The ONE and ONLY WRUW thread - Part Deux !

7A28, 7A38 and 7A48 (plus 7A34, 7A36, 7A07 and 7A54)
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Seiko7A38
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Re: The ONE and ONLY WRUW thread - Part Deux !

Post by Seiko7A38 »

I'm wearing this long since self-refurbished 'restored beater' 7A38-7029 SAA013J this morning. It's appropriate as I'm presently writing up the preface before continuing the long over-due updates to the 7A38-7020 'Rusto-Mod' thread. ;)

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PS - that isn't a flaw on the 'R' of SPORTS, but a tiny raindrop that landed on the crystal, causing distortion. ;)

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Re: The ONE and ONLY WRUW thread - Part Deux !

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Received this 7A38-7250 from FedEx at 9 AM today. My first 7A38 and first 'collectible' that I've purchased. But at $89, I couldn't resist. The other 5 watches I own were either gifts or inherited, plus an everyday, $50 beater.

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Re: The ONE and ONLY WRUW thread - Part Deux !

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Continuing in dress-down mode. Wearing my absolute worst condition stainless 7A38-7000 SAA007J 'beater' this morning. Pretty it ain't. :( It goes by the pet name 'El Caracortada' for obvious reasons. If you've not seen it before, its evolution / restoration / re-build whatever, is documented in this thread in the old forum's Workshop section.

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Incidentally, it very nearly received a slightly better 700L dial / movement transplant at the weekend, which amusingly might have reunited the well-worn watch case with its original dial / movement. See this post, towards the bottom of the previous page. But having pondered for a while, I relented and undid the 'Green Oak' Franken, which I was in two minds about anyway - and reverted to the previous status quo. :mrgreen:

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Re: The ONE and ONLY WRUW thread - Part Deux !

Post by Seiko7A38 »

Continuing in dress-down mode. :P This morning I'm wearing one of my cheapest stainless 7A38-7270 SAA093J beaters.
I purchased this example many years ago - more by luck than judgement (I didn't anticipate winning the German eBay auction), on Christmas Eve 2014, for the bargain price of € 13.27 (then equivalent to under a Tenner). :)

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I managed to find my screen print of the ended eBay auction summary in my PhotoBucket:

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Re: The ONE and ONLY WRUW thread - Part Deux !

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Here's a blast from my inglorious collecting past. This is the infamous SpeedTimerKollektion 7A38-7020 Franken, which I foolishly purchased as an inexperienced newbie way back in March 2009, believing it to be a 'rare' previously unseen variant. I'd summarily failed to read any of the extremely negative reviews and salutary warnings about this notorious Philippines-based watch-botching outfit that had already been posted on the old Network54 SCWF and RLT UK forums.

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Believe it or not, I've actually made a couple of cosmetic improvements to the 'as received' condition. I had to replace the battery this morning, so thought I'd do another 'Walk of Shame'. :oops: (We've all got to start somewhere.) As readers may be aware, I subsequently built myself a rather better cloned version of it, using the same 'split-dial' technique, which I'm quite proud of. 8-) I've thought about selling this watch a few times over the years, indeed once posted a spoof FS advert, but have kept it as poignant reminder of what to avoid.

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Re: The ONE and ONLY WRUW thread - Part Deux !

Post by jamesam »

Serial number suggests it might be from 1938, or maybe 1948. I haven't been able to identify the precise model. Case says 14K. I'm the fourth owner in my family --the first was a grandfather who bought it "used" and nonworking, and he repaired it himself.
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Re: The ONE and ONLY WRUW thread - Part Deux !

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Wearing this much travelled 7A38-702H SAA014J, that I purchased back in April 2009, from a longtime member of SCWF.

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Re: The ONE and ONLY WRUW thread - Part Deux !

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Wearing this NOS Yema Spationaute III Aragatz, model # N80P76, on this grey overcast blue SATurday morning. Image
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I have a few other NOS examples in my collection, but I got this one out and wore it for probably only the second time since I acquired it in February 2018. Like the ludicrously over-priced example listed yesterday by a French eBay seller, I purchased it from US eBay seller watchaddict412. IIRC, I paid $400 for this one (compared to his $405). ;)

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Re: The ONE and ONLY WRUW thread - Part Deux !

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Seiko7A38 wrote: Sun May 16, 2021 10:08 am What follows blue SATurdays ? Red SUNdays, naturally. 8-)
I'm rapidly running out of ideas (and watches) to keep this red SUNday theme going. :roll: So on this dull grey overcast decidedly unsunny Sunday morning I had to dig deep into one of my collection boxes to find this Franken Ferrari 7A38, that I nailed together, for a bit of fun, over 10 years ago.

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The dial and hands are genuine NOS Cartier Ferrari items, but those red sub-dial hands were used on a different model. The watch case is from a two-tone 7A38-7060, but fitted with a NOS gold-plated bezel from a 7A28-7020. The matching red leather strap, with yellow stitching and strap keepers is a 20mm Kuki 'Fun' (still available from WatchBandCentre).

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The silliness continues inside. :P I stuck a 1:43 scale photo-etched Ferrari script and Prancing Horse on the back-plate, where they'd be (printed in black) on a pukka Cal. 531 movement. Not the best of photos, but it gives you the idea:

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Re: The ONE and ONLY WRUW thread - Part Deux !

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Sunday afternoon swap for something a little more subdued (and grey to match the skies). I was rooting through some boxes and found this two-tone 7A38-7060, which I don't even remember buying. It was a head only and to my surprise, once I'd fitted a new battery, worked flawlessly. For want of anything better, I fitted another of those grey teju lizard straps that I normally use on my two-tone 7A38-7260's.

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Re: The ONE and ONLY WRUW thread - Part Deux !

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Just for a bit of devilment, I thought I'd dig out my stainless 7A38-7060 SAA015J. This poorly lit wrist shot barely does justice to its almost mint condition, nor for that matter, shows the true dial colour (a silvery white) particularly well.

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It still has a clean JWCII sticker on the case-back and the SQ clasp is virtually unmarked. I'd posit that it compares favourably with Giuseppe's ludicrously over-priced 'NOS' example (asking €1500). Except mine was rather cheaper. :P

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Re: The ONE and ONLY WRUW thread - Part Deux !

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Afternoon swap for another of my stainless 7A38-7060 SAA015J's. The conventional 20mm tapered lugs of the 7A38-706x case lend themselves to a variety of straps. This example is fitted with one of my preferred TSS Aerosport Mk2 straps.

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Besides its condition, this watch is 'theoretically' NOS, because it came from an Italian eBay seller who it transpired was also a B&M establishment and happened to be an authorised Seiko dealer. They even supplied a stamped warranty card.

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Although it came fitted with a (different) leather strap, there wasn't a strap option offered on any SAA015J variant.
No problem. If I ever decide to sell, I have a spare NOS condition Seiko p/n G1105S bracelet set aside ready to fit. 8-)

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Re: The ONE and ONLY WRUW thread - Part Deux !

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Yeah, I really like all 3 of your 7A38-7060s shown above. Especially like the match up of the two-tone with the gray lizard strap.

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Re: The ONE and ONLY WRUW thread - Part Deux !

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I don't wear this as often as I should. But glad after 26 years it still looks so great. Received as a gift of particularly important meaning to me, from people I worked with for about a decade.

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Re: The ONE and ONLY WRUW thread - Part Deux !

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Better late than never, the slightly scruffy looking, externally unrestored but revived 'Rusto-Mod' 7A38-7020 SAA009J.
It lives again. :)

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Re: The ONE and ONLY WRUW thread - Part Deux !

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Wearing this attractive two-tone 7A38-6080 SAA088J this morning, which hadn't seen the light of day in a long while. :)

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Re: The ONE and ONLY WRUW thread - Part Deux !

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Going back 10 years and more, I briefly owned two of that 7A38-6080 variant. The other example suffered from worn gold plating on the corners of the bezel (a common malaise with this model). Soon after I'd bought my second better example (above) I broke the other one up for parts - and used its silvery-grey 6060 dial / movement to construct this Franken, based on a two-tone 7A38-728x case and bracelet. Excuse the tiny raindrops - the heavens just opened at the very moment I stepped outside. :x

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Re: The ONE and ONLY WRUW thread - Part Deux !

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Going back 10 years or so, I went through a phase of creating 7A38 Frankens based on the 7A38-728x case and bracelet. Not all the results turned out quite as aesthetically pleasing as I'd hoped and some (sooner or) later reverted to their original correct factory configurations. This is one of a couple that I've kept - it's a white 718L dial from a gold-tone 7A38-7260, fitted in a two-tone 7A38-7289 salesman's sample case / bracelet. The hour and minute hands are from something else again. Note the white Sternkreuz p/n IG318310H crystal gasket (instead of the black nylon Seiko part).

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Re: The ONE and ONLY WRUW thread - Part Deux !

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I must admit, at one point it occured to me that transplanting the white 6060 dial / movement from one of my stainless 7A38-6080's into a stainless 7A38-7280 case might result in a pleasing franken combination. Fortunately I never tried it and later discovered the German market variant of two-tone 7A38-728A, the SAA128J, without the gold sub-dial rings.

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Re: The ONE and ONLY WRUW thread - Part Deux !

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I thought I'd do a Flygraf Friday. 8-) Although I should have stopped buying (and hoarding) these attractive Yema pilot's watches a long time ago, I eventually ended up with 9 of them. Hence the date. :lol: N°8 would have been better. :roll:

I got this particularly nice example out this morning for one simple reason: it needed the battery replacing. Apart from its serial number, I recognise and remember this watch because it has a minor flaw in the dial printing - the tip of the L.H. wing of the Flygraf logo is missing. :( I bought it, or should I say my ever faithful forwarding agent, Paul in Vegas (member phk656) bid on it on my behalf, winning the US eBay auction at the end of January 2015 for only $123.59 - then equivalent to a mere £82. :D It's documented in the I really didn't need another Yema N8 Flygraf .... thread .

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