Weekly Auto Orient AAA 3 Star Swimmer....

[ricardopalamino]

A nice watch with a long name .

Automatic , 19 jewels , day / date with the day in Kanji at 6 o'clock , 38mm w/out crown , the standard Orient date change push button , and a scuba dude emblem on the caseback . 

  A friend and acquaintance  from the Seiko Citizen Watch Forum and regular seller of hard to get Seikos and Citizens on Ebay , that goes by the username of Seikocitizencollector , emailed me and asked If i could look at his NOS CitizenHi-Sonic for a few repairs . On a normal mechanical watch the repairs are minor , but the Hi-Sonic has the same movement as the Bulova Accutron tuning fork 218 model . 

 The stem would not stay in the watch so he took it to a watchmaker for the repair and when he got it back the stem was still out and now the watch would still hum but not run . He sent the watch to me and I discovered that the setting lever screw was broken . To replace the screw you have to remove the train wheel bridge ,which on a regular mechanical watch isn't a big deal , but on an Accutron you start sweating bullets because you have to deal with the tiny index and pawl jewel fingers , and the VERY delicate 320 tooth index wheel .

  To make a long story short I asked for a watch in payment . He was awaiting a lot from Japan and he gave me several good choices , and I chose the Orient . When I got it I found the tightest case back in the history of the world . It was tight , had dirt and was rusted to the case . It took me a couple of weeks to finally loosen it . I found a very clean movement inside .

It came with an expansion watch band which I changed out with one I had in my stash as well as install a new crystal ...........

 

 

 

The Gentleman was also kind enough to include a bonus watch . A Seiko 5  , with a 5126 - 7040 movement and case . The 5126 movement is a little more complicated then the standard Seiko movements in it's autowind mechanism . Gears instead of the normal "Magic Fingers "

 

 

[nawlinstornado]

ricardopalamino,

I picked up an identical watch on my recent trip to Tokyo. I was wondering if you can provide any additional information on this model. I've been trying to research the manufacture date, movement, etc., but online resources seem to focus on later models and there is little to find on 19-jewel movements at all.

I've attached a couple of photos for your consideration.

[ricardopalamino]

3 hours ago, nawlinstornado said:

ricardopalamino,

I picked up an identical watch on my recent trip to Tokyo. I was wondering if you can provide any additional information on this model. I've been trying to research the manufacture date, movement, etc., but online resources seem to focus on later models and there is little to find on 19-jewel movements at all.

I've attached a couple of photos for your consideration.

Hi , Sorry ,...I wish I could provide more info . A handsome watch though .

[anilv]

There were some Orients which had a full balance bridge instead of a balance cock. I always thought that these were given the AAA name but this designation was later applied to the movements with a normal balance.

Anilv