Seiko 7L22 Kinetic - recalibration

[Jpshell]

I’ve just received a very nice condition Seiko SNL017 Sportura (cal. 7L22). I know one or two guys here have this watch so I am hoping I can find an answer to a quick tech question.

The watch is in great condition and seems to be working fine. No box or instructions although Seiko have very kindly said they will send me both but after finding the instructions online it doesn’t cover this question....recalibration.

The large chrono/ second hand is off centre (not by much) and whilst I have found a few “how to recalibrate a chrono” videos i can’t find one for this movement and none of the other instructions seems to work.

Any owners or those more technically minded than me know if you can recalibrate and/ or realign the hands on this model and of so how? I’m hoping it isn’t a Seiko repair job.

I did buy off eBay but I don’t want to raise as an issue if it’s just a simple case of resetting

Ta

[Thewatchbloke]

The calibre 7L22 has a heartcam flyback chronograph mechanism so you'll need to remove the hand and reposition it, which isn't as simple as it sounds with Seiko's "D" shaped chronograph pinions unfortunately!

[Jpshell]

Oh, that was what I feared when I couldn’t find anything on the web. I think I can put up with it for a while but sounds like something for Seiko - as its never had a capacitor change, it’s probably coming up for a service anyway


Thanks for reply

[walkerwek1958]

The calibre 7L22 has a heartcam flyback chronograph mechanism so you'll need to remove the hand and reposition it, which isn't as simple as it sounds with Seiko's "D" shaped chronograph pinions unfortunately!

Came across this issue recently on a mechanical Seiko, tried to reposition a sweep seconds hand that had been refitted wrongly, couldn't understand why it wouldn't respond to the normal method of correction. After looking very closely I realised the centre seconds pinion had a flat on it which had imprinted onto the pipe of the seconds hand. I worked around it by broaching the pipe very slightly, the hand sat slightly lower slightly lower (still enough clearance) but I`d removed the indentation in the pipe so the hand could now fit where I wanted it.

Stupid idea IMO, never come across this on other movements.