Seiko Sportsmatic 7625-8293

[Blacklab]

Picked this up recently for a snip from an excellent fleabayer in Japan:

 

 

A fairly clean item from August 1968 with a good dial. Being a bit of a fan of Sportsmatics, I haven't come across this particular model before & wrongly thought at first that it had a cyclops crystal retro fitted. Further research showed this to be the original configuration, however the crystal was in fairly poor nick & appeared to have been polished a few times in the past. After some more detective work the part number was obtained & amazingly Cousins had one in stock:

 

 

So far so good, although the rotor sounds a little rough (not uncommon on these). Lets see whats inside:

 

 

Bit grubby with a scraping rotor, but the bearings seem OK, so the rotor gets bent upwards slightly - don't frown, it's what Seiko recommends!

 

Out of the case, dial & hands off, strip down the dial side. Note the broken setting lever spring, I have a donor movement from a previous project and will replace this:

 

 

Turn over & rotor off:

 

 

Remove the winding gear:

 

 

Strip down the above, a bit of wear on the magic lever but appears to work fine, clean lube & reassemble:

 

 

Onto the main stripdown:

 

 

All in bits & cleaned:

 

 

Lower Diashock dismantled, cleaned then reassembled:

 

 

Then it all goes back together:

 

 

On to the dial side, setting lever spring replaced:

 

 

Into the case, reattach winding gear, rotor  & caseback on:

 

 

The original crystal was used before the previous step to protect the hands, this is now removed the dial is given a final clean before putting the new crystal in place, which pushes on under finger pressure. The crystal is held firm by the bezel, which is a problem to fit as all of my dies are shallow & bevelled, unable to push the bezel down, so 2 pieces of 40mm waste water pipe are cut to suitable length, one piece is then fitted onto a stepped flat die, the other has a section removed and placed inside the first:

 

 

Works a treat. Finally, with a new tan alligator strap fitted:

 

 

It looks like the crown has been replaced with the wrong one in the dim & distant. Hopefully this will be rectified in due course.

 

 

 

 

 

[jdm]

Looks nice, any timegrapher pic ?

[Geo]

Another good buy and excellent refurb, well done Tony.

[Marc]

Thanks for posting an excellent walk through and great pics.

 

That is a really nice example too.

[clockboy]

Excellent result also like the way to adapted to fit the crystal

[Blacklab]

Thanks for the kind comments all.

 

Jdm - timegrapher reading as requested:

 

 

Taken dial down, there is a little variance on other positions & I will give it another look in a week or so once its bedded in. The original readings before service were: Rate +/-13 seconds, Amp 194, BE 1.2

[Davey57]

Very nice, it is a handsome watch. Thanks for the walkthrough, I always enjoy these.

[dadistic]

Thanks a bunch! 

 

Nice dial! Movement parts can often be scrounged; dials, hands, cases, not so much. 

 

My parts pile demonstrates this very well :-)

[bobm12]

Excellent job BL, as expected! Nice looking Seiko!

[stroppy]

Brilliant!  And so nicely photographed as well.  Oh how I wish my hands weren't so shaky as well as my confidence.  Looking at the pile of parts I would have no idea of the reassembly order.  This is where your craft and intelligence comes into play.  Bravo!

[ramrod]

excellent tutorial! well done and easy to follow. that sportsmatic is a beauty. that is a great classic look with those beautiful dauphine hands. and these sportsmatics seem to have much larger indices than other seikos. maybe i'm imagining that  - but it seems so.

i've got three of them - and i think one more around here somewhere. mine are 6619's from 1964, 1967 and one i can't date. they're a nice dress watch and just the right size.

[jdrichard]

Picked this up recently for a snip from an excellent fleabayer in Japan:

01.jpg

A fairly clean item from August 1968 with a good dial. Being a bit of a fan of Sportsmatics, I haven't come across this particular model before & wrongly thought at first that it had a cyclops crystal retro fitted. Further research showed this to be the original configuration, however the crystal was in fairly poor nick & appeared to have been polished a few times in the past. After some more detective work the part number was obtained & amazingly Cousins had one in stock:

37.jpg

So far so good, although the rotor sounds a little rough (not uncommon on these). Lets see whats inside:

02.jpg

Bit grubby with a scraping rotor, but the bearings seem OK, so the rotor gets bent upwards slightly - don't frown, it's what Seiko recommends!

Out of the case, dial & hands off, strip down the dial side. Note the broken setting lever spring, I have a donor movement from a previous project and will replace this:

03.jpg04.jpg05.jpg06.jpg

Turn over & rotor off:

07.jpg

Remove the winding gear:

08.jpg

Strip down the above, a bit of wear on the magic lever but appears to work fine, clean lube & reassemble:

10.jpg11.jpg

Onto the main stripdown:

13.jpg14.jpg15.jpg16.jpg17.jpg

All in bits & cleaned:

18.jpg

Lower Diashock dismantled, cleaned then reassembled:

19.jpg20.jpg

Then it all goes back together:

21.jpghttp://www.watchrepairtalk.com/public/style_images/master/attachicon.gif22.jpghttp://www.watchrepairtalk.com/public/style_images/master/attachicon.gif23.jpghttp://www.watchrepairtalk.com/public/style_images/master/attachicon.gif24.jpghttp://www.watchrepairtalk.com/public/style_images/master/attachicon.gif25.jpghttp://www.watchrepairtalk.com/public/style_images/master/attachicon.gif26.jpg

On to the dial side, setting lever spring replaced:

http://www.watchrepairtalk.com/public/style_images/master/attachicon.gif 27.jpghttp://www.watchrepairtalk.com/public/style_images/master/attachicon.gif28.jpghttp://www.watchrepairtalk.com/public/style_images/master/attachicon.gif29.jpghttp://www.watchrepairtalk.com/public/style_images/master/attachicon.gif30.jpghttp://www.watchrepairtalk.com/public/style_images/master/attachicon.gif31.jpghttp://www.watchrepairtalk.com/public/style_images/master/attachicon.gif32.jpg

Into the case, reattach winding gear, rotor & caseback on:

http://www.watchrepairtalk.com/public/style_images/master/attachicon.gif 33.jpghttp://www.watchrepairtalk.com/public/style_images/master/attachicon.gif34.jpghttp://www.watchrepairtalk.com/public/style_images/master/attachicon.gif35.jpghttp://www.watchrepairtalk.com/public/style_images/master/attachicon.gif36.jpg

The original crystal was used before the previous step to protect the hands, this is now removed the dial is given a final clean before putting the new crystal in place, which pushes on under finger pressure. The crystal is held firm by the bezel, which is a problem to fit as all of my dies are shallow & bevelled, unable to push the bezel down, so 2 pieces of 40mm waste water pipe are cut to suitable length, one piece is then fitted onto a stepped flat die, the other has a section removed and placed inside the first:

http://www.watchrepairtalk.com/public/style_images/master/attachicon.gif 38.jpg

Works a treat. Finally, with a new tan alligator strap fitted:

http://www.watchrepairtalk.com/public/style_images/master/attachicon.gif 39.jpg

It looks like the crown has been replaced with the wrong one in the dim & distant. Hopefully this will be rectified in due course.

What a great job

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Peixian]

Brilliant watch. you have done a good job!