Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted

Hi Everyone,
Recently I have become obsessed with ana digi watches from the 1980's! I really dig the style for some reason.

I was looking on ebay in the low price ranges and I found this little nugget for the princely sum of $5.70 - the shipping from Peru was an inflated $20 AUD - so I got away with it for under $30.

It came well packed in a little padded envelope. It was missing the back, had severe damage, but I didn't see any rust stains on the back.

EJ3StcW.jpg

A view from the side
uVxnNus.jpg

It is a Seiko H127A-5000 - the year could be between 1979 and 1980 - there is a little bit of info around the internet.

YEnlLqn.jpg

The case back will be an insanely rare part to find so I may have to CNC mill something or potentially 3d print a plastic back.
That is if I can get it working.

The Crystal is trash. I've tried sanding it, will wait till I have some crystal polish - I haven't had much luck polishing mineral crystals.
A new crystal is around $35 - with OEM Seiko writing.

I removed the movement and soaked it in WD40 to loosen all the bolts. It was too seized to attempt opening.
The LCD panel/dial has a crack in it. The sub assembly appears clean, the zebra strips on the LCD were a bit gummed up but cleaned up.

Happily the analogue movement was turning over freely, it wasn't ticking - but likely due to so much grit and much on the contacts.

The only corrosion was on the rotor, and some of the non important chrome plated parts.
I've soaked them in shellite. Cleaned with blutac and then inspected under microscope.
Everything appears fine.

It is a very high end movement with 8 jewels and all metal parts - it would have been top of the line back in the day. Very tiny parts.

hocsQBR.jpg

The main circuit board is out - my it looks complicated.

9M8yESE.jpg

Simple plain jane movement - nothing fancy: It's all inside:
xDz7v8Z.jpg

The bridge is off and the rotor is next to the movement:
UN9x5yp.jpg

 

Cleaning the case:

vih6QtM.jpg

Tonight I have finished cleaning everything - I have put it into my movement parts tray - awaiting some time after work tommorow.

If anyone knows how the LCD works please let me know - is the display in the top dial section? Or the next layer down? There is a white mirror presumably to reflect the light off the screen as this is the black model version (there were two models).


Parts look pricey and rare - I've found a dial panel NOS - also crystals online. May have to look for circuit board if its fried -

 

Can't find any bracelets - may have to go non OEM generic  steel band.

 

Goal is to get it running - if its not running - atleast to be a show piece in my cabinet.

More soon :)

 

  • Like 3
Posted

Great start!. I haven't had any success with these Ana-digi watches.. Seiko, Citizen.. you name it.. all my attempts failed..

Wish you all the best!

Anilv

Posted

Good luck! I have a number of fried ani-digi Seiko watches, mainly H608 from memory? No luck in getting any of them running yet so I’ll be following your progress with interest.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  • 4 weeks later...
Posted

The progress update is coming. I'm just waiting on some time to reassemble the bridge and main gears. The old photocopied charts are shite and you can barely see it.
Due to the rust I didnt photograph the original.

  • Like 1
Posted

Love this old ana/digi watches. Hope you get it running again. Have a similar watch somewhere . Don't think it's a Seiko . More like a Ricoh. 

  • 2 months later...
Posted (edited)

What's up WRT peeps!
I finally have some updaaaaaaaaaaatees :)

The story with the watch above was that it needed a case back and a replacement LCD panel.

I have been watching eBay for a while, there have been 3 watches sold since: $850, $450, $280 for working examples. The former of which was a mint example.

The prices have doubled from 3 years ago, where a mint NOS example cost $300-400.

Anyway - I bought a nice B grade donor watch which was 100% complete, however it had a cracked/bleeding LCD panel.
It only cost me $25 from germany (eBay) which is surprising because nobody else bid on it.
Luckily I knew that Northern Watch Clock Co had a 4510-841 replacement LCD panel for sale for 15 gbp.
It was the correct panel for the donor watch as the original had the dark dial which was possible rarer?


I ordered the part, after paying an absolutely eye watering 25GBP for postage, (it arrived with an 8gbp postage stamp - 14 days after ordering.waaat...). It wasn't packed that well considering how incredibly rare this part is. Cousins as an example posted me a 30x30x30cm carboard box just for a mainspring - atleast it was protected haha!!!

gH6UXZq.jpg

xAKdpiP.jpg

cGsDb9S.jpg

EfW6ahu.jpg

Ltyjfvk.jpg

rXu1r4N.jpg

q0tMuNz.jpg

dLPOKMg.jpg

tAdnPso.jpg

DzfHQb8.jpg

X7S1rXR.jpg

scrlHZu.jpg

QdlaAON.jpg

rtUJFCg.jpg

https://imgur.com/uOMXVxu.jpg[/img]

Edited by AlexeiJ1
  • Like 3
Posted

All up it owes me around $110 + $50 for the crystal.
Not bad considering I know its an honest watch with several parts replaced (LCD + Crystal + case back gasket) - rather than buying an unknown watch on ebay for $800 which could have a cracked dial.

  • Like 1
  • 3 weeks later...
Posted

Right, my turn then Alexei, you have inspired me! Mine is in remarkably good condition cosmetically, it all looks clean inside too so hopefully it will work. It is the black dial one that you think is more rare? So I just need an LCD panel now. It seems you may have bought the last one available, so the hunt is on. If you found anywhere else that had one I'd be grateful if you could lee me know? I need the dark one which is 4510.840 as opposed to your 4510.841 (I think, anyway, not 100% sure difference between 840 black and 841 white).

40813950601_21ce093782_o_d.jpg

  • Like 1
  • 3 months later...
Posted

Do you know, I had taken on so many other projects that I had prettty much forgotten about this one. I've had an ebay search for the panel going for months with no joy yet. But I did see a video a few weeks ago where someone basically squeezed out the lcd bleed on an old lcd watch. I don't have much hope that it's going to work on this one but I will give it a go, nothing to lose and all that.

If anyone does come across a 4510840 lcd panel though, well you know who to tell...!

Posted
Was a Educatron . Five star movement from Hong Kong. So not the same. 

Thanks for checking Roger!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Posted
On 7/2/2018 at 6:23 PM, Pip said:

Do you know, I had taken on so many other projects that I had prettty much forgotten about this one. I've had an ebay search for the panel going for months with no joy yet. But I did see a video a few weeks ago where someone basically squeezed out the lcd bleed on an old lcd watch. I don't have much hope that it's going to work on this one but I will give it a go, nothing to lose and all that. 

If anyone does come across a 4510840 lcd panel though, well you know who to tell...!

Hiya Pip. I will keep an eye out. I'm looking for another one too as I have 1 more donor one to fix.
Your LCD looks to have a small crack in it.

I am afraid the parts will not come up easily as they are always the first part to crack. I think that people are a bit rough putting the battery in, or there is no shock protection on the case back when it is pressed in, resulting in a crack to the glass.

They are great watches, I've seen a few changes hands recently for only $100.

  • Like 1
  • Similar Content

  • Recently Browsing

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Topics

  • Posts

    • Interesting, thanks for the detailed post. I saw one of those Swiss Nano machines a while back in another youtube video from  the Weiss Watch Company.
    • Hello and welcome to the fo4um. Enjoy
    • Welcome to the forum, enjoy.
    • You're asking a pretty broad question and you didn't specify the machine but yes it's simple especially if you have the right machine. The question has problems but I'll take it as it is. Is it really that simple yes especially if you have the right machine. So in the video below he's making a screw and yes it really is that simple but pay attention to the machine it is not simple at all probably wasn't cheap but it is small it will probably fit in your garage. Unfortunately wouldn't fit in my garage as it's far too cluttered up with things. In the video he talks about making a screw and pay attention to the machine. The machine has lots and lots and lots of cutters and lots of things to do lots of machining all-in-one machine conceivably one step after another all programmable. If you look at his channel lots of CNC's stuff and there are several other videos related to this machine. He goes to the factory where they talk about it and show all the other machines they make in Switzerland.  I did look up the specifications the machine I don't recall the price it's not going to cut wheels I think it has a maximum diameter around 11 mm basically it's really good for making small diameter watch parts. Then in one of the other videos he goes to a factory that used to make parts with waterpowered machinery been in business for 100 years and everything they now make is made with CNC machines including this one. What was interesting with the factory photo was that when they make some parts they can put them on a optical comparator comparator compares with whatever the reference is and the machine can be programmed to adjust its cutting to make sure everything is actually being made to specifications. Oh and then somewhere in all of this there was at least one picture of a balance staff can't have a CNC Swiss machine without making balance staffs.   It would be really nice if we had pictures of the machine. Then yes if you look at the page for wheel cutting you can enter parameters and it will generate a G code but he left out things? Notice he has a picture of a complete wheel but the G code isn't making a complete wheel it's only cutting the gear teeth I don't see whereas the program for crossing out the spokes? Typically when you see people cutting gears once the teeth are cut most the time the spokes are cut by hand. Occasionally someone will mill them out but typically not with the program which seems strange if you have CNC capability for instance one of my friends fill it used to design assembly line equipment or things to make things. So his hobby was to continue to make tools to make things like clocks. Very interesting and clever clocks but his true fund was making the machines to make the clocks. Then machine is not controlled by G code like we would typically find today as the stepping motor controller he has was made a long time ago and the individual controllers used a textbased program. So the company had a editor you could write a program to cause each the stepping motors to do something. So basically once you figure out how to cut a gear he would just change the parameters for different size gears so here's an example of a gear as you can see we have the teeth and the spokes. Then we have a picture the machine which sucks because it would've been so much nicer if I could've taken a picture when it was cutting a gears so we can see things better. Then yes there is a worm gear stepping motor indexing this is a mini lathe and the indexing is at the end of the lathe head hiding. The basic operation of this machine would be brass sheet not cut to a specific diameter size not even round mounted on the machine. Then it turns and a milling cutter will cut the diameter. Then the gear would be cut with a gear cutter. The same mill cutter for the diameter although conceivably change the size I don't know but basically the same milling for cutting the outer diameter would be used to cut the spokes. I really can't remember how he did the center hole but whatever it was was very precise.          
    • Yeah I know the site and the creator of it.  the two video clips are good examples of the quicker method and a full tear down.  the quick method will work in many cases. But not always and not for all the different movements.  I strongly suggest to not bend the four tabs as was done in the first clip.  Instead there are three tabs that insert into the top plate, Much saver way as to not break a tab.
×
×
  • Create New...