A rant about Seiko folded link bracelet quality !!

7A28, 7A38 and 7A48 (plus 7A34, 7A36, 7A07 and 7A54)
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Seiko7A38
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A rant about Seiko folded link bracelet quality !!

Post by Seiko7A38 »

It's widely accepted consensus that Seiko skimped on the quality of the folded link bracelets they fitted to many 7Axx's, to help offset the cost of the movements. That's why so many end up with stretched or twisted links and if not treated carefully can ultimately break. The p/n B1171 (S or C suffix) bracelet used on the 7A38-702x's suffers in a few different ways: most commonly, twisted 10mm end joining links; concave links, where owners thoughtlessly bend the bracelets back on themselves and stretch caused by wear between the links.

I've a good many 7A38-702x's in my collection, both stainless and two-tone, varying in condition from mint to 'beaters'. Sometimes I'll see an example on eBay and think to myself: Hmm that looks better than mine. In November 2018, I bought another 7A38-702A SAA012J off a German eBay seller. I thought it looked pretty good in the listing photos.

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I can't remember if I got myself embroiled in a bidding war, but checking my records, I ended up paying 177 Euros for it, which, with hindsight was probably too much, given the received condition. In the second photo, you can see the crystal is scratched in a couple of places. But it was fully functional and reasonably tidy looking, with plenty of spare bracelet adjustment links present, so fitted me easily. However, I distinctly remember when I first tried it on, the clasp was sloppy and wouldn't latch properly. So I attached a small card hang tag to it, to remind myself to sort it out later.

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Re: A rant about Seiko folded link bracelet quality !!

Post by Seiko7A38 »

Nearly 2½ years later, I finally got around to revisiting it. :lol: I picked it up this afternoon, purely by chance, to check the serial number, to see if it was the same 7A38-702A that I'd bought at the same time as a Junghans 24/4610 High Tech crono (from the same German eBay seller). Indeed it was, but the battery had since died. So I thought, OK now is as good a time as any to kill two birds with one stone: replace the battery and the scratched crystal. Then I saw my reminder to myself on the hang tag. The first thing I noticed that the 'flat T' section, where the end of the bracelet attaches to the inside of the clasp was twisted. So I put it in my aluminium jawed vise and squeezed it flat again:

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Then I found the central hinge of the Z-fold was partly opened out and twisted. That responded to a bit of welly from the jaws of a pair of flat-nosed pliers, but not entirely to my satisfaction.

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At that stage, I thought I'd just try snapping up the clasp, to see if I'd improved things at all. Now I've tweaked a few Seiko SQ clasp Z-folds in my time, so I'd like to think I know what I'm doing. 8-) But could I get it to latch properly ? :x

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It seemed as if something in the clasp mechanism was still twisted, because no matter how many times I gently bent the curved sections of the Z-fold, it still wouldn't latch on one side. My efforts to straighten things out had backfired and actually made matters worse. :oops: I was cursing the German eBay seller under my breath for buggering around with it. :evil: By this point, I'm beginning to lose patience, so I stopped for a cigarette and coffee break (which usually always solves everything). :P Suitably reinvigorated, I compared the two sides of the clasp cover ....

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Notice anything ? :o The upper photo showing the left side of the clasp cover is fine. Now compare the position of the clasp cover to Z-fold pivot in the lower photo. It's been stamped nearly a millimeter lower !! :shock: No amount of careful tweaking of the Z-fold is ever going to make this clasp latch properly on the right hand side ! :x

Fortunately, I have another correctly stamped clasp assembly in my bits box - salvaged from a scrapped p/n B1171C bracelet. However the clasp cover has more desk diver marks than the current fitment, so I'll have to rebrush it first.

Meantime, here's a photo of the watch as I left it, in disgust, this afternoon ....

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