Repairing a fully lumed up seiko 7009! Full walkthrough and video included!

[berlintime]

Seiko 7009 Report

Hi dear Watchbangers,

and welcome back to another little report from me! This week I am keeping in my set deadline and delivering my next project on time haha (not like last week).I know there probably have been a million reports, reviews and video on this but hey, it’s a classic; so this weeks watch is: A Seiko 7009 with a fully lumed up dial! I was super lucky to have found this, since at the time of purchase, I only found the pattern and colour scheme interesting and suddenly, this dial is just glowing up during night! So yeah, as always here’s a link to the commented 4K YouTube video for the lazy readers out there:

Lets get into the written report then:

Arrival status

So this is how the watch arrived after I ordered it on Speedtimerkollektion and it seemed in pretty decent shape. The case was still in a nice condition, the original signed Seiko strap as well and the glass only had a minor little chuff so no need for replacement there. Interestingly enough the watch did not move a second for the first few weeks of me having it but started working again once I was filming for the above-mentioned video.

Disassembly

1.       Remove the caseback.

2.       Remove the Stem by pulling into second position and pressing on the revealed lever to release it. Then remove the case.

3.       . Remove the watch hands. They seemed In very good condition with me so no repolishing or reluming. Yay!

4.       . Remove the Dial by turning the lever knobs at the dial feet, on the back side, releasing them in the process. The dial texture looks super organic and it makes sense since it is fully lumed! I used a little new makeshift dial container here for the first time to store the dial!

5.       Take of the Dial spacer ring.

6.       Remove the Front clip folding down the Day wheel by user something thin and sharp ( a cutter knife for example) and follow up by removing the day wheel. This day wheel was in English/ Arabic, which I found really awesome, and it also looks great so Ill be keeping that!

7.       Unscrew the day wheel spring.

8.       Unscrew the front cover plate and take that off.

9.       Remove the top part of the 24 hour wheel by unscrewing the screw holding it all together.

10.   Take away the rest of the 24 Hour wheel, the hour wheel, the cannon pinion underneath and the date spring.

11.   Then remove the day quick set lever and its spring and the translation wheel from the setting system.

12.    Move on to the setting system cover, the yoke and the clutch lever.

13.   Remove the cluth and optionally the stem (if its inserted).

14.   Lastly unscrew and remove the large metal arch which goes around the movement and hooks against small metal pole. With that, you have completed the disassembly of the front! Turn the movement in the holder so we can work on the back.

15.   Remove the rotor and  the balance wheel so that no further harm could possibly happen to it.

17.   Remove the Pallet fork bridge and the pallet fork (this is ideally in an unwinded state, if there is power, please unwind the mainspring first).

18.   Now you can unscrew the winding wheel and the ratchet wheel for the mainspring.

19.   Unscrew the main bridge and remove it to reveal the gear train!

20.   Remove the small clips holding in the automatic winding mechanism to completely disassemble the main bridge.

21.   Remove the Mainspring and its ratchet spring and the complete gear train.

22.   Unscrew the secondary small bridge.

23.   Remove the final wheel underneath it to fully disassemble the complete watch! Congratulation!!

Cleaning

Cleaning as always is the hand cleaning method. Let the parts marinate in some naphta and then brush them if necessary. After this treatment I rince the parts of with Isopropanol alcohol to get rid of the previous cleaning fluids and left-over residue. I did however do some searching for vintage cleaners and what not but they really are expensive, around 200 Euros. And while that is a worth while investment, im not really sure if I want to and even can spent that money on something that ill only be using a few times a month at most. Well it’s a dilemma haha. But im also thinking about putting jars with cleaning fluids into ultra-sonic cleaners but I’m not sure if the jar walls are too thick for the ultrasonic waves to be effective.

Mainspring Service

As usual, I did not have a replacement Mainspring so it came down to servicing the mainspring. Upon opening the barrel, the spring seemed in decent condition, maybe a bit dirty but no visible physical defects. The barrel lid however did show signs of wear, so that place would get some well needed lubrication.

Here is is unwinded and the back in its serviced barrel before closing it up.

Lubrication

Moebius 9010 : All jewels except for the pallet fork jewels

Moebius 8200 : Mainspring lubrication

Moebius 8217 : Breaking grease for mainspring barrel wall lubrication

Moebius HP-1300 : Lubrication for slower turning/moving parts. On the barrel arbour for example.

Moebius 9415 : Lubrication for pallet fork jewel teeth

Molykote DX: Grease for heavy contact points. Mostly for the front in the setting and winding system for example.

Reassembly

Just reverse the disassembly Process above. Don’t forget to lubricate the balance and shock jewels and reassemble the main bridge correctly.

Timegrapher Test

So after cleaning and lubrication, I slapped the watch onto the timegreapher to see if the whole process did anything at all.

Here it is preregulated:

 

And post regulation within acceptable parameters. Im very happy about the Amplitude since this amplitude was the highest I have ever gotten in all of my projects!

 

Final Results

Concluding Fotoshoot strapped and lumed up again:

 

Conclusion:

All in all, restoring this old Seiko 7009 was really fun! Despite me not having the spare and clean replacement parts to replace all parts with visible damages and wear, I still managed to get the watch running in good condition again. Also the very unique and rare dial adds to that and Im happy that the light brushing with th Q-Tip did not damage the Lume on the Dial. Sadly, since the dial is a bit older (70s I would say), the fully charged lume on the dial does not hold its glow for very long and I have no possibility to relume the dial. Either way, Im happy if it even shines a little and yeah! Was a cool little project to work on! So if you guys have any comments, questions, criticism or suggestions/tipps, please write me or put them in the comments!

I hope you guys enjoyed reading or the video and stay healthy!
 

Till next time Watch bangers!

 

 

[watchweasol]

Hi well done a clean concise description, and easy to follow.