Seiko 7A38 - by the numbers

My (finally) put back together 7A38-6080 got its first wrist time today:

Another Franken today.

This is the the dial and hands (well, apart from the seconds sub-dial) from a 7A28-7009 into the case and tachyring of a 7A28-7079.

The sub-dial hand change was an interesting afterthought.

While sorting out my numerous boxes of bits, I came across a set of hands I'd bought off ebay, none of them for the 7Axx range but purely as a speculation. Anyway, the hour hands I've bought look like they fit and look OK, but the minute hands are too long, and the seconds (chrono) hands look horrible!! I also bought 6 of the sub-dial hands, all in fluo orange. Hmmmmm.

I though maybe this was the opportunity to try one out. So, out of the watch box comes the franken and lo and behold what do I notice but that the 6pm sub-dial hand has actually fallen off - how weird is that??

(I've only had one hand that I've fitted fall off, and I must have fitted over a 100 by now).

Anyway, here it is ...................... 

A literally very quick and dirty shot of my newest incoming 7A38 (arrived yesterday) a rather neglected stainless 7A38-7000 SAA007J. 

All I've done with it so far is to fit a crown and stem and add a couple of spare bracelet adjustment links. Still needs the stem trimming exactly to length; a new crystal and a damned good clean (it's filthy). But it's got possibilities. Not bad for 40 Quid + postage, eh ? 

I had a feeling this one might turn out nicely. 

This afternoon I'm wearing the same stainless 7A38-7000 which I've just finished nailing back together, after a good strip-down / clean:

The most nerve-wracking part was very carefully cleaning the greasy finger-marks and unidentified sticky residue off the dial face, from where the previous owner had been dropping the movement in and out to adjust the time and chrono' hands (the crown was missing and the stem broken off almost flush with the movement). See listing. Lord knows how long he'd been abusing the watch like that. 

So for an intial outlay of 40 Quid and less than a Tenner's worth of bits: Sternkreuz MSM325 crystal, new crown and stem, pusher seals and case-back gasket, battery and spring bars, I've got myself another that's going to join my pool of regular daily wearers. 

A couple of very Q&D 'as recieved' photos of my newest incoming bargain basement bling-meister - Yup another Yema N81W63:

At the end of a long day, I managed to get finally my last arrival working perfectly, and make a wrist shot of my 7A48-7000:

Start the week with a 7A28-703B

A nice autumn sunny day, and again my newly restored (not yet 100%) 7A48-7000:

(the day is set wrong, I know...)

Another bright sunny day here in Berlin, so I thought I might take the 7A34 / 7A38 Franken out for a walk...

Today the black Bond 7A28-702A

Kinda quiet in here lately.  So please don't complain about me (re)posting this for the umpteenth time. It's better than nothing. 

IMHO, it's better than most Seiko 7A38's too.  My favourite 'grande bleu' Yema Spationaute III Aragatz N80P76 on Fleurus shark:

Never gonna complain about that, you can be sure... 

You'd be well within your rights to complain about the next one, George.  Not only a less-than-ideal photo (due to the poor light) ....

But a damned ugly watch ! The fruits of my morning's labours - I give you my lastest 7A38-7000 'ongoing bitza-beater resto' project',

henceforth to be known as El Caracortada.

I think that means it's got character in Spanish. 

Today has been another industrious day of tinkering.

I finally got round to bringing this back to life -  its a 7A38-727B.

I'll do a write up on what I had to do to fix it a bit later on.

Alongside my structured tinkering, I also went for another franken permutation.

The dial and sub-dial hands from a 7A28-7080, the case, bracelet and tachyring from a 7A28-7079 and to be honest I'm not sure where the main hands came from.

Anyway, it scores well on legibility and it was always going to be a beater at best given the stretch to the bracelet and the wear & tear to the case.

Not what I'm wearing today myself (still the beater 7A38-7000 'El Caracortada') ....

But a wrist shot which forum member 'Le Racou' emailed me, asking me to post for him ('cos I asked him for one). 

This is Dave's stainless 7A38-7270 which I did some work on a couple of weekends ago. See thread in the Workshop section.

Cheers, Dave. Or should I say - Slàinte 

Monday, Monday!

Well it feels a little better with this guy ticking on my wrist!.

Kent

Excuse the poorly lit Q&D shot of my Cartier Ferrari Formula Cal. 531, but I thought while I had it out, I might as well rattle one off. 

What may look like a ding in the bezel at approx '350' on the Tachymeter scale is actually a tiny chip right on the edge of the crystal.

Reason I'd got the watch out was to try tightening up the case-back properly, using WatchmeHK's new prototype tool. See the thread.

Hi everyone! Finally friday and a box in my post box. In the box my new loupe and the +-battery conector i bought from CousinsUK. Thank you a lot for the tip Paul. Now all of the 7a´s are running strong!!! Really Happy!!

Have not been wearing them all today, only my new favourite the 7a38-6010. Sorry for the bad focus.

Wish you all a nice weekend!

Regards Kent

Sunny Sunday today in Berlin, hope it lasts for the entire day... Anyway, here what I am wearing today: my new purchase 7A28-703A with a black/blue simil NATO strap I had in my box of throw-aways...

The strap is a tad too small, being the lugs 20mm apart and the strap only 18mm, but I put it nevertheless since I wanted to see how it looked like. Not bad, after all... I only need to buy a properly sized nato strap with the same color combination, since it is harder than I thought to find the original bracelet.

The color combination does not look too bad...