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Posted

Hi all! Thought I’d pop my head by here and introduce myself.
I've been reading through these forums for a wee while now and decided to take the plunge and register.
I am an amateur watchmaker (please note, by this I mean I bought a bunch of screw drivers and watchmaking tools which I haven't taken out of their packets as yet) and would love to record my process somewhere!

chances are I’ll be asking more questions in these forums than answering them, but hopefully the ratio of questions to answers will change with time!

for now, here is my watch history:
Seiko skx007k (Pepsi mod)
Omega seamaster planet ocean (circa 2010)
Jaeger LeCoultre Master Chronograph (2012)

Unfortunately the omega and JLC have been sold. But the Seiko keeps me happy!
It’s my dads birthday in a couple of months so I’ve been sourcing bits to put together a pilot-like watch…. That’s basically the main reason I jumped on to the forums!

in the meantime, while crawling through eBay I came across a beat up seiko 5, an skx 171 and a seiko 6139-6012 which I impulsively bought, rather ambitiously. Once these arrive I’m hoping I can find a way to bring them back to life!

I mean, watchmaking…. How hard can it be? 😳

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Posted

Welcome to one of the best watch/clock-work sites on the internet. As you'll find out, there are a great bunch of folks here that are always willing to offer experience-gained advice.

Yes, it's sort of sad that the other two watches were sold, but you can't keep them all. Good luck with your Seikos. There are a few guys here who have a lot of Seiko experience that will surely be of help to you. Cheers.

 

  • Like 1
Posted
13 hours ago, watchweasol said:

Hello and welcome to the forum    the house of fun and empty wall😆ets

Lol!! I haven’t even started and I’m already feeling the pain!!

Posted

Thanks for the intro @Watchscience welcome to the WRT forum! I'm also relatively new and I'm in the middle of my first service of an Elgin Grade 313 movement which has been stalled for a while as I was waiting for oil and a mainspring winder. Well, my oil arrived today and luckily I picked up an identical 2nd movement so as I disassemble that one it will help me remember how to re-assemble the first one! I've posted some shots of my watches here.

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Posted
2 hours ago, grsnovi said:

Thanks for the intro @Watchscience welcome to the WRT forum! I'm also relatively new and I'm in the middle of my first service of an Elgin Grade 313 movement which has been stalled for a while as I was waiting for oil and a mainspring winder. Well, my oil arrived today and luckily I picked up an identical 2nd movement so as I disassemble that one it will help me remember how to re-assemble the first one! I've posted some shots of my watches here.

Wow! I have always had a soft spot for IWC watches, and yours is a wonderful example!

 

can’t wait to see how your Elgin progresses!

I’ll pop up some shots of my building and servicing processes once all my gear arrives. 
Incidentally, I can’t believe how much oil costs!! 😵💫

Posted
On 4/20/2022 at 2:21 AM, Watchscience said:

Hi all! Thought I’d pop my head by here and introduce myself.
I've been reading through these forums for a wee while now and decided to take the plunge and register.
I am an amateur watchmaker (please note, by this I mean I bought a bunch of screw drivers and watchmaking tools which I haven't taken out of their packets as yet) and would love to record my process somewhere!

chances are I’ll be asking more questions in these forums than answering them, but hopefully the ratio of questions to answers will change with time!

for now, here is my watch history:
Seiko skx007k (Pepsi mod)
Omega seamaster planet ocean (circa 2010)
Jaeger LeCoultre Master Chronograph (2012)

Unfortunately the omega and JLC have been sold. But the Seiko keeps me happy!
It’s my dads birthday in a couple of months so I’ve been sourcing bits to put together a pilot-like watch…. That’s basically the main reason I jumped on to the forums!

in the meantime, while crawling through eBay I came across a beat up seiko 5, an skx 171 and a seiko 6139-6012 which I impulsively bought, rather ambitiously. Once these arrive I’m hoping I can find a way to bring them back to life!

I mean, watchmaking…. How hard can it be? 😳

Hi ws. Welcome to the forum.  How hard can it be ? Haha you dont know what you're letting yourself in for. What do you think about the skx, I see you went for the Bigboy 007,  the power reserve on my 0013 is terrible. For the price they should be manual wind as well as hacking imo

Posted (edited)
8 hours ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Hi ws. Welcome to the forum.  How hard can it be ? Haha you dont know what you're letting yourself in for. What do you think about the skx, I see you went for the Bigboy 007,  the power reserve on my 0013 is terrible. For the price they should be manual wind as well as hacking imo

I’ll be posting a video on a 009 soon that had terrible power reserve. It turned out the rotor was loose and from it grinding itself to bits and being misaligned, it screwed up the whole auto works train. Right up to the main barrel pivot on the top plate that was worn. I’ve never seen anything like it before, definitely not on a ‘modern’ movement. So best check that 013 of yours; it can be slowly eating away at itself. I also have a power reserve issue on my 007, but at least the rotor isn’t loose (I checked after I saw the carnage in the 009), so in that case I think it just needs a proper service. One of the pile of watches I need to get around to

Edited by gbyleveldt
Posted (edited)
9 hours ago, gbyleveldt said:

I’ll be posting a video on a 009 soon that had terrible power reserve. It turned out the rotor was loose and from it grinding itself to bits and being misaligned, it screwed up the whole auto works train. Right up to the main barrel pivot on the top plate that was worn. I’ve never seen anything like it before, definitely not on a ‘modern’ movement. So best check that 013 of yours; it can be slowly eating away at itself. I also have a power reserve issue on my 007, but at least the rotor isn’t loose (I checked after I saw the carnage in the 009), so in that case I think it just needs a proper service. One of the pile of watches I need to get around to

Thanks for the heads up buddy. My 0013 is new, I wanted ho get one before they stopped making them. Its  not from a Japanese  factory though its a Malaysian.  Bit bothered about it now, though I don't wear it very often. Maybe a watchbreaker got to yours before you did. How old is the 009

Edited by Neverenoughwatches
Posted

That 009 wasn’t mine (my one was bought new and performs like a trooper) and yes, someone was in there before. All kinds of evidence of that. Which was weird as it’s not the kinda watch people ‘service’. Not sure about how old the 009 was, running the serial number it was either Nov 1996 or Nov 2006.

Posted
21 hours ago, watchweasol said:

Hi  By the time you have been at it a year or two, with tools and oils you could have bought a small car    🤣

Some people smoke and spend much more! I THINK this hobby will be healthier?! 

  • Like 2
Posted
20 hours ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Hi ws. Welcome to the forum.  How hard can it be ? Haha you dont know what you're letting yourself in for. What do you think about the skx, I see you went for the Bigboy 007,  the power reserve on my 0013 is terrible. For the price they should be manual wind as well as hacking imo

I thought I posted a response but I can't find it!

I love my 007 - but do wish I had bought a 009 instead, with the un-modded pepsi dial.

As for pricing, I agree - and hate how the second-hand market is bumping up the prices so much! I mean, realistically Seiko still make their 5 divers, with a new movement capable of hacking and manual winding..... My 007 is from 1998, so.. aside from a "quasi-vintage" claim, it doesn't hold much weight over the new seiko prospex pepsi!

Posted (edited)
11 minutes ago, Watchscience said:

I thought I posted a response but I can't find it!

I love my 007 - but do wish I had bought a 009 instead, with the un-modded pepsi dial.

As for pricing, I agree - and hate how the second-hand market is bumping up the prices so much! I mean, realistically Seiko still make their 5 divers, with a new movement capable of hacking and manual winding..... My 007 is from 1998, so.. aside from a "quasi-vintage" claim, it doesn't hold much weight over the new seiko prospex pepsi!

Yes it's the 7s26 movement that they stopped making now. So that's making them more valuable.  I grapped a new one while I still could. The J model is higher still. I wanted the 007 for the obvious  connection but too big for me really although I did buy a prospex chrono solar that had a great price on it. It does look pretty big on me. Big hands but smallish wrists

Edited by Neverenoughwatches
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