Seiko 7A38 - by the numbers

My 7A38-7070.

Better late than never (it's a long story - of more anon), I've been wearing this NOS stainless 7A38-7270 SAA093J this morning. 

To cut what could have been a very long story short .... This really was yet another instance of me definitely not needing another one. I actually bought it for someone else - a work colleague. It was listed on eBay in the States in mid-March (as 'NOS'). Part of the seller's description read:

The watch obviously is untested as has never been used since was new. Will need new battery installed as it has died.

It was listed using eBay's dysfunctional (non-functional in the case of Seiko's) GSP programme, which meant that once again I had to avail myself of the most excellent forwarding service of forum member PHK (Paul in Vegas).  Due to the shipping delays caused by Covid-19, no fault of Paul's, it didn't arrive in UK until 14th April. Unfortunately, as sometimes happens, when I put a new battery in it, the time was as dead as a the proverbial dodo.  I informed my work colleague of the bad news. He obviously wasn't very happy and asked for his money back. Fair enough.

I was going to swap another 722L dial / movement into it, but needed to send the defective movement off to Simon ('Sir Alan') anyway, which I did a couple of days later. As usual, Simon did an excellent job. His strip and re-build album is HERE.

It wasn't just a case of the usual 'old sticky oil' syndrome; the movement had a damaged 3rd wheel. Simon finished re-building the movement earlier this week; it arrived back this morning and I duly re-installed it in the NOS watch case. If you don't bother browsing Simon's superb re-build photos, there is one worth noting:

Yup - that accuracy test reads +/- 0.00 seconds per day. 

Saturday means Spationaute.  Wearing one of my 'beater' Yema Spationaute III Aragatz's with the 'limited edition' Mission Flags dial, fitted with a dark navy Fleurus shark strap this morning.

As it was slightly overcast outside this morning, I thought I'd make another attempt at snapping a wrist shot or two of my recently acquired NOS JDM 7A38-6050 SJS058. Attractive as it may be, I don't think there's a more difficult model to photograph. You're constantly trying to avoid reflections from the domed crystal, but still need to get enough light to fall on the dial to illuminate the detail for the auto-focus. Looks like I failed again. But what the heck, here they are anyway:

Over the years, when their eBay prices were a lot lower than they are today, I'd bought a number of the less popular common-or-garden two-tone and gold-tone 7A38 variants, with the sole intention of deliberately breaking them up for spare parts. Sometimes I was just looking for a working movement or a better condition case or bracelet, to refurbish and improve an existing example in my collection. In doing so, I ended up with a stack of plastic takeaway boxes containing a number of partly disassembled watches.

With the much extended shipping times due to Covid-19 restrictions, I've virtually stopped altogether buying any more watches since the end of March. Instead, I'm concentrating on whittling down my stack of unfinished projects, during which time I've revisited these 'parts watches'. Perhaps I'm mellowing in my old age, because despite having an almost mint example in my collection, I've just re-assembled this two-tone 7A38-7280 SAA120J from those 'boxes of bits'. It's got a couple of very light scuffs on the bottom R.H. corner of watch case and clasp cover, but not so noticeable as to warrant refinishing.

While I was still in a reconstructive frame of mind, my next job was re-assembling this gold-tone 7A38-7289 SAA112J - back to almost its original configuration. I'd converted it into a Franken some years ago (using the dark-ish 718L dial from a 7A38-725A), but was never happy with the result and subsequently dismantled it. 'Almost original' because the bracelet's missing a few adjustment links, so it's fitted with a 5-hole Seiko clasp, in place of the short non-adjustable one.

Wearing my 'beater' 7A38-7070 SAA031J (fitted with Yobokies' repro' bezel insert) this morning.

This morning I'm wearing one of my 'second string' 7A38-7010 SAA001J's, which returned from a movement service at the very capable hands of Simon ('Sir Alan') earlier this week. 

Just quickly trying on another 7A38 whose movement I'd had serviced by Simon ('Sir Alan') at the same time, which also came back earlier this week. Except it didn't look quite like this when I sent it to him.  It had been festering, neglected for 18 months, in my stack of unstarted projects. I've just swapped the dial / movement and (all-important, in this application) case-back into a better condition 7A38-728x two-tone case and bracelet. Not quite the 'common-or-garden' two tone 7A38-7280 (like I posted a week ago) that it might first appear to be ....

This is the somewhat scarcer 7A38-728B SAA136J UEFA EURO 88 'limited edition'.

Saturday means Spationaute III - this one, which I gave the pet name 'Old Yeller' (for obvious reasons) hadn't seen the light of day in a long time. The garish yellow gommatex strap is a discontinued Morellato 'Kajak'.

Here's a couple of Q&D wrist shots of my recently acquired stainless 7A38-6020 SAA041J, which I've almost finished fettling earlier this morning. I'll write up the full detail of the strip and re-build presently. 

Please excuse the couple of bits of lint, dust, dead skin (whatever) in the second photo. I was in a rush to get a couple of shots in before the sun got too high (trying to avoid reflections off the domed crystal). 

Wearing an old favourite of mine this morning: my very subtly modded 7A38-7070 'Franken', fitted with the all black 709L dial from a 7A38-7080 and handset from a 7A28-7040 / -7049.

Many years ago (on the old Network54 SCWF) as something of a newbie, I opined how ugly I thought the 7A38-6060 SAA071J was. I'm still of the same opinion, but I do wear them occasionally. 

7A38-7020 fresh from an ultrasonic bath (case and bracelet) and a new crystal installed. 

That cleaned up nicely, Andrei. My '£100 Quid eBay cheap beater' says Hello.

Wearing this common-or-garden (but almost mint) stainless 7A38-7289 SAA109J.

Sub-titled 'Bank Holiday Beater'.  

Wearing this 'el cheapo' 7T32 BreitBling clone - a Racer (Orient) HFA019-70 this morning. Picked it up as a non-runner, off the Spanish classified site Todocoleccion last month for a mere 9 Euros:

http://www.todocoleccion.net/relojes-racer/reloj-racer-caballero~x199723468

It had suffered what appeared to be a fairly serious battery leak, but fortunately it was mostly the dry white powdery residue, rather than 'acid'. After cleaning up the mess yesterday afternoon and fitting a new battery surprisingly everything worked, including the alarm - and seeing as it was still running this morning, keeping perfect time, I thought I'd wear it for at least 5 minutes. 

Here's another of those 'el cheapo' 7T32 BreitBling clones, which I finished fettling this lunchtime. This one - in a slightly incongruous two-tone finish, but almost NOS condition, is a RACER model HFA018-70. Again it came from the Spanish classified site Todocoleccion and was slightly more expensive @ 14 Euros !! 

http://www.todocoleccion.net/relojes-racer/reloj-racer-chronograph-100m-no-funciona-pero-nuevo-estrenar~x202647225

Briefly wearing this borderline fugly Yema N80P896 'Pseudo Plongeur' this morning. I only got it out of the watch box to replace the battery. Honest. 

Wearing this 7A38-701B SAA005J 'Vulcan' this lovely sunny Sunday morning.