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I recently purchased what I call a “Franken-watch” Seiko from a seller on eBay from India. As I’m sure many of you know by now there are hundreds of listings (see screenshot below) for cheap Seiko watches with weird dials, most likely repainted. They aren’t fully “fake” as most of them come with genuine Seiko movements. My Retro Watches has a good video where he looks at a watch he bought from a dealer similar to this if you’re curious, see link below. https://youtu.be/G_m4b3OBEMI Anyways I thought one of these cheap weird watches would be a fun one to play around with as my first project, and I paid $20CAD for mine which I thought to be good especially if the movement inside was genuine Seiko. First problem I noticed was the bracelet (which was cheap and terrible) was held in by shoulder-less spring bars which would be fine if the lugs had holes but they do not so I had to saw the bracelet off so I could put another one on (see wreckage below). There’s more but I won’t bore you too much.. MY MAIN PROBLEM: The watch came with a Seiko 6349A (23J) movement which is a variation of the Seiko 6309 (17J) movement. The movement was held into the case only by the crown (see pictures below) and didn’t have a movement ring. As I understand this is bad because the movement isn’t securely held in the case by anything. I’ve tried to find one on eBay but I’ve had no luck, and I can’t find anywhere that has the ring size so I can’t try and find an aftermarket one. Does anyone know where I can get one of these movement holder rings? Is it even possible to get one off of CousinsUK or Esslinger or somewhere? Do any of you have one I could buy? I am very stuck and any help is greatly appreciated!

Been a while since I've been here as I've been stupidly busy with work for a few months. Last couple of days I've managed to get my practice watches out again and I dismantled a Seiko 6309 movement, cleaned it all and am now putting it back together.Chose this one as I thought it might be a good place to start practising servicing movements and I do have a lot of Seikos. All was going quite well, or so I thought. Took me ages to get the pallet fork back in and pallet cock aligned (maybe I've not done that properly? When I screwed down the pallet cock more tightly the pallet fork stopped moving so I loosened it a bit, is that a sign that the fork pointy bit is not in the cock hole?). Then I put the balance back in but it's not doing its thing. If I move it by hand I can feel that it is slightly rubbing somewhere. I also don't think the click is engaged although I swear it's in its mounting hole so not sure if that means power not being stored. I'm packing up for tonight as I'm losing the will. I'm hoping that someone may be able to look at the pics below or recognise the description and say, "Pip, you're being a complete pallet cock! The problem is...XYZ!" Thanks in advance for any advice you're able to give. Pip