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1974 Seiko FINALLY running! My first full rebuild!!

thor447
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thor447 WRT Addict

thor447

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As I've documented briefly on here previously, I've been put through the gauntlet with my first full service/rebuild.  I had a great looking purple/blue (depending on the light) Seiko dating to 1974 that I chose as my first candidate.  It has a Seiko 7006A movement.  The mainspring taught me a lesson when I tried to wind it by hand, the hair spring had a kink in it, which I failed in my attempt to repair, among other things.  I purchased a 'balance complete' which I learned afterwards only consisted of the balance wheel and spring assembly.  I just assumed 'complete' meant the full bridge, etc.  Well I had a heck of a time getting the replacement spring mounted.  The balance complete I received had a twist towards the end of the hairspring, causing the stud on the end of the spring to not line up correctly with the arm on the bridge.  My feeble attempt to re-align that mounting stud taught me another lesson about the word 'delicate'.  While trying to take the twist out of the end of the spring I put the spring out of flat, and did not have the skill to correctly align that spring either.  I could not find a donor 7006A movement without buying a full watch, so after some research I ended up purchasing a donor 7009A movement which uses the same balance bridge, wheel, etc.  That donor movement came in.  I fully disassembled my watch again, swapped the balance from the donor to my 7006A and did a full cleaning once again.  Now I finally had all good parts on hand to get this thing going!  Assembly was going well until I tried to use some peg wood to clean the jewel on the top of my donor balance assembly.  It went flying, never to be found.  Thankfully the jewel from my original 7006A balance cock was the same so I cleaned it, and moved forward with the reassembly.  I ended up replacing the barrel, arbor, and mainspring with a NOS Seiko unit, the balance assembly was swapped with a 7009A donor movement, and I ended up swapping out the date wheel because my donor movement had one in better condition than the original.

I put a full wind in it and It's been running for about 45 minutes.  I did a quick adjustment to get the beat error and S/D somewhat close to where it'll end up, and have just been letting the watch run.  I will come back tomorrow and see what the numbers look like, but I am so happy that this one is finally up and running.  What a humbling and rewarding experience!  I will be doing a bit of work on the case in the coming days and hope to have this watch ready to wear soon.  The only thing left will be to find an 'XL' length strap, as the factory bracelet is woefully short of fitting on my wrist.

Timegrapher.JPG.e579395649a3d91ad9b17ad4d287468a.JPG

Yes I know there are a ton of scratches!  After the 2nd disassembly I finally figured out a screwdriver technique that works for me, and afterwards did not add any additional scratches to the watch.  It's something I'm going to take special care to avoid moving forward.  

Here's a couple of photos from my previous post on this watch.  I don't have the dial and hands reassembled so I figured re-posting these would help you remember the watch I am referring to.

252389-1659253936727.png.a76e5b073f63a57dc4ebe7219b69e758.png252391-1659257107261.png.11398f4afc5c1be938f5a6247c9b477c.png

I have a replacement crystal on hand, and replacement bezel on the way.  The bezel currently on the watch has well over 50% of the plating gone.  Once received I'll be able to finish with the full assembly.   I'm really glad I didn't give up on this watch.  For a short while I was telling myself that this had too many issues and was above my ability to repair.  I'm glad I stuck with it, as I don't think I could've gotten over having to quit on my first project.  

Lastly, I am so completely enamored with this new hobby.  I have been trying to keep my eyes out for some future project watches and I went a little nuts on eBay over the weekend.  I purchased 3 watches that should be here soon.  I'm looking forward to getting them in and having them ready to work on once this one is fully finished.

  • Like 4
gbyleveldt WRT Addict

gbyleveldt

Posted
Posted

Well done and some good numbers there! I just love Seiko’s in general because there’s so much interchangeability with them. You can have an expensive classic, but many times the key components are based on cheaper movements that make great donors. In Swiss watches everything is relatively more expensive so it’s more painful when something goes missing or is broken.

  • Like 2
Neverenoughwatches Distinguished Member

Neverenoughwatches

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, thor447 said:

As I've documented briefly on here previously, I've been put through the gauntlet with my first full service/rebuild.  I had a great looking purple/blue (depending on the light) Seiko dating to 1974 that I chose as my first candidate.  It has a Seiko 7006A movement.  The mainspring taught me a lesson when I tried to wind it by hand, the hair spring had a kink in it, which I failed in my attempt to repair, among other things.  I purchased a 'balance complete' which I learned afterwards only consisted of the balance wheel and spring assembly.  I just assumed 'complete' meant the full bridge, etc.  Well I had a heck of a time getting the replacement spring mounted.  The balance complete I received had a twist towards the end of the hairspring, causing the stud on the end of the spring to not line up correctly with the arm on the bridge.  My feeble attempt to re-align that mounting stud taught me another lesson about the word 'delicate'.  While trying to take the twist out of the end of the spring I put the spring out of flat, and did not have the skill to correctly align that spring either.  I could not find a donor 7006A movement without buying a full watch, so after some research I ended up purchasing a donor 7009A movement which uses the same balance bridge, wheel, etc.  That donor movement came in.  I fully disassembled my watch again, swapped the balance from the donor to my 7006A and did a full cleaning once again.  Now I finally had all good parts on hand to get this thing going!  Assembly was going well until I tried to use some peg wood to clean the jewel on the top of my donor balance assembly.  It went flying, never to be found.  Thankfully the jewel from my original 7006A balance cock was the same so I cleaned it, and moved forward with the reassembly.  I ended up replacing the barrel, arbor, and mainspring with a NOS Seiko unit, the balance assembly was swapped with a 7009A donor movement, and I ended up swapping out the date wheel because my donor movement had one in better condition than the original.

I put a full wind in it and It's been running for about 45 minutes.  I did a quick adjustment to get the beat error and S/D somewhat close to where it'll end up, and have just been letting the watch run.  I will come back tomorrow and see what the numbers look like, but I am so happy that this one is finally up and running.  What a humbling and rewarding experience!  I will be doing a bit of work on the case in the coming days and hope to have this watch ready to wear soon.  The only thing left will be to find an 'XL' length strap, as the factory bracelet is woefully short of fitting on my wrist.

Timegrapher.JPG.e579395649a3d91ad9b17ad4d287468a.JPG

Yes I know there are a ton of scratches!  After the 2nd disassembly I finally figured out a screwdriver technique that works for me, and afterwards did not add any additional scratches to the watch.  It's something I'm going to take special care to avoid moving forward.  

Here's a couple of photos from my previous post on this watch.  I don't have the dial and hands reassembled so I figured re-posting these would help you remember the watch I am referring to.

252389-1659253936727.png.a76e5b073f63a57dc4ebe7219b69e758.png252391-1659257107261.png.11398f4afc5c1be938f5a6247c9b477c.png

I have a replacement crystal on hand, and replacement bezel on the way.  The bezel currently on the watch has well over 50% of the plating gone.  Once received I'll be able to finish with the full assembly.   I'm really glad I didn't give up on this watch.  For a short while I was telling myself that this had too many issues and was above my ability to repair.  I'm glad I stuck with it, as I don't think I could've gotten over having to quit on my first project.  

Lastly, I am so completely enamored with this new hobby.  I have been trying to keep my eyes out for some future project watches and I went a little nuts on eBay over the weekend.  I purchased 3 watches that should be here soon.  I'm looking forward to getting them in and having them ready to work on once this one is fully finished.

Well done matey. You really did run the gauntlet with your first repair. You should feel rather proud of yourself 👍

  • Like 1

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