008 - Seiko 5 6309-7320
Up today is a Seiko 5 with a 6309 movement which I got for about USD10 in a flea-market here in Kuala Lumpur. It was just the watch head without its strap and wasn't running. I am a sucker for the 6xxx series of Seiko movements and I figured even if it wasn't running I should be able to salvage a few parts off it.
The first problem was the caseback was stuck and my usual tool could not get it open. One solution is to superglue a nut to the caseback and then open it with a spanner. I got hold of a 17mm flanged nut and glued that to the caseback. One thing you should take note when doing this is to ensure that none of the superglue gets into the joint between the case and caseback for obvious reasons. Once the glue had gone off I then held the case in a clamp and used a ring spanner to unbolt. The first attempt failed, probably because I have used that particular nut before and there were still traces of the old glue on the nut. I vent over it with a grinder to give a good surface for the glue to stick to and tried to get the caseback as clean as possible. The second attempt went well and the caseback came off to reveal the 6309 movement in decent nick, even the automatic rotor bearing was fine. This is a common failure point on the 6xxx series of movements and spares are not available.
The movement was cleaned and oiled and has been running steadily at around -23 seconds/day. I will keep wearing it for a few more days before I do the final regulating of the timing to get it running at around +5sec/day.
The watch originally had a flat hardlex crystal, I did not have a correct one in stock so I used a normal plastic crystal. Looks OK compared to the scratched one that was in there before.
In the above picture you can see the caseback has a lot of scratches where I had to use a knife to get rid of the old superglue. Alcohol should dissolve superglue but the price of alcohol has gone up a lot so I will just resort to scraping off the glue and will eventually sand it and polish the caseback.
The watch came without a band but the same flea-market turned up a water damaged Seiko 5 for around USD2.5. The bracelet was a decent enough fit so on it went.
All in this watch cost me less than USD15 and as long as I keep it away from water it should work well for the next ten years or so!
