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Two Gasket/O-Rings?

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NewToWatches Watch Enthusiast

NewToWatches

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I recently bought a Steel Dive automatic watch.  This is a Chinese N35-A based Seiko "homage" watch.  When I shook the watch, the counter-weight felt "muffled." Also the TimeGrapher was kind of all over the place.  So I opened it up and found two silicone gaskets (!?) -- also, a bit of vegetable matter (stem of a dried leaf?) fell out when I had the watch open.

I blew it out, dabbed at the weight with some Rodico to clean things up, and re-lubed the larger of the two gaskets.  It now has a +4s reading on the TimeGrapher with an acceptable amplitude. 

The main concern I have is what I have done to the watch's water resistance (I don't have -- or have access to -- a hydrotester). So I am starting with the obvious:  Anyone have experience with a two-gasket watch?  Maybe I got a Friday-afternoon special (or a lunch time special)?  I won't ask about vegetable matter. ? That falls into the "you get what you pay for" category at some level.  I can't imagine why a watch maker would use two gaskets where one would do . . .

 

-Ben

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NewToWatches Watch Enthusiast

NewToWatches

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Just a bit of a thread bump.  Some more poking at the bits has revealed the purpose of the second O-ring.  The first one sits in a channel in the case, kind of where I would expect an O-ring seal to be.  The second seems to want to go around the case back -- that is, attached to the case back before you screw the thing on.  Seems like someone was a bit nervous about the ability of the inner O-ring's ability to keep moisture out.  I re-lubed both, torqued the case back on nice and tight and am going to stop thinking about it.  BTW, the thing has been running well for the past several days, but really torquing the case back down seems to introduce some timing error.   Like +4 s/day with the case back off; +30 s/day with the case back on.  ???  Anyone think that simply  torquing down a case back should change the beat rate?  Am I distorting the case when I do so? 

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jdm Distinguished Member

jdm

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3 hours ago, NewToWatches said:

 Some more poking at the bits has revealed the purpose of the second O-ring. 

I think that if you  had posted some pictures that would have helped others understand the case at hand.

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NewToWatches Watch Enthusiast

NewToWatches

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LOL.  No doubt.  Actually, I didn't discover the second O-ring until I gave the open watch a shake to see why the rotor felt so sluggish.  The second O-ring fell on the floor at my feet, along with a small, dry stem of vegetable matter with a bit of leaf still attached.  No idea where in the watch they were originally, because I wasn't expecting to find either.

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