Seiko 8229 date mis-aligned

[AlexeiJ1]

Hi everyone,

I have recently worked on 4 different Seiko 8229-602a watches and they all had buggered movements.
I found a few donor movements and serviced them. Now some of them fit perfectly whilst 2 of them have had the problem of a misaligned date disc.
It seems that due to the offset crown the date wheel only lines up at midnight correctly (see pic attached).

One of them was fine but not running, I cleaned and serviced and re-assembled and the wheel is suddenly misaligned.

The donors that came from offset crown cases seem to have more success than others.

Am I tripping out? Does Seiko use different date wheels for offset crown watches? Or geometrically they are the same and I have done something wrong?
All the action is smooth, I am just wondering whats going on.

I don't really want to open my diver back up as last time I scratched the dial, but want it so it looks perfect.
I love the 8229 as It is robust and easier to work on than the 7546/8.

Often you can make a great profit buying a rusty 8229 and flipping it on ebay after a quick service (netting me a good $30-40 per hr for labour).

Alex

[TexasDon]

The date discs are indeed different for the two crown positions. One set up for a 3:00 crown, won't line up properly when used with a 4:00 crown. If you have the original date discs, you can just switch them out. Seiko even provided different part numbers for each.