Reply With QuoteCould be worth just regulating it. I regulated my 30 month old skx009 last week. Got it from -40 secs to +3 with some patience and a helpful YouTube video. If you have access to a timegrapher it's not complicated.
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As per the title, my 3½ year old, second generation, Orange Monster has recently started losing a lot of time. It was a constant 7 sec/day (very annoying, why couldn't it be fast?) for about three years, but over the last few months that's increased by a couple of seconds a month. It's now losing 17 seconds per day.
Obviously a service is in order. Do my learned colleagues here have any recommendations, or is the Seiko service centre in Maidenhead as good as anywhere for this?
Could be worth just regulating it. I regulated my 30 month old skx009 last week. Got it from -40 secs to +3 with some patience and a helpful YouTube video. If you have access to a timegrapher it's not complicated.
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I had my Monster serviced by Jody (Watchkings) who sells the service via eBay. This was my feedback from last year. Was very satisfied and would use again.
https://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.p...-Seiko-Service
Dave
Thanks for the recommendation. I have a few vintage divers needing attention.Originally Posted by helidoc
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Regulating Seikos is one of my least favourite jobs. Even with a timegrapher it's never easy, the regulator is always stiff and it's nigh-on impossible to move it by a tiny increment. Got one on the bench at the moment that's proving to be a challenge.
It's an art I've honed on a few vintage 7002 divers. I take pride in my ability to incrementally nudge. ;-)
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I can incrementally nudge with the best if them! When I clean the balance cock I work the regulator back and forth to ease the action, but it doesn’t always help much. Seikos always seem to give problems in this respect.
The one on my bench is a good example. The watch is running well, but it’s running a bit faster dial- up than on the wrist. That in itself isn’t a big problem and it’s as good as can be expected from this grade of watch considering the age. However, trying to increase the rate by 1 or 2 secs/day to give the best overall compromise is nigh- on impossible, attempts to move the regulator end up with the original setting being lost. Here’s where an expensive timegrapher would help, by taking an average rate over 1 minute; unfortunately my cheapo Chinese machine doesn’t have this capability, mine takes a reading based on a few seconds. The watch in question is an old one, the timegrapher trace isn’t exactly rock- steady, so the measured rate is varying by a couple of seconds.
On the wrist, this watch is running at +/- zero, dial- up it’s running at +12. Ideally I’d set this to run at around -2 to -3 on the wrist ; based in 16 hrs wear and 8 hrs dial -up this would give an overall rate of +1 to +3 , which would please most people. Fine- tuning the regulation like this really does help to get the best out if a watch, particularly if the performance if the watch isn't brilliant owing to the age ( wear and tear) or the grade of movement, but it’s a whole lot harder to do when the watch isn’t easy to regulate. The best watches in this respect are thise with swan- neck regulators, it’s so easy to turn the tiny screw by a small amount in the right direction and effect a small change.
Lack of hand- winding doesn’t help Seiko timekeeping, if the owner isn’t very active there’s a chance the watch will end up running in a low state of wind even if it’s worn regularly. This is a real problem with older less mobile owners. Ideally, the watch would be fully hand- wound, then the daily movement if the owner would keep the power reserve topped up and enable the watch to always be above 50% fully wound. This isn’t possible, Seikos rely on the owner being active enough to get the watch fully wound by movement. Even if the watch keeps running the amplitude may be low and consequently the rate can be variable, so the less active owner will see a different overall performance from the same watch compared to an active person.
Paul
I have noticed how inconsistent cheap Seikos are in terms of their readouts. This inherently constrains the ability to nail their regulation. Once the beat error is 0.3 or better I've found face up with a c. +8s per day readout gets close to 0 on the wrist performance.
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Sounds about right!
For the price, Seikos can be 'tuned' to give very good performance, but there are limitations. Getting the basics right (beat error corrected, hairspring centralised between the curb pins etc) they're usually fairly good.
The latest versions have a regulator and balance spring mounting that's almost identical to the ETA Etrachron...........unfortunately the Etachron adjusting tool doesn`t fit!
Paul
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