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Watch of Today


mk3

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3 hours ago, ro63rto said:

Today I shall be wearing this old USSR Sekonda
I've had it ages and never got round to reluming the hands.

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Nice. Looks like a mid 70's vintage. Another watch with the 'day number/day name' arrangement like the 'Voken Automatic' too. I wonder if this style was more common in this period. 

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5 hours ago, AndyHull said:

I'm slowly working my way through all of the recent accusations. 

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Today's watch of today a USSR Sekonda, which needed some major hairspring massaging, and the removal of every bodies favorite bicycle chain restorer (WD40). It says USSR, so it is clearly pre-1991 but its exact age, I don't know.

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It will need a crystal, but it is now ticking along nicely. Another one for the club.

I seem to be monopolizing this thread somewhat, has anybody else recently picked up something nice to inspire us with?

Nice linen dial too. That particular watch has a lot going for it. I've been quietly taking my Seiko SKX007 apart again. I noticed that the day wheel was out of alignment with the date wheel by just enough to be annoying.  I've been accused of being OCD and ADD in the past. I want everything to be perfect, just not for very long. 

Relax Andy, you aren't monopolizing the thread at all. I'll have several to post over the next few days and besides, your posts are always informative and worth reading.

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There is nothing wrong with a little OCD, when it comes to getting things just right.

Although when I had it back in beat to within 0.1ms and the thing was sitting at +20s/day or so, my OCD was screaming that the spring still wasn't perfectly kink free, as you can see from the image below.

The problem there of course is that you enter the territory of "fixing it till its broken worse", if you are not careful.

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It was pretty messed up, with a near 90 degree kink in it, and a distinctly conical shape. The surrounding area and the HS was completely slicked with what I assume was WD40.

I presume the two were probably related. Some previous "repairer" probably gave it a scoot with the bike chain redeemer and watch nemesis, and caused the hairspring to gum together and concertina.

I cleaned the HS first, then carefully massaged it in situ, using a pair of very fine needle nosed tweezers. It probably took a good twenty minutes of small adjustments to get things perfectly concentric once more, and a further ten minutes to get it back in beat and also restore its accuracy.

I also resisted any urge to try to clean up the very slight mark on the dial from a previous issue with the hour hand touching the surface.

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It presumably isn't obvious until I point it out, but once you know it is there, it can't be un-seen.  I'll just console myself with the idea that it adds to its character, otherwise I might be tempted to start fiddling and damage the rest of the dial.

Perhaps my OCD will get the better of me when I replace the crystal though. :D

Edited by AndyHull
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Interesting photos and stories. I have a Sekonda and a Slava that share the same movement and case design, although they differ in the details. Both are automatic winding, with day/date display. They're nice to wear, and relatively accurate.

 

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Edited by Gryf
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4 hours ago, AndyHull said:

It presumably isn't obvious until I point it out, but once you know it is there, it can't be un-seen.  I'll just console myself with the idea that it adds to its character, otherwise I might be tempted to start fiddling and damage the rest of the dial.

 

I , like a few others , have damaged more then a couple of dials . More then I like to admit , and without regard of the brand or value of the watch . 

On the last few , thinking I had learned my lesson  ,  I used experience to tell myself ," stop , don't do it "...........to bad I didn't listen . 

I am starting to appreciate the character of any given watch , to the point that I am starting to accept patina and a clean rather then polished piece .

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On 10/6/2015 at 4:01 AM, mk3 said:

 

Im sure that many of you wear different watches that have just been worked on, acquired or whatever. I tend to wear a watch on my left wrist for a while, whereas I find myself more frequently wearing a watch on the right too that I am testing or just because it appeals to me that day.

I do sometimes have one on each wrist when checking one out, partly because my most worn is a Seiko 5 (7s36 automatic with no manual wind).  One thing I discovered is that the Seiko runs about 10 seconds/day slower if worn on my right wrist.

 

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Strangely enough, I tend to do something similar.

The test watch on the left arm, and a quartz number on the right. Recently I have been using a Swatch as the watch to compare with.

Today, however I've been wearing a rather odd watch that came with a bundle of other stuff.

It is the most generic watch I have ever encountered. It has absolutely no branding on it.

The caseback is completely blank, the strap (which does appear to be leather).. blank..  and it arrived in a completely unworn condition.

Not a mark on it.

Quality wise, it is reasonable. Not a dollar store watch, but then again not something you would spend more than maybe forty bucks on, new.

So today I stuffed a battery in it, and substituted it for the Swatch.

This would actually make the ultimate crime of the century watch, since it appears to be completely untraceable.

The styling is very much what you would expect for a completely vanilla watch. Not unpleasant, but not particularly inspiring either.

Having said that, it wouldn't look out of place next to any of the modern "designer" watches.. yes you "Daniel Wellington".. I'm talking about you and your like. 

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Edited by AndyHull
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Nice one Andy, but I can't help but wonder how that watch came to be. No branding at all is certainly not the norm. The chapter ring is a nice addition and I feel certain that it's a fairly recent design since it has the date but no day. More and more that complication is missing from new watches. Could you at least tell the country of origin from the movement when you had it open?

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3 hours ago, AndyHull said:

Strangely enough, I tend to do something similar.

The test watch on the left arm, and a quartz number on the right. Recently I have been using a Swatch as the watch to compare with.

Today, however I've been wearing a rather odd watch that came with a bundle of other stuff.

It is the most generic watch I have ever encountered. It has absolutely no branding on it.

The caseback is completely blank, the strap (which does appear to be leather).. blank..  and it arrived in a completely unworn

I like it...pure watch.

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Todays. On test.

Nice little orient, suspect over oiled and ineffectually done, timegrapher results all over the place but eBay seller insists I should wear it a day to see. (Sigh).

It's not gaining as badly as expected but.....

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13 hours ago, AndyHull said:

is the most generic watch I have ever encountered. It has absolutely no branding on it.

T

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I have a quartz alarm clock, also with no branding at all.  Turns out it's the most accurate clock I own (without some sort of automatic synching).  It's gained 6 seconds since I reset it for the end of DST, so it's on track for 18 seconds/year.

 

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Looks like a good rich dial colour. I like the gradient across the face.

This one is not nearly so vibrant, but not too shabby either.

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I gave this little Ninio a quick spring clean. I suspect the dial has been repainted at some stage, but if so, they have made a reasonable job of it.

It is sitting around +/-20 sec/day, so not quite in the same league as the alarm clock, but not bad for a 17 jewel mass produced item.

Speaking of accuracy, the golden Citizen Cryston Quartz I mentioned the other day is actually loosing about 1 minute per day, so it looks like some previous attempt at repair included fiddling with the trimmer capacitor on the circuit board.

I'll need to dig out my frequency counter and fiddle it back to the correct place at some stage. I'll post a few pictures if and when I get some spare time to take a look at it.

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What can I say. It is orange. Very, very orange... and black of course.
Where the no name white dial above, was brand free, this one screams its brand at you from the caseback and the dial.

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A fun watch, but not one for the big formal occasions I would suggest.. Its just a shame that the lumed hands are fake. Oh.. and I've just spotted. I've set the wrong date. :blink:

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23 hours ago, m1ks said:

Todays. On test.

Nice little orient, suspect over oiled and ineffectually done, timegrapher results all over the place but eBay seller insists I should wear it a day to see. (Sigh).

It's not gaining as badly as expected but.....

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I have a similar watch, with a blue dial. It is pretty erratic on the timer too. It keeps reasonable time over the course of the day, but doesn't look great in timegrapher.

When I get a chance to tear it apart again, I'll take a closer look and see if I can spot what is going on. My gut feeling is worn balance pivots. 

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1 hour ago, AndyHull said:

I have a similar watch, with a blue dial. It is pretty erratic on the timer too. It keeps reasonable time over the course of the day, but doesn't look great in timegrapher.

When I get a chance to tear it apart again, I'll take a closer look and see if I can spot what is going on. My gut feeling is worn balance pivots. 

I'm going to test my other orient. That was a new boxed one I bought for my Dad many years ago which had little wear because it was quite dressy. I'll see how that looks on the timegrapher.

The green one above has a problem with the day/date changeover which bothers me more than gaining about 3 minutes over the day.

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1 hour ago, m1ks said:

Todays on test on the wrist.

A nice little HMT pilot, (which I suspect is a bit of a frankenwatch, but I like it).

 

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I think it may well be a re-dial, but I'm no expert.

Somebody is missing a trick with those HMT re-dials. They clearly can make pretty much anything they want, so why don't they set up a "customize your own HMT" web site. 

Some of their re-dials are actually pretty neat, although I do object to all of the "Genuine Forits" and "Real Swiss 17 Jewel" fakes that show up regularly.

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1 hour ago, AndyHull said:

I think it may well be a re-dial, but I'm no expert.

Somebody is missing a trick with those HMT re-dials. They clearly can make pretty much anything they want, so why don't they set up a "customize your own HMT" web site. 

Some of their re-dials are actually pretty neat, although I do object to all of the "Genuine Forits" and "Real Swiss 17 Jewel" fakes that show up regularly.

Yes, the re dials are common but for the price of these watches getting a 100% original really doesn't matter. I particularly liked the red dial and submariner esque markers.

A website like that would be a great idea but I don't think HMT are in business any more?

Lovely 17 jewel mvt on these also. Based on citizen. (Sort of built under license), good and simple).

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The red dial works very well.

You are correct, they don't really produce them in volume any more, however they do produce the odd batch now and then. 
Keep checking their website from time to time, HMT are in my opinion one of the most undervalued brands.

https://www.hmtwatches.in/18/products/eco-frnd-mechl-gents.htm

The quality is up to the standard of Citizen, since they were tied in with Citizen for their technology, and their mechanicals have the advantage of nearly all featuring stainless steel cases. I have a couple of very nice examples, which I picked up for pocket money prices on ebay.

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Today, I'm sporting a 25 jewel automatic "Suizo", which I would estimate is from the late fifties. It is going well, but I had to pop a little thread lock in the crown as it kept undoing itself.

It had a fairly lengthy crystal polishing session, but there are still a couple of deep scratches remaining, so I may replace that. I resisted the urge to clean the dial, as it looks a little delicate. Maybe if I replace the crystal I might be tempted to revisit that idea.

It was on a rather dilapidated "depilatory band", which may once have been roughly golden in colour,  but I think it looks a whole lot more refined on a simple brown leather strap.

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It arrived with the usual layers of grime, both internal and external, but is now shining like a new pin and ticking away nicely.

Edited by AndyHull
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Today's choice is actually a fairly recent vintage. I purchased it from an acquaintance that just didn't care for it any longer. He stated that it was also inaccurate, losing several minutes/day. After some good spirited haggling, I bought it for $25. I replaced the original nylon band with a new one that I had on hand. Mine is an 18mm zulu style with matte finished stainless hardware to match the case. My  photo shows it in the process of changing the date at 11:45 pm. It didn't finish rolling over the day disc until 03:00, which is about normal for this movement. 

The watch is powered by the Seiko 7S26c movement and after wearing it and leaving it on the nightstand both dial up and dial down over consecutive nights, it is +4 seconds from when I set it a week ago. I have no idea what he was referring to regarding accuracy as this is well within mfgr's specs. It has the display style back but nothing fancy to see there. The original strap had a leather insert where the holes are punched and it had dry rotted. My total outlay so far is $31 USD. It's a nice little package with the matte finish stainless case. It won't be quite so prone to showing scratches as I intend this to be my daily wearer when mowing or working in my yard.

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Hi this is my first post, so be gentle.
This is my work watch. I got it from eBay for about £17. It had trouble displaying the date. I rectified this by putting the correct sized cell in it and haven't looked back. The supplied cell was so big it pushed the date wheel against the internals causing it to catch.It has loads of scratches, the chrome has worn off, the dial is Sun bleached but it is water tight and the lume still shines. I love the look of it, real honest grafting watch.7f0f6934da3e4f539ec110f2e13a9873.jpg

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

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