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Discovering & Restoring a 70's Seiko 5

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Hello! It's been a while since my last post in the community. All this time i was trying to restore an old Seiko watch that i discover about two months ago in the old market of Athens city. Whenever i am in the city i like to pass by the market under the temple of Parthenon where you can find a lot of old used stuff like furniture, tools, jewels and watches..! One day while digging among a lot of crappy broken quartz watches and used straps, i noticed this old automatic Seiko 5. Full of scratches, dirt and with a distorted dial but when i shake it was actually working. After some discussion with the store man i managed to buy it for 20 euros.
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When I got home I start cleaning the watch case, I used polish paste on the crystal to remove several scratches and make it shiny again and I put it on a brown leather strap so it was already looking much better. When i opened the watch case i noticed that the movement was in good condition and there was two service marks since 1993 and 1998. My next step was to calculate it's accuracy with the same method i used in "Regulating a Vintage Chinese Movement" post. There i notice that the watch was running slow so i tried to regulate it but after several attends the movement stopped and i could not make it run again... I did a lot of research on the internet and found some people that had the same problem after trying to regulate a Seiko watch but there was not any clear solution.
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Recently i also got a repair tool kit but in that case i didn't want to go farther with the watch since i have zero experience and i would probably just cause more damage to it, so i decided to give it to a professional repair man. After examining the watch he said that he would try to service and repair it for 30 euros so I agreed. Then i had to wait for several weeks and do a lot of phone calls before i get it back but fortunately after a long waiting the watch was fixed and the last thing he said was that "your Seiko now Flies!" While i got it back i measured it's accuracy again and this time it was running great (+18 sec/day)
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Except of the history of Seiko brand i am also interested on the personal history ( or even tragedy ) of a watch it self, especially when it comes from the 70's. I think that the final spend of 50 euros to get it bought and repaired was fair enough and the clear age marks on it (even the logo is distorted) makes it kind of special. Every time I look at it I feel happy that I managed to give extra life time to a timepiece like this and I can't really wear anything else on my wrist these days!
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JRfromFrance
6
Feb 29, 2020
Thank you for this post. I've also bought an old seiko that needs professionnal cares. For a reasonnable price, he made it great again ! About 40 €
RayF
22214
Feb 9, 2020
Next time you're rummaging around in the old market, keep your eye out for either of these--I'm interested in both:
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