opinion, a good reproduction set will not spoil the enjoyment of the watch. The dial indices are quite prone to mould and lume degradation.
The crown is a locking style crown and has a fairly large rubber gasket installed. The locking is achieved by a little pin in the crown indent, which locks on to a recess in the crown. The intent here is to try to prevent the crown from being opened inadvertently by a knock. I would say in practice this system was fairly unsuccessful in it's goals as future models had a full screw down crown and the amount of 6105's that have clear signs of water ingress. Because of this, I would be reluctant to trust the watch to be water resistant beyond a dip in the sink, assuming the gasket is in good condition. Which brings us to a major issue for collectors of these watches - the crowns have been unavailable for quite some time and are hard to find due to the unique shape and function.
What's unique about the movement?
The 6105 movement is the date only version of the middle grade 6106 movement which SEIKO used in a lot of the SPORT and mid to high end SS/DX models. For the diver, it was the 17 jewel variant. Parts are mostly interchangeable with the other variants.
The 6105 is a 21,600 v/ph movement and has a lever style hacking system which is connected to the keyless works. When you pull the crown, the hacking lever stops the escapement wheel from moving, which stops the movement from running.
The 61 series movements are prone to corrosion on the auto winding weight and excessive wear to the barrel arbor pivots. In this case the wear was quite severe, which is what took this watch out of action. Beyond that, there are no serious faults with this movement.
So what did this restoration involve?
When I received this watch, it had been fitted with a replacement 6309 movement, which at the time would have been an economical repair for the watch. The day wheel was still installed and had been turning just like normal behind the dial. The customer also included the removed original 6105 movement. After an assessment on this movement, it was clear that it could be restored to running condition with great timekeeping.
The major point of concern was significant wear on the barrel arbor bushes. Fortunately, I have recently managed to source an upgrade kit for this area, which replaces these pivots with jewel bearings.Fitting is fairly simple but does require a staking set and some jeweler's broaches.
With these installed, I continued with the rebuild which went very smoothly. I decided to swap out the balance assembly from the included 6309 movement as they are interchangeable and it was in better condition.
After the movement rebuild was complete, I got a fantastic result on the timegrapher. Time to move on to the dial.
The dial had been previously re-lumed however the binder used on the on the lume work was clearly not up to the job. The lume had gone powdery and there were some large chunks of mould growing on it. This commonly happens when a small part of old, crusty lume is left in the index and not cleaned out correctly. I promptly removed this and ensured all old lume was completely removed.
The lume on these dials is quite difficult to work with. To achieve something that resembles the stock look, the lume needs to be applied fairly thin, but must have a thick consistency so it looks solid, but also must self level. After some experimentation, I managed to get a mix that achieved a fairly stock look on the dial. This is some of the more challenging lume work I've done. After the dial was done, I also did the hands so that the lume was all the same colour. There's nothing worse than having mis-matched lume.
After some poking and prodding, I determined that the crown gasket was still OK, and keeping in mind the non-availability of these parts, decided to treat the gasket with silicone grease and leave it well alone. Hopefully in the future someone will be able to re-manufacture these parts cost effectively.
On to the final leg now, and I've test fitted the movement assembly into the case. All was good so I added the hands, replaced the bezel and back gasket, and the job is complete.
This is easily one of the most enjoyable watches I've ever worked on and always enjoy handling such an amazing piece.
