Seiko 7A38 - by the numbers

I suppose I could have written this up in the Bend it, Mend it - Mods & Wreckers Workshop forum section, but as most of the background is already documented in this forum section and it's related to my last post, here is close enough for me.

As I've written a few times before, of all the slightly quirky Kamatz 5xx000 variants, the 518000 Oscar Bravo is my favourite. Unfortunately, I don't have that many of them in my collection - from memory, only 3 or 4 (without checking) compared with at least 4 or maybe even 5 times as many of the far more common 517000 variant.

One that has eluded me so far is the 'Panda' dialed 518000 Oscar Bravo. I'd never seen one offered for sale anywhere, before today. I knew that this variant existed, from this small photo which I'd saved (as a .bmp file), as far back as April 2012.

The only other place I'd seen one was in this collage image on David Attias' failed Vintage Soda Kickstarter website (you'll need to scroll a long way down the page to 'The family behind the watch' section, to find it).

As you may have guessed it had become something of a 'grail' in my eyes. Not just because of my suffering from 'Pokemon syndrome' (Gotta catch 'em all) mentality, but because it was undeniably an attractive variant.

Eventually one cropped up on eBay yesterday evening, listed by a US eBay seller.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133497841147

Apart from the ludicrous $600 'pie-in-the-sky' Buy-it-Now asking price, this example is only in average worn condition. Typically, much of the bezel numbering inlay paint is missing, the case back scuffed, etc. Had the seller been asking $199.99 instead of $599.99, I might have considered making them an offer. It's not difficult to re-paint the bezel markings - I've re-touched a couple before.

So instead, I've decided to save myself a few hundred dollars and recreate one for myself. Fortunately, I already have the basic ingredients, to enable me to cobble one together, relatively quickly, for a fraction of the price. 

Here are the potential donor candidates, all of which I've bought comparatively and occasionally very cheaply off eBay in the States, over the last couple of years.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/122630729543

(That 518000 was fitted with the wrong case-back, off a 517000, per the listing title).

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/232902626503

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/283123685564

That one was quite the bargain buy for just $20. 

As a result of an ongoing refurbishment programme*, which I started last Spring, those three Kamatz's no longer exist in their original purchased forms / condition. Their dials / movements were subsequently transplanted into NOS 517000 cases.

*Incidentally, that refurbishment exercise involved my deliberately breaking up half a dozen NOS 'Reverse Panda' Kamatz 517000's for parts, all of which were suffering from degraded sub-dials to some degree or other. These provided the NOS watch cases and also a source of spare hands and movements. Sounds a bit callous, I'll concede, but it had to be done, I'm afraid.

In fact, I'd somehow managed to end up with three 'Panda' dialed 517000's (and a 'Ladies / Boys' 507000). The one that I'd temporarily forgotten about was an earlier refurbishment I'd done, back in July 2012. It was this well-worn example which I purchased off eBay in the States for $68 at the end of June 2012.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251090846327

Vintage Kamatz Chronograph Watch

The dial wasn't too bad, but had evidently suffered from moisture ingress though the crown. The lume on the hour and minute hands was slightly discoloured. The plating of some hour batons are also slightly tarnished (better visible in the next photo).

I rebrushed the watch case and bezel and re-painted the missing bezel markings.

I guess I was pleased with it at the time. This old wrist shot is possibly too flattering.

Since it had been supplanted in my Kamatz collection by two almost mint examples, I'd packed it in a jiffy bag and chucked it in the cardboard box, which contained the discarded worn 517000 cases, intending to do 'something' with it later. I dug it out again this morning. Transpires I'd already written my intentions on the jiffy bag. 

Seeing that one listed on eBay yesterday, gave me the prompt I obviously needed.

Quick first pass effort: the dial / movement from my original Kamatz 517000 Panda installed in what is possibly the better of the two 518000 Oscar Bravo watch cases.

The bezel inlay numbering is pretty much all present, apart from the lower part of the 3 at 30. The red triangle between 60 and 65 needs re-painting and the tip of the one at 10 needs re-touching. The crystal has a light but annoyingly just perceptible scratch, diagonally above the 30-minute counting sub-dial, so needs replacing.

The hour and minute hands, with their slightly discoloured lume need replacing. I checked the chronograph functions to determine whether everything worked. It did - almost.  As you may be able to discern from that photo, the 30-minute counter has stopped - jammed solid @ 11 minutes, almost exaclty where it was in the US eBay seller's original listing photo. So that hasn't fixed itself and still needs investigating.

When I wrote: is possibly the better of the two 518000 Oscar Bravo watch cases, that's a moot point. It may look OK in my photo, from that angle, but there's some serious rust around the 2 and 10 o'clock pushers and between the lugs on the 12 o'clock end of the watch case. Some of it may be relatively easy to remove with a rotary wire brush. Excuse fingers. 

The other 518000 Oscar Bravo watch case (with the incorrect 517000 case-back) is much better in that respect. Unfortunately, it has taken a heavy knock to one of the lugs, resulting in a noticeable flat, right on the double curved end, which no amount of re-brushing will ever disguise.

In hindsight, it was clearly visible in a couple of the US eBay seller's listing photos. (The full set can be found on page 25 of the Yema N7's and N8's spotted thread).

However, that watch case has (or should I say had) a slightly better bezel, which I've already started re-touching. You can probably guess where this is heading.