Leaderboard

Oh yeah! Finally it opened. Thanks Ray. Thanks Frenchie. It worked after 2 tries. First try, I heated the watch in the oven, then transferred to the vise block , mount the case opener carefully, apply pressure with the aid of a mill press, then apply some torque to open, then hit it with the coolant. Didn't work. The problem, getting it setup took time. Maybe I cooked it too much to. The second time, it set it up ready to open position ( vice block, case opener aligned pressing on the case. Then I heated the whole setup with a heat gun, then hit the back with the coolant and it finally gave. I still had to open it half way using the setup since after cracking the case I still could not open it by hand. Again, thanks for the response . Pics enclosed. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have my share of 7xxx and other battery powered Seiko Chronos , but the 7A38 is my favorite . In the past I have had about a 50% success rate in repairing them , but these can be a pistol to work on ,....mostly because if the circuit board is kaput , that's it . I don't have the patience to work with the plastic gears mostly because of the fragile pivots , so I had a large stash of parts I sent to George C . where they will do the most good . Good Luck with your incoming 7A38 . BTW , The watch forum , 7A38 - by the numbers , is a good source of info on this caliber . http://seiko7a38.com/

Sorry I cannot answer your question directly, but I thought I would share my experience as it could be relevant. Very much like you, I once worked on a watch which I could not get to run properly. I spent ages looking for the causes, no obvious issue with escapement, pivots, jewels, train was nice and free etc... disassembled, cleaned again, re lubricated, no more luck. After I changed the mainspring the watch worked perfectly. It turned out that the wrong mainspring had previously been fitted (slightly greater width) hence the power was not transmitting properly. It might be worth checking this - never take it for granted that a watch has the correct parts before you start working on it! It may not be an elasticity issue after all!

You fix that @ro63rto . It pretty easy compared to 7T movements. Lot of small parts. But no plastic wheels .

See the red circle! The end curve should follow it =see the difference marked with blue circle). So the regulator pins are not in the correct place or the end curve is also bent. The middle of the regulator pins should have the same distance to the balance than the stud mount point. From this picture it seems that a bending is also at the green arrow,

Thanks noirrac1j Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have found, when ever stem is removed. insert a stem or rod to keep those gears aligned while you work.

Whilst it is possible to remove the hairspring I wouldn't do this until you've exhausted other more obvious possibilities. From your third picture things look fine. So ... I can see from your good pictures that the pivot of the balance staff is located correctly at the top. Is it definitely at the bottom? You haven't screwed down the balance cock yet. It's not a case of it being angled slightly because it's not firmly located yet that's causing an apparent bunching is it? Just go gently and ensure correct top and bottom pivot locationing before screwing down firmly and ensure the balance can swing freely. Does the hairspring still appear bunched?

Hi Johnnie , Hopefully you didn't inadvertently knock the yoke off of the groove on the clutch wheel . If the little button is stuck down , that means that the setting lever is not seated properly and not allowing the small nub on the setting lever to engage the grove on the setm. This happens sometimes when replacing the stem . First thing is to use the stem and crown or a small screwdriver in the stem hole to gently wiggle the parts into alignment . Doing this will work more often then not . If this doesn't do the trick you have to remove the dial to access the setting / winding mechinism to align the parts ,...usually the yoke back into the clutch groove as I previously mentioned . Your watch is a bit more complacated because of the gear that turns the inner rotating bezel . Attached is the PDF tech sheet for the Seiko 6106 , which is the base movement for the 6119 . You can see the parts I'm talking about ....Good Luck.... 6106A.pdf

I have this one.. DSC09615 by Micky.!, on Flickr Its probably exactly what Bergen sell, but at a fraction of the cost, it even has Bergeon branding.