007 - Tissot PR516, with unexpected details

 007 - Tissot PR516

 A lot of us in the watch hobby are aware of the fact that Tissot and Omega are quite closely related, one good example is the Tissot 2481 which is the same movement as the Omega 1481. Even the 10xx Omega's can sometimes be found branded as Tissot.

I have this Tissot and while handling it recently I noticed that its bracelet clasp is signed Omega. Cool but I did not think anything about it... watch straps are easily swapped.

   Over the weekend I decided to look into the quickset which wasn't ...quicksetting. On this calibre, the quickset is by pushing in the crown. I decased the movement and cycled the quickset, my initial guess was that the stem was cut a hair too short and the crown did not have enough travel to activate the quickset. With the movement out of the case and the crown having unrestricted movement the issue with the quickset remained so it needed some further investigation under the dial. As I am a bit swamped with watch work I decided to reinstall the movement and come back to it some other time.

On blowing the inside of the case out with my puffer, I happened to notice this, the little Omega cartouche in the middle of the crystal inner. You will find this on most original acrylic crystals. I've never seen this before on Tissots.

Next I re-examined the caseback...

Normal Tissot at first glance but it looked a bit unusual.

It seemed like it had been machined and then restamped.  On closer examination, I can make out a mark in the area circled below, can you see it?

Its a bit hard to see in the pic and even with the caseback in hand you really need to have the light at the correct angle but the Omega logo can be faintly seen!

My guess is that there were a surplus of cases/bands which was diverted to Tissot which then machined off the existing markings and engraved their own logo and numbers.

Anyway hope you guys enjoy this insight into the Tissot/Omega relationship!

Anilv

    

006 - Seiko 5625-7000 KING SEIKO

 006 Seiko 5625-7000 KING SEIKO

Royalty in the house, yes no less than a King Seiko.

You have probably heard of Grand Seiko, the top of the line Seiko watch currently which had its roots back in the 60s but there was also the King Seiko of which you can read a brief history of King Seiko in this website. 

I am not a fan of gold plated watches as the plating usually wears off and leaves the underlying base metal visible but in this particular case (no pun intended) the watch doesn't look too bad. The only worn areas are the top surface of the bezel at around the 2 and 6 o'clock position. There is also some wear on the case edge visible in the photo below But it's not discernible when the watch is worn. 

One nice touch is the KS marked crown.

In keeping with the high levels of accuracy expected of this watch, there is a small screw between the bottom lugs. This screw is used to adjust the rate, ie to increase or reduce the rate of the watch. Pretty neat touch but why go to this trouble when it's much easier to just remove the back and move the regulator?

Well the reason is this watch has a fixed caseback and to get to the regulator you would need to remove the whole movement. The caseback helpfully tells you to 'OPEN THRU GLASS, PUSH SET LEVER, PULL STEM'. 

The caseback also has a gold medallion, just like the Grand Seiko. In my example someone has had a go at getting the medallion off but they didn't get very far, most of it is still on the watch. Wonder what glue Seiko used.

It is powered by a Seiko 5625 which is a pretty decent movement running at 28,800 beats per hour (hence the Hi-Beat on the dial) but is has one well known weakness. The date corrector (for the quickset) is made of plastic and prone to crack when the plastic shrinks. Even brand new unused (NOS) parts are cracked. It is possible to repair this part with a homemade part and there was someone selling replacement correctors but you will need to dismantle the actual component to fit it. 

On my watch the quickset is broken. The date will still changeover at midnight but you have to wind it forward (or backwards) to get to the correct date. On some watches you can wind it back to around 8pm and wind it forwards as a short-cut but on this movement the date just goes back and forth.

Picture of the  movement below from Ranfft's excellent website.

You can read more about the 56xx movement in this blog.

Overall it is a nice elegant watch and even though I haven't serviced it, it is running at a consistent +7secs/day. I will eventually get around to it but parts for this model are quite hard to come by so it may be a while!