Leaderboard

a new one to the collection what do you think.....

my new toy what do you think .....

Hi guys, The Seiko 6105-8110 was probably the one model which brought Seiko credibility as a manufacture of 'serious' tool watches. While. Not the first (there was the Silver Wave and 62MAS before this) it was the first one to be sold in high numbers. The fact a lot of GIs bought them at the PX during the Vietnam war and took them back to the US probably helped. Oh..and a certain movie about the same war featuring this watch probably helped make this an iconic model. While I've had a few pass thru my hands I've never actually owned one. Back in the day they were just another Seiko diver watch and then suddenly everyone wanted one. I missed the boat there! A few weeks back I managed to get hold of a Seiko 6105-8110 which was in a sorry state. So sorry that I got it for peanuts....basically water damage. A missing bezel as well. From Feb 1974 Doesn't lock, the locking pin is probably damaged. It was a struggle getting the back off, a bit of heat round the edge of the case back helped. Dial is pretty bad..the hands did not survive the removal. And the final bit..this is probably beyond any hop of repairing...and I've rescued some serious crap in my time! .....stay tuned! Anil

Personally I like to lapp all surfaces that are flat and keep the polishing and/or buffing part to a minimum. On some watch cases this is not possible of course, but the square Seiko that WileyDave shows is a nightmare to get in shape using a mop - but quite easy using a lapping rig. Example of a beat up Seiko that I user as a guinea pig on an early lapping setup. Lapped Far from perfect and with some material missing on some of the edges - this case would need a bit of welding to get back to "as good as new"-state. But surfaces are resonably flat and the edges are there.

If it's one of the screws, they should move slightly when you pull the crown out to the setting position. Sent from my Honor 5c

If a watch isn't very valuable and the case and chystal look awful I think it's a good idea to give it a facelift, it then becomes wearable and of practical use. Also there is a certain pleasure and satisfaction in the "doing" of the facelift.

Welcome virus, You have the advantage of not having to purchase tools and have enough subjects to work on until your skills improve, this is the right place for tips/advice without all the hassles of judgement. Miles ahead of most of us, so take the opportunity and run with it, don't give up until you are positive the options are exhausted. Make mistakes and learn from them, this is what this thing we call watch repair is all about! Good luck and look forward to hearing your challenges, because there will be challenges! Dave

Had to chime in on subject of a recent buy and yup it's a Seiko DX, case was unique, (I posted how to remove on repair section), and I'm of the thought that whatever floats your boat. One can usually tell if a case has been polished/ buffed poorly by amateur, (i.e. non factory finish). and there are risks, I will keep this one because of the style and dial, but I could not live with case being as purchased. I could not remove all the nicks, some where too deep. If you are not compromising integrity of case, why not try to make it look new(er)? Buffing or polishing by hand is a chore and time consuming, so efforts should be commended. JMHO

In my opinion a superb example of overpolishing and ruining the edges of a case !

Got it! apparently the only thing holding it in was the dirt! It figures I would not have another "S" tool from manufacturer, Thanks ro63rto! and rogart63

Chapter 5... finished article Well its done..the 6119 movement is safe in its new home. Caseback gasket is a tad too big.. I had to poke it back into the groove as I was tightening the caseback. The quality of the crystal is good.. straight on the outside and curved on the inside with no inconsistencies (shown by wavy reflections). The bright green lume is very apparent in these pictures but less so in reality. Only reason I would change it is it doesn't match the hands/bezel dot. Not because of the green-ness. Final pic on my manly wrist! Issues... 1. Crown gasket does not fit. I bought 2 so I'll probably hunt around for another one with thicker section. 2. After-market bezel was a **BLEEP** to get on. I had to use a lot of force to get it on and now that its fitted, its a **BLEEP** to turn. The inner circumference needs to be machined a bit bigger to make it fit but now that its there I won't mess with it as it'll probably pull the crystal retaining bezel off if I try to remove it again! 3. Hands look ok but are flimsy. Summary.. It was a fun project bringing something totally trashed back to life and this was only made possible because of the good parts support for these Seiko divers. This will be a keeper as I don't think I'll find another one at a price I can afford. Hope you enjoyed the trip! Anil

Chapter 4....crown seal. Well getting the crown seal was easier than getting the old one out...so if you are considering replacing the seal without mangling the crown then it's doable. But.... While the seal I bought from Thailand grips the crown tube well enough (I tested it beforehand), it does not seem to grip the inner part of the crown well. This does not bode well for water-resistance. With the seal installed, when the crown is fitted to the case, there is practically no friction when I turn the crown. Only when I move the crown lengthwise along the tube cam can the resistance of the seal against the crown tube be felt. A thicker section o-ring is required here. In a nutshell, avoid avoid Seiko diver crown seals from ebay seller vintageseiko5ever. They won't work on the 6105 diver it advertised to fit the 6309 and 7002, I can't comment on that. I also sorted the stem, the 6119 stem fitted to the movement I planned to install was too short (not surprising!) so I used a stem extender. Problem was the diameter of the female part if the extender was too thick and required to be turned down.. out came thebastard file. All done now. No pictures because crowns are not really photogenic. Anil

Chapter 3... Shopping (where would we be without ebay!) The main reason that this watch was recoverable is that the supply of parts (and consequent competitive pricing) justifies it. The fact that Seiko tends not to change things around for the sake of change makes it easier for the aftermarket as well. After getting my hand on the watch, I basically knew that I would only be keeping the following. 1. Mid-case. 2. Case-back. 3. Crystal Bezel .4.movement ring. 5. crown. The following would need to be sourced. a. Dial b. Hand (set) c. Crystal d. bezel e. bezel insert f. crown seal g. caseback o-ring h. bezel o-ring i. Crystal o-ring/seal j. stem k. movement.. Apart from the movement and stem (which came from my own supply), I started shopping... while there are many suppliers, it basically came down to price (this will be a mongrel after all) and convenience (I would try to get as much from one guy to make it easier to track). All the stuff I ordered has arrived, below are some pics and also the vendor info. The following items were from mountapo_merchant -Case-back gasket... said to fit 6309,6105, 7s26,7002 divers. Pack of 10. Bezel gasket - This is what gives friction between the rotating bezel and the case. Crystal seal - this is the L-shaped oil seal which holds the crsytal in placed. Was a bit warped, probably due to being stored poorly. 6309 bezel.. I bought this as I couldn't find a proper coin-edged bezel on ebay. This eventually gave up its insert when I finally found a correct bezel. Dial... Yes the green is unacceptably 'green'...but I tell you it looked better in the pictures!. Reluming is not my favourite job but I might just have to do it in this case.. Hands... these looked correct.. Other stuff from ebay Crystal from ebay seller 'seikoforever'. Looks ok, I pulled it out and theres no hint of 'ripple'. This can be a problem with cheaper stuff. Hope it fits as I've had problems with other watches where the diameter is ok for the seal but it fouls the retaining bezel. Crown seal from ebay 'vintageseiko4ever' Finally I managed to source a replica bezel from https://crystaltimes.net/. It came with the metal shim the bezel sits on. I did not buy a bezel insert as I had already bought a 6309 type and figured on pulling the insert from that one. This cost GBP29.99 (incl of registered post). A bit pricey but this is something unique to the 6105. Total cost? Mountapo_merchant (misc stuff) = USD59 + 4.50 shipping seikoforever (crystal) = USD16.99 + free shipping vintageseiko4ever (crownseal) = USD7.98 + 4.00 shipping Crystaltimes (bezel) = GBP29.99 + free shipping (approx USD37.20) Total USD129.67. While it's expensive, how many other watches (apart from Seiko divers) can you refurbish with such readily available parts? Try sourcing a 'new' aftermarket bezel for any other Diver watch. Anyway.. i have all I need to put this thing together.. watch this space! Anil

Chapter 2....case cleaning. This case was in much better condition than the movement inside, even the trough where the caseback gasket goes is clean with no rust evident. It just needed a light sanding and some hand-polishing to make it look presentable. There was a gouge in the case back where my opener slipped, managed to blend it in a bit. Still visible but good enough for me! Anil

Interlude...Movement options. The original 6105 movement is toast. While it is closely related to the 6106 movement, it is different in one major aspect, The 6106 (and others in the 61xx family) have a quickset by pushing in the crown. This would not work well in a diver so Seiko re-desgned the quick-set so that it works by pulling the crown out to the first click. This is only found on the 6105 movement. First option is to source for a donor 6105 movement..a quick check on our favourite site finds one up for sale... at USD200..gulp.. though there is a 'best offer' option I don't think the seller will accept my USD20!!. Second option is the 6106. As mentioned earlier, this will fit but they're not too common. While I have a few, they are in serviceable watches and not 'donors'. I am loathe to sacrifice a running watch for what will still end up as a 'mongrel' watch so this will not be considered for now. Third option is another movement which has close relations to the 6105, in fact it is part of the 61xx series of movement and is my personal favourite among Seiko movements... the 6119. I have accumulated quite a few of these movements (thank you watchcollector/ebay!) so no problem there. Fourth and final option will be the 6309. Since it was the eventual successor to the 6105 and carried the torch well for a long time, this would be an acceptable and some would say 'fitting' solution. I finally decided to go with the third option and dug out a suitable candidate.. a few hours work and I have a strong running movement waiting to be cased up, I left out the day-wheel and date-corrector as the quick-set will not be functioning. While it is possible to leave a slight gap between the crown and case in order for the quickset to work, I prefer to have the crown sitting close to the case. The quickset is not critical for me as I don't see myself bothering with the date. Worst case scenario, the date can be set by setting the hands back and forth from 6pm to past midnight. I may try to 'rescue' the auto-winding bridge from the 6105 movement but as the rotor-bearing is totally kaput on that I need to transfer another bearing in. It looks to be pressed in so should be do-able. I did consider the 6309 option as well. In fact I have a 6306 in a Seiko 5 Sports Diver which would fit the bill and add a bit of a 'hot-rod' element but as the 6119 missed out on being a 'diver' I figured I'd give it its day in the sun! Anil

Chapter 1 - The crown After I posted the pics last night, I got down to the first step of renovating the crown. While aftermarket crowns are available, I felt that the crown could be re-used and by tackling this first I would still have time to source an aftermarket one if I mess it up. While not pristine, it is serviceable (apart from the seal!) and the old stem came out without any fuss after heating it up a bit. The crown assembly consists of the outer crown, inner spacer, o-ring, and washer/cover. Below we see the circular washer/cover thing which keeps the whole thing together. I've seen people mangle the crown by prying up the washer and re-installing but the results aren't pretty. I figured I try to remove the remnants of the old seal by picking it out of the recess with the washer/cover thing in place. (BTW there is an alternative method online where you keep stuffing o-rings into the recess until the cover pops out...google 6105 diver crown). In the pic below the stem is bent because I had to use a lot of force to get it out! Hard to see but there's an o-ring in there somewhere. Stem removed and the tedious task of picking bits of rubber out of the crown begins. Sure is a lot of crap in there.. Finally .... here you just about see the inner spacer thing. What you're looking at is about 2 hours work.. I kid you not. The problem was the rubber ring was rock-hard and I would find myself chasing little bits of rubber around the groove. I tried to burn the damn thing out but I suspect that all it did was dry the rubber out and made it harder. The best way was to secure the crown in a vice and use two needle to pry the bits loose. I also used the needles to break the ring into smaller pieces. Be careful with the vice as the crown is really not very sturdy. Anyway the crown is ready, I'll put it away for now as I won't be fitting the stem yet. Anil