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Hi Everyone, Recently I have become obsessed with ana digi watches from the 1980's! I really dig the style for some reason. I was looking on ebay in the low price ranges and I found this little nugget for the princely sum of $5.70 - the shipping from Peru was an inflated $20 AUD - so I got away with it for under $30. It came well packed in a little padded envelope. It was missing the back, had severe damage, but I didn't see any rust stains on the back. A view from the side It is a Seiko H127A-5000 - the year could be between 1979 and 1980 - there is a little bit of info around the internet. The case back will be an insanely rare part to find so I may have to CNC mill something or potentially 3d print a plastic back. That is if I can get it working. The Crystal is trash. I've tried sanding it, will wait till I have some crystal polish - I haven't had much luck polishing mineral crystals. A new crystal is around $35 - with OEM Seiko writing. I removed the movement and soaked it in WD40 to loosen all the bolts. It was too seized to attempt opening. The LCD panel/dial has a crack in it. The sub assembly appears clean, the zebra strips on the LCD were a bit gummed up but cleaned up. Happily the analogue movement was turning over freely, it wasn't ticking - but likely due to so much grit and much on the contacts. The only corrosion was on the rotor, and some of the non important chrome plated parts. I've soaked them in shellite. Cleaned with blutac and then inspected under microscope. Everything appears fine. It is a very high end movement with 8 jewels and all metal parts - it would have been top of the line back in the day. Very tiny parts. The main circuit board is out - my it looks complicated. Simple plain jane movement - nothing fancy: It's all inside: The bridge is off and the rotor is next to the movement: Cleaning the case: Tonight I have finished cleaning everything - I have put it into my movement parts tray - awaiting some time after work tommorow. If anyone knows how the LCD works please let me know - is the display in the top dial section? Or the next layer down? There is a white mirror presumably to reflect the light off the screen as this is the black model version (there were two models). Parts look pricey and rare - I've found a dial panel NOS - also crystals online. May have to look for circuit board if its fried - Can't find any bracelets - may have to go non OEM generic steel band. Goal is to get it running - if its not running - atleast to be a show piece in my cabinet. More soon

Sharing two watches I won off the bay. Both were advertised as needing work. First off is an old Invicta handwind. Older Invicta are good buys but typical of watches from the 50-60s era is they are usually let down by base metal cases and the dials usually have water damage. This one caught my eye as it has a decent dial in good condition. Even the minute track is in good order. The case is stainless steel. This type of dial has a copper coloured finish which I really like as it changes colour at different angles. The hands have been re-lumed but I think its not the radioactive type of lume as it no longer glows. The caseback indicates 'stainless steel back' which usually indicates a base metal case but this one is a stainless steel case. Waterproof, anti-magnetic and Incabloc...all good stuff. Inside we find an AS1194 movement. A good, well designed solid workhorse movement. It was not running and when I opened it the reason was quite apparent as the ratchet wheel was loose in the case with its screw lying next to the balance. Returning the ratchet wheel to its place and gave it a few winds of the crown and its running like a champ! It's been on my wrist for the past 8 hours and its been keeping good time. I got lucky here! Looking at the caseback, its a bit different in that the threaded male portion is on the case instead of on the caseback, which in this case holds the female thread. It uses a lead seal which is visible outside the threads in the case picture below. The second watch is a Longines. I bought it because the case was in great shape, these gold filled cases usually don't wear well and the caseback and lugs usually have the gold worn off on the rear. In severe cases even the upper edges wear. This one is pretty pristine. It came with a period Speidel. I'm not a fan of these generally and they can sometimes damage the case but for the limited use this watch will see I think I'll leave it on. The facetted glass crystal has some scratches but not enough to warrant sourcing a replacement. Pic of the rear.. the only visible wear is on the caseback near the crown. Not too visible. Dial has seen some sloppy handling, hands are slim and look delicate! Inside we find a nice Cal 9L. Picture below shows it running strongly (balance blurred). The seconds hand 'ticks' but the hour and minute hands don't move. The lack of resistance when setting the hands indicates the cannon pinion is slipping and needs tightening. Not normally a problem but with a sub-seconds movement the cannon-pinion has a closed end and this needs more force than a traditional open pinion so more care is needed. The barrel bridge and train bridge have different hues in the picture below but it is not noticeable with the naked eye. Final picture is the inside of the caseback. The case is made by Wittnauer in the USA, which was a way to reduce taxes. This association led to a lot of 'Wittnauer' branded watches being labelled as Longines-Wittnauer despite Longines not being involved in these watches at all!. A detail visible in the picture below is the recess drilled in the caseback, this is probably to clear the ratchet wheel screw. Cost for the Invicta was around USD40 and Longines about USD65 (shipping included). While bargains on ebay are not as common as before there are still good buys if you're patient (and willing to take a chance!). Both brands are still in existence but they are juat shadows of their previous past. Invicta is famous for 'homage' watches with cheap movements while Longines is basically banking on their name and buying ebauches. Anilv

Factor in compression of the nylon ring and that glasses are usually round intervals of 0.5 (30, 30.5, 31 etc) I think you can safely assume you need a 35 mm wide glass.

This item on eBay 332437123888 is a 23-20, it’s a bit more expensive; I think I may have searched for 23-30 earlier

Great finds, congrats...really nice to work on...I noticed a little space on the bracelet of the Longines, it looks like the bracelet is not original?

Yes at £77.94 plus V.A.T it would be a very expensive repair, trying to source a donor watch on Ebay would be cheaper.

Cousins stock a complete balance.

The progress update is coming. I'm just waiting on some time to reassemble the bridge and main gears. The old photocopied charts are shite and you can barely see it. Due to the rust I didnt photograph the original.

No, the positions can differ, I solved the problem like this: http://dirkfassbender.de/dial-feet-position-gauge.html