Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted

Not sure if I have called this properly. I purchased a set of Seiko watches to learn the art. Cleaning the white one at present.. I would like to show you the crystal of the black one. Never seen one before. I will obviously have to replace as it is just so badly scratched. Just thought I would show you all.

Regards

Ross

20220601_105214.jpg

20220601_105313.jpg

20220601_123445.jpg

20220601_123510.jpg

20220601_123540.jpg

Posted

yes the faceted crystal I've seen one sometime in the past I might've even replaced one I just can't remember anymore. Crystals did not just come in flat glass sometimes they had interesting features.

  • Like 2
Posted

You could just refinish the crystal to remove most of not all the scratches.  I did it on one of my Seiko 5's that was badly scratched but couldn't be replaced as it had a ring of numbers applied to the back of the crystal and a replacement was no longer available, I tried a standard crystal without the numbers but it looked wrong, so improving the existing one was a necessity.

It was not too hard. Just the usual decreasing grades of wet and dry paper, going from 240 down to 1200, then it was polished to a nice gloss with some polishing compound and a felt wheel on a Dremel type tool, took less than an hour and looked as good as new when finished.

Obviously just a simple crystal replacement is easier but it might be worth doing just because you could.

  • Like 1
Posted
2 hours ago, Paul80 said:

You could just refinish the crystal to remove most of not all the scratches.

Basically you have to pretend your new hobby is lapidary because this is basically a form of glass. Then some of the scratches looked pretty deep. See may not build take them out 100% usually the crystals are relatively thick that are glass. My favorite used to be people who did arc welding because little balls of flying whatever would hit the glass actually burn into the glass. Fortunately those were the days we could get new crystals easily.

  • Thanks 1
Posted

It depends how deep the scratches are and how hard the glass is. I have a Citizen Crystal 7 which had a badly scratched glass, and I couldn't find a replacement. The glass was very hard, Wet and dry barely scratched it. I used a diamond knife-sharpening stone and then diamond paste on a Dremel. Took a while, but did the job. 

 

  • Thanks 1
Posted
13 minutes ago, mikepilk said:

The glass was very hard,

yes it's definitely not your normal glass. because normal glass crystals can be polished relatively easy these always just seemed much much harder. But fortunately they're still soft enough you can still polish them a few really careful and diamond grinding compounds are readily available is necessary.

  • Thanks 1
Posted
15 minutes ago, mikepilk said:

It depends how deep the scratches are and how hard the glass is. I have a Citizen Crystal 7 which had a badly scratched glass, and I couldn't find a replacement. The glass was very hard, Wet and dry barely scratched it. I used a diamond knife-sharpening stone and then diamond paste on a Dremel. Took a while, but did the job. 

 

Maybe diminishing grades of diamond paste on a sheet of plate glass could work. The crystal suckered onto a shaft and spun ?

  • Thanks 1
Posted
19 hours ago, mikepilk said:

If you give the case number, we can look  up the glass code

Mikepilk. Here is the information you requested.

6319 8120 no. 703729.

If you could, I would be most grateful.

 

If it is possible, you could detail for me where, and how, to look please? I'm still learning.

Thank you so much

Regards

Ross

Posted
1 hour ago, rossjackson01 said:

If it is possible, you could detail for me where, and how, to look please? I'm still learning.

it's good that you're still learning because all of us are still learning unless of course you're not the watch repair than you stop learning watch repair.

Seiko a long time ago use the published casing reference books which may be out there in PDF form perhaps. I know there was another company that published the casing book for several brands conveniently am not sure where mine has wandered off to otherwise I was going look up the number.

on the other hand even without a nice database through a handy reference book is amazing what happens if you just search online.

1 hour ago, rossjackson01 said:

6319 8120 no. 703729.

when looking for Seiko case parts you need to express the case number in the proper form like this 6319–8120. The other number is the serial number which if you do a search somebody will explain online what those numbers mean. Once you get the case number express properly can do a search online and then at some point time grasp that you can just search on eBay and find this. this just happened to be the first one I found conceivably there is other sellers and other sources but you do get a crystal number that you can now search for that.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/294825257286

 

 

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Posted
2 hours ago, rossjackson01 said:

6319 8120 no. 703729.

If it is possible, you could detail for me where, and how, to look please? I'm still learning.

The lists I have don't include your model. I can't remember where I downloaded the documents from. Try googling "Seiko casing parts". I just did and found this https://www.thewatchsite.com/threads/seiko-casing-parts-list-1977.245634/

As @JohnR725points out, often just searching ebay with the full calibre-case number will find the parts. Thanks to John, the above link gives the glass code 310W32GC0F, which if searched for in Cousins, finds :

image.png.464bb12f88cfa68ac8b234e2f0fb3348.png

 

  • Like 1
Posted
20 minutes ago, mikepilk said:

I tried to enter the above and it does not give me access. It says to contact the owner. But I cannot do so as there is no access to the site. Catch 22. 

It is the same as the Seiko forum. They want more information, but I cannot leave more information as access is denied until I do. Catch 22 again. 

Thank you for the Cousins information. 

Regards

Ross

Posted
10 minutes ago, rossjackson01 said:

I tried to enter the above and it does not give me access. It says to contact the owner. But I cannot do so as there is no access to the site. Catch 22.

I'm finding the link works just fine which is what I suspected. The reason it's working just fine for me is I was just there the other day and I logged in. So you want to access the information you need to get an account.

but if you get an account just to access these files are going to be disappointed. It doesn't have your particular case in their. I downloaded the index section C can see what they do and do not have. I know that Seiko at least at one time used print lots of Logs which presents a problem in that you need the right one.

 

Seiko Casing Parts List (1977) I. Notes & Index.pdf

  • Thanks 1
Posted
18 minutes ago, rossjackson01 said:

I tried to enter the above and it does not give me access. It says to contact the owner. But I cannot do so as there is no access to the site. Catch 22. 

It is the same as the Seiko forum. They want more information, but I cannot leave more information as access is denied until I do. Catch 22 again. 

Strange, as the link works for me, and I have never registered with the site.

I've found the link on WRT, I knew I'd seen it somewhere (thanks to @watchweasol): https://www.watchrepairtalk.com/topic/13897-seiko-casing-parts-guide/

Posted (edited)
18 hours ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Maybe diminishing grades of diamond paste on a sheet of plate glass could work. The crystal suckered onto a shaft and spun ?

I used plate glass and carborundum powder to dress oil stones back to flat years ago. 6mm plate glass is about as flat as we can get and easy to aquire. And i was thinking as a kid playing cowboys and Indians, i was always a cowboy, my sisters would be indians which gave me a chance for any revenge i had been planning. The arrows had little red suckers on them, i wonder if they would suck onto the back side of a crystal ? I have wierd ideas like this and sometimes they actually work 😆 . Flat face crystal only for obvious reasons.

Edited by Neverenoughwatches
Not specific enough
  • Thanks 1
Posted
1 hour ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

I used plate glass and carborundum powder to dress oil stones back to flat years ago. 6mm plate glass is about as flat as we can get and easy to aquire. And i was thinking as a kid playing cowboys and Indians, i was always a cowboy, my sisters would be indians which gave me a chance for any revenge i had been planning. The arrows had little red suckers on them, i wonder if they would suck onto the back side of a crystal ? I have wierd ideas like this and sometimes they actually work 😆 . Flat face crystal only for obvious reasons.

Good ideal for flat glass - mine wasnt't

I tried a similar technique to put brush marks on a stainless steel back cover 

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Posted

JohnR275

Thank you for the ebay site for the glass. $29 +$60 delivery. Wow!

I paid £17.50 for the watch as a project. I think I will do as you commented. Spend some time and sand the faces. Got to service and get it going first. 

Regards

Ross

Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, rossjackson01 said:

JohnR275

Thank you for the ebay site for the glass. $29 +$60 delivery. Wow!

I paid £17.50 for the watch as a project. I think I will do as you commented. Spend some time and sand the faces. Got to service and get it going first. 

Regards

Ross

The Cousins option I pointed out is cheaper. Or measure it and put a generic one on, should only be a few £

Edited by mikepilk
Posted

If you feel it you can try to polish the glass by yourself it's not difficult.

look this 

it's in spanish but with auto translate it's very easy to understand. I've done it this method by myself and it work very good

good luck 

Posted
1 hour ago, richiesgr said:

If you feel it you can try to polish the glass by yourself it's not difficult.

look this 

it's in spanish but with auto translate it's very easy to understand. I've done it this method by myself and it work very good

good luck 

I've seen similar videos.  They are very good though. 

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Topics

  • Posts

    • This was what I was afraid of. The movement is not one of the generic black square modules. Remove the movement from the clock and try prying it open very carefully, without breaking the plastic tabs. The plastic might be brittle from age. Clean the wheels and check the battery contacts for corrosion. Check the PCB for bad solder joints. Take plenty of photos along the way.
    • One of the problems with trying to Photograph Phils things are that his enjoyment was building these things so they tended to E falls on what will see if I can find some earlier pictures or any pictures I wasn't even sure because I was looking for that specific picture for somebody else and even it got the last version and that would have been the last version. You will note that he put the indexing on something that he could unscrew it or whatever and it can slide back out of the way so the rest of the lathe can be used as a lathe. With the lathe cut are actually coming down from the top I was there once where he demonstrated how to cut a pivot with the setup it was really beautiful. Older set up if I remember it's not a worm gear assembly in the thing in between the stepping motor and the holding block I believe this particular one was like a 100 to 1 gear ratio. Earlier version with watchmaker's lathe. Even looks like he is the watchmakers bed and then switch to something he made. Then I do have other pictures and things of the rotary stage in use. In the raw so if you tube videos here is an example of one were somebody's mounting a three jaw chuck. At one time there were available on eBay they were not cheap but if you're patient like I was I found one cheap on eBay. After you watch the video it look at his other videos he is a whole bunch of other examples of the same rotary stage. That I do know there are other pictures examples and possibly videos you just have to track them down. One of the minor issues of finding this particular tech sheet for the unit is I believe it was a custom manufacturer and the company change their name but I remember the new name here's a link to the company https://www.ondrivesus.com/rino-mechanical-components                
    • Escapement adjusting always interesting and depending upon the reference always confusing. Okay maybe it's not always confusing but it does lead to confusion. I have a PDF below it's actually a whole bunch of separate stuff including a hand out that came from a lecture that's on you tube. Then from that we get this image Consequences of doing things especially if you do things out of order or you do things for the wrong reason. Oh and even if the watches working I made the mistake one so showing my boss how tweaking the banking pins on a full plate on the timing machine made the amplitude get better and now he thinks that's what they're for and I don't think a fully grasped exactly what horn clearance means. Consequence of doing things. Notice what it says about opening and closing the banking pins and total lock? So yes I've had that on a full plate where it won't unlock at all and that's the banking pins or a combination of things basically. So banking pins unfortunately get moved. One of the ways to tell if it's been moved is the look straight down at the end of the fork with the balance wheel removed. Power on the fork push at the one side look at it push it to the other side also look at it and compare anything with the center reference the balance jewel and see if both sides of the same. No guarantee after the same there in the right place but at least are the same typically when people play with things one side will be way off from the other because they had no idea what they were doing at all because of course it's a full plate and you really have to paying attention and even then there's still hard to do. Then the other thing that comes up like it shows below is people often adjust the banking pins to do all those other things as opposed to horn clearance which is all that it's therefore and maybe bonus Guard pin clearance although you're supposed to deal with the guard pin is a separate thing like single roller gets bent in Or out or sometimes physically gets moved in and out. Some full plates older escapement's typically pallet forks held together with screws and you can actually unscrew and move the entire assembly in Or out more complications to deal with.     Escapement handout wostep nscc.pdf
    • If he was much younger and some sort of sports player it wouldn't be a problem. They would be in there and doing surgery and he'd be back on the field in no time. Unfortunately when you get older little things are bad and big things can be really bad so not good at all.
    • Where I work everything incoming watches whatever detailed descriptions are taken entered into a computer program and photograph of each item. Then ideally although it depends on who's doing the paperwork detailed descriptions can be quite good other times there lacking. Like I really like it with pocket watches if they would record the serial number it avoids confusion later on. Then when watch repairs are completed that is also entered in. It's one of the amusements I learned when I was in school instructor had a shop and commented about the important aspect of keeping detailed records of repairs. Because oftentimes a customer who got a new crystal will come back later on when the watch doesn't work and expect you to fix the entire watch for free. Then you can remind them that they just got a crystal. Strangely enough that keeps coming up or occasionally comes up where I work now. One of the problems of using the service marks on the case is that in the case of pocket watches oftentimes that's not the original case. Then case marks? What I was doing warranty work for a company I used to describe a code number in the back of the case and it would tell me the next time I see the watch that basically what I did I made no attempt at keeping track of customers because we had literally thousands of them I think they sold 30,000 of these watches and they would come back by the hundreds because they had a lifetime warranty. Yes that's a story all of itself but I would put a code number that would reference what was done to the watch the last time and think I had a date in there somehow so it did tell a story if you knew the code. Another shop I once worked out the number would reference the page in the book. So other than knowing we had been in there you would have no idea what happened because you have to go look at the page in the book to see what happened. Then the problem of how you examine a watch you should examine the watch in detail every single time to avoid complications. Although on vintage watches and this is a of amusement I have at work when people ask something and I say of the watches done when it leaves. This is because on vintage oftentimes problems won't show up until the watches much farther into the repair like it's now running and you discover things that you can't discover before because it wasn't running to discover them that also become sometimes difficult to have exact rigid prices are estimates of repairs or in the case of a pocket watch you may not find out if a casing problem to later on when you case it up in the watches running. I was just thinking for all those people that would like to leave a mark maybe you should learn to do what some of the past watchmakers did? Leave a mark but leave it in such a way that no one will ever find it? Typically not done for repair purposes but done for other reasons like identifying it's legit. I have a friend with a Gruen watch and one of the Roman numbers the bottom line that just looks like a line under extreme magnification actually says Gruen watch company or something equivalent. So here's a link showing how to mark your watch without being seen although that's not the actual title. So if you can learn micro engraving you can engrave the watch someplace probably just about any place you just have to remember where you put it. https://cnaluxury.channelnewsasia.com/obsessions/how-to-prove-if-watches-are-authentic-secret-signatures-182516  
×
×
  • Create New...