6R15 23 jewel movement

[Macgman2000]

I wanted to see who has purchased Seiko's 6R15 and what their experience has been. I bought a Seiko watch, one of several I have with a 6R15.

I have all but given up on Seiko mechanical watches. The 6R15 like the 7S26 or 809....just garbage.

I am not a brand person mind you, I could care less. If I was I would have spent $5k on name brand but choose not to because I know what goes into these watches. I am the same way with electronics ( I am an EE). It looked pretty, but couldn't help but notice how light it was, felt cheap. When I put it on my Watch Tester, it was horrible. +19sec dial up, -9 stem down, ...etc. The error was > 0.8 ms. The lowest was 0.6 in a position I would have to break my arm to get to.

I have not seen this in any of Miyota movements. Even the horribly cheap ones, tune up beautifully. I just don't seem to have luck with Seiko. Maybe I am being too critical for what these are. The automatic movement weight is stiff, you have to really spin the case to get it moving. No crunching sounds and I can see if working through the 2nd bottom crystal. I am going to see if breaking it in helps, I doubt it, since it didn't help the 7s26 nor the 809.

The ETA 2824-2 was reasonable out of the box. Tuning it was a breeze. Anyone work on 6R15's? what's the deal?

 

-Nick

[Macgman2000]

This is amazing, upon closer inspection / disassembled the back. The watch advertisement says 6R15 internal movement. The movement is stamped 4R35B and it does not hack as a 4R35B. I guess it was a cheap knock-off. There ya go, be careful of liquidation sales.

 

-Nick

[jdm]

First, you're posting the wrong section, if it's about watches there is a section for that.

9 hours ago, Macgman2000 said:

I have all but given up on Seiko mechanical watches. The 6R15 like the 7S26 or 809....just garbage.

Sorry about you bad experience, but if you read here on in other venues (e.g. Seiko section on WUS) you will find a general appreciation for Seiko mechanical watches, and testimonials numbering in the hundred as opposed to a single piece. Also I'm not aware of a Seiko 809 mov.t, perhaps you're referring to SKX809, an economical watch using the 7S26 mov.t.

Quote

It looked pretty, but couldn't help but notice how light it was, felt cheap. When I put it on my Watch Tester, it was horrible. +19sec dial up, -9 stem down, ...etc. The error was > 0.8 ms. The lowest was 0.6 in a position I would have to break my arm to get to.

Could you tell which watch model you've supposedly bought? Because really none of 6R15 look like "light and cheap". Certainly a big difference between dial up and down indicates a problem. BTW, what you call "the error" is actually "beat error", something that doesn't such a big influence on accuracy as you may think. 0.8ms isn't even that much, and is something very easy to regulate.

Quote

The automatic movement weight is stiff, you have to really spin the case to get it moving. 

Again, that doesn't describe a Seiko automatic. In fact, thanks to the magic lever mechanism invented more han 50 years, Seiko achieves a very efficient bi-directional winding using a fraction of the parts used by others. Of course the weight spins down effortlessly.

8 hours ago, Macgman2000 said:

This is amazing, upon closer inspection / disassembled the back. The watch advertisement says 6R15 internal movement. The movement is stamped 4R35B and it does not hack as a 4R35B. I guess it was a cheap knock-off. There ya go, be careful of liquidation sales.

Maybe you could post detailed picture of this object to help others recognize what actually is, and avoid falling to fraud. I don't know if you bought it for cash in person but if it was online you should return and if any objection is raised dispute the payment with the card issuer.

Edited April 19, 2019 by jdm

[GregC]

I have a Seiko 5 with the 7S26 movement near 30 yrs now and never had it serviced. Of course I dont use it everyday but I did lots of cycling with it and it just keeps on ticking.If anything I need to give it a bath.

[Macgman2000]

I took a few pictures of the watch. This does not hack, the stem is stiff, the automatic weight is stiff....etc. The case appears to be nice, but really light.

[jdm]

14 minutes ago, Macgman2000 said:

I took a few pictures of the watch. This does not hack, the stem is stiff, the automatic weight is stiff....etc. The case appears to be nice, but really light.

That is counterfeit watch. From far you can see SEIKO on the dial is too small, date window too small, lettering at 6H too big and raised. On the back, the rotor is stamped so poorly, rotor hub has no ball bearing, and more, it doesn't even try to look like a Seiko mov.t

What's interesting is that in this class of watches, fakes were virtually unknown. Even for the ultra-popular SKX007/9, I have seen only a single set of picture from Malasya, but never anything like this.

I suggest that you post these picture in the Seiko section of watchuseek.com with an indication of where it was bought. Or, I'll be glad to do that using your pictures.

 

Edited April 22, 2019 by jdm

[watchweasol]

Hi  I agree with JDM  looking at the movement it does'nt look Seiko quality at all, and I would concur that this is a fake although a good one.  Too bright and shiney

[Macgman2000]

It was purchased on Wish.com. Feel free to post the pics.

I have purchased Citizen movements that out of the box were 0.3ms beat error and + 10 / -15 sec in worst positions. I tuned them on my watch tester to 0.0ms dial up and worst position 0.1ms. dial up +1 sec and stem down +3sec, stem up -2sec. It makes sense that a knockoff will not "behave nicely".

[watchweasol]

Hi  Unfortuatly not all of these "fake" watches are crap some look good and perform well others are indeed crap. I had a small pocket watch (fob) with skeleton works which looked pretty fair untill I tried to take it to bits for repair. The crown was glued on to the stem the dial was glued to the movement  No Dial pads just glue blobs and it worked just! fit for the bin.  Some you will get will set up ok its a bit of a lottery.

[jdm]

Just now, watchweasol said:

I had a small pocket watch (fob) with skeleton works which looked pretty fair untill I tried to take it to bits for repair.

But most likely that watch did not pretend to be made by a reputable brand, and did not cost exaggerated money. They entire point of counterfeiting is not about quality, but about straight fraud as in this case, of falsity when sporting around a fake watch. Now, these are expected when it's about pieces worth thousands, but a genuine Seiko similar to the thing above can be bought for $100.

[jdm]

37 minutes ago, watchweasol said:

Hi  I agree with JDM  looking at the movement it does'nt look Seiko quality at all, and I would concur that this is a fake although a good one.  Too bright and shiney

Absolutely not good at all! There is nothing wrong being Seiko, bright and shiny. Assuming the target was a SARB035, here's a picture of mine for comparison.

[Macgman2000]

Comparing your pic to my knockoff. The knockoff case is nice. The dial looks original. The seconds hand is not correct tho. The other two look ok.

I might do a movement transplant. Get rid of the stem + crown. The crown is too big compared to the one in your photo.

 

Edited April 22, 2019 by Macgman2000

[jdm]

28 minutes ago, Macgman2000 said:

Comparing your pic to my knockoff

I'm sure that you can get your money back. What about a $150 genuine 4R36 Seiko, to reward the work of honest dealers and not being taken advantage. Or even a cheap but honest Chinese one from AliX. 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B006J9Y0D4

https://aliexpress.com/item/Parnis-43mm-Power-Reserve-Seagull-Automatic-Casual-Military-Sport-Novelty-Luxury-Dress-Formal-Automatic-mens-Unisex/32899123690.html

 

Edited April 22, 2019 by jdm