The ONE and ONLY WRUW thread - Part Deux !

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

Post by Seiko7A38 »

Seiko7A38 wrote: Wed Aug 11, 2021 10:40 am Thought I'd wear one of these for a change today. Kamatz 517000 Panda (NOS condition but aftermarket leather strap).
Afternoon swap for a Kamatz 517000 'Reverse Panda' (same condition / strap as this morning's watch). What else ? :P

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

Post by Seiko7A38 »

Seiko7A38 wrote: Sat Aug 07, 2021 10:10 am The last of my Orient J39 'Divers' (for this week).
I'm having a brief relapse, but not for the joy of it. This morning, I'm wearing this 'bitza' two-tone J39001-70, now fitted what I'd hoped to be a substitute (and indeed once was) a NOS Orient p/n SA160 bracelet. Of more anon here presently.

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

Post by Seiko7A38 »

Seiko7A38 wrote: Thu Aug 12, 2021 11:10 amGiven my current run of bad luck and with Friday the 13th looming tomorrow, I should have known what to expect. :(
I was seriously thinking of staying in bed all day. :roll: Got up and decided to wear something black to match my mood. :x
As luck would have it, my hand fell on this nice example of the 7A38-7080 SAA033J. Today's looking better already. :)

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

Post by phk656 »

Black is indeed the appropriate color for Friday the 13th. Wearing my 7A38-7290 and matching new driving gloves. 8-)

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Paul in Vegas.

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

Post by Seiko7A38 »

I'm wearing this very dark blue dialed Orient J39701-70 'beater', fitted for want of anything better, with a 'Feiko' 20mm aftermarket bracelet, on this grey overcast blue SATurday morning. Note that apart from the non-original bracelet, this is the regular production version, with white day / date wheels, compared to the BAF issued version I posted last week.

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

Post by Seiko7A38 »

This morning I decided to dig out another watch from my collection that hasn't seen the light of day in a very long time. Checking my records, I last replaced its battery on 03/05/2015 (which is probably the last time I wore it) :( and have just done so again this morning. It's my original beater titanium 7A38-7030 SJS018, which I've owned since May 2010.

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It's not the best of examples, fitted with a generic replacement Cousins titanium clasp; as you can see, the once red CHRONOGRAPH dial script has typically faded to beige. (I have another much better example). Following the trend for giving watches inappropriate stupid nicknames, I've decided to call this one 'Titihuacan'. It's certainly no 'Red Tide'. :lol:

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

Post by phk656 »

Here’s a favorite of mine, Seiko 7A38-706A on a blue Breitling branded leather strap, complete with a Seiko buckle.
(A bit pedantic, I know). :D

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8-)
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Re: The ONE and ONLY WRUW thread - Part Deux !

Post by Seiko7A38 »

I could be wearing any number of fancier watches on this auspicious morning, but at the risk of boring my audience and as a self indulgence, I'm wearing one of my birthday presents to myself - yet another two-tone Orient J39001-70, which arrived at the weekend, courtesy of my ever-faithful US forwarding agent, forum member phk656, a.k.a. Paul in Vegas.

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Yeah, O.K., I concede, :oops: it's not exactly like I needed another one, but I never could resist a bargain (and easy fix). :P

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

Post by Seiko7A38 »

Afternoon swap(s) for a couple more incoming goodies from my weekend 'gift' delivery, courtesy of Paul in Vegas. ;)

Firstly another tidy example of the Kamatz 517000 on its original Poljot supplied cardboard consistency leather strap:

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... and the equivalent much smaller boys / ladies version - a Kamatz 507000, which only needs the 0 of '30' touching up.

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

Post by jamesam »

Ok, now I have to admit being a little perplexed and a little jealous that you easily get an Orient J39 on eBay just two weeks ago for a very reasonable price when my standard eBay search - for “Orient” and “watch” turns up nothing of interest in my mailbox every day. What's up with that? And being in the States, I don't even need a forwarding agent.

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

Post by Seiko7A38 »

Jim. You probably need to refine your searches. Apart from 'broadly generic' searches like yours, I've also a number of saved searches set up on specific Orient J39 models, including J39001-70, J39601-70, J39701-70 (plus J39* wild cards). So I don't miss much. Then there's the issue of timing and decision making. Checking my email history, the eBay saved search notification which included that Orient J39001-70 arrived @ 18:28 UK BST on 2nd August. I didn't read it straight away, but when I did, 10 minutes later (@ 18:38), I quickly scanned through the photos and hit the Buy-it-Now button.

If you check the item number using WatchCount's look-up tool, you'll see it had been listed nearly 2½ hours earlier:

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Two dozen people had viewed the listing before me, yet fortunately nobody else had bought it. And that's where the decision making process comes in. You need to quickly read, digest and correctly interpret the eBay seller's description.

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Personally I DON'T FEAR the REAPER. As I'd suspected, the watch had suffered a relatively serious (but thankfully not terminal) battery leak. Unscrewing the case-back, it was immediately apparent that the eBay seller made a half-arsed attempt at cleaning it up, which included taking a scouring pad to the battery positive plate.

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But it's also clearly evident from the sulphate deposits oozing out from underneath the anti-magnetic backplate, in the area of the negative terminal, that he didn't bother going any deeper ....

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I spent about an hour on Saturday afternoon thoroughly cleaning up that mess. I had severe doubts about re-using the PCB, given the extensive corrosion and track damage. But I reassembled it. To my surprise it ran all through the night, without losing a second. Not that I was particularly worried if it hadn't - I have 2 complete spare working Orient J39 black dial / movements in reserve. 8-)

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

Post by jamesam »

I guess when they get bought up that quickly, there’s a good chance they’ll never get into my mailbox. Yeah, I do also have some more specific searches that include the words “Racer”, “chronograph” or “J39”. And of course for “7A38”.

But unlike you, I can’t disassemble and repair them (my grandfather didn’t teach me how), so it doesn’t seem sensible to buy a “for repair” watch without having any idea of how much it could cost me to make it run.

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

Post by phk656 »

Here’s another favorite, a Seiko 7A38-7060 on a brown Seiko Calf-B leather strap, complete with a Seiko buckle.
(A bit pedantic, I know).

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8-)
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Re: The ONE and ONLY WRUW thread - Part Deux !

Post by edcgunner »

Hello, new member here this is mine 7a38 I am no expert in these but I always loved them and I do enjoy wearing it.

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

Post by Seiko7A38 »

That's so funny !!! :lol: Guess what I'm also wearing this morning ? :P A common-or-garden stainless 7A38-7190 SAA053J, otherwise known as the 'Argos' (in-joke* / nickname). I was planning to get this out anyway, but when I did, I found the battery had run out (story of my life lately), so I've just replaced it. This is my second string beater with slightly scabby sub-dials. (I have another almost mint example in my collection). Must get around to replacing that dial one day. :roll:

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*The 7A38-7190 SAA053J first appeared in the Spring / Summer 1987 issue of the Argos shopping catalogue (full page):

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My example above came with its Seiko presentation box ....

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with the Argos catalogue number 251/4958 label stuck on the outer cardboard sleeve - and the original receipt for £125.

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

Post by edcgunner »

Did not know that. I picked mine up at the local flea market for about 20 euros. You can still find them I also had a Ferrari branded one it was too quirky for me so I let it go to a fellow watch collector, I did wear it for one entire summer. Now discovering this forum I deeply regret selling it. :(

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

Post by Seiko7A38 »

Seiko7A38 wrote: Mon May 10, 2021 1:50 pm I've been wearing this decent second-string stainless 7A38-7000 SAA007J today, while I've been busy keyboard bashing. I had intended to take the wrist shot this morning, but first had to put my camera battery on charge for a few hours. :roll:
At the risk of repeating myself (again) and slightly later than planned (for the same reason), his morning I'm wearing another of my second-string stainless 7A38-7000 SAA007J's. (I have 3 such examples in a very similar used condition).

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As I haven't got around to tagging them, it's sometimes difficult to tell them apart, but if I've correctly identified this watch, it was the cheap 'fixer-upper' (missing its crown) that I bought off eBay France in September 2013 for €47.50.

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

Post by Seiko7A38 »

Seiko7A38 wrote: Wed Aug 18, 2021 10:51 amAt the risk of repeating myself (again) and slightly later than planned (for the same reason), his morning I'm wearing another of my second-string stainless 7A38-7000 SAA007J's. (I have 3 such examples in a very similar used condition).
Here's another of them, that I'm wearing today - probably the worst condition of those 3 'second string' examples.

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As it happens, this one was also a very long-term resto-project 'fixer-upper' - it certainly wasn't a quick nor easy fix. :(
It's not very often that I need to seek help or advice. I wrote up the sorry tale here in this old forum's workshop thread.

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

Post by Seiko7A38 »

It's Franken Friday redux time. :D Some may recall this post from nearly two months ago (near the bottom of page 4):
Seiko7A38 wrote: Fri Jun 25, 2021 10:12 amIt's a long time since I've done a 'Franken Friday' and even longer, over 10 years in fact, since I first nailed this particular 7A38 Franken together. From memory it was the first that I built, based on the stainless 7A38-702x ....
I'd tried an experiment, swapping a 7A38-7050 dial / movement into that case and bracelet, creating the 'Green Oak'. I wasn't convinced it was any improvement on the 700L dial and hands (from a scrapped stainless 7A38-7000 basket case), so I reverted back. However its reprieve was only temporary, because I'd already been toying with another idea. In fact, I'd been mulling over this Franken combination for a while and finally got around to nailing it together this morning.

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The black 709L dial is from a scrapped 7A38-7080; the hour and minute hands are those normally used in a 7A38-7029, topped off with a red sweep second hand. Yeah, I know that's a bit of a cliché, but given my other available options of Silver, Yellow or Orange, I simply couldn't resist. :P I think this latest iteration is probably going to be a keeper. :)

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

Post by Seiko7A38 »

Yup. :) That one's definitely going to be a keeper. :D I carried on wearing it all day yesterday, hence the reason (apart from the weather, chucking it down, raining all day), no new wrist shot yesterday. Wearing it reminded me of another red-handed 7A38 mod that I'd built 10 years ago. So I dug it out of the collection box this morning and dusted it off.

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It didn't come together like that straight away, but gradually evolved. It started life as a rough stainless 7A38-7270 'head only', which for want of any better replacement I fitted a NOS Seiko p/n Z337S bracelet in December 2009:

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I sussed that the Z337S bracelet was originally used on the Seiko 8223-704B (eBay images):

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I liked the idea of the contrasting black chrome bezel, so a couple of days later, I bought a NOS Seiko p/n 82341003 bezel, normally used on the 7A38-7290. It was the very first item I ever purchased from Cousins UK. Here it is fitted:

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But it didn't end there. The original hour and minute hands fitted to the 7A38-7270 had grotty lume, so I later replaced them with a good secondhand pair of the 'polished edge' style, used on the early production 7A38-7070 and 7A38-7080. The orangey red second hands were NOS. They're the hands normally used on the 7A38-7140 SAA051J. Unfortunately, I could only get hold of one sub-dial hand at the time, so elected to fit it to the constant seconds.

Here's another old photo from my library, taken just after I'd finished it on 09/07/2011:

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Of course, with any true worthwhile mod, such things are never quite 'finished' and continue to evolve. At the moment, the Seiko p/n Z337S bracelet is still currently fitted with it's original stainless SQ 7-hole adjustment clasp. I'm about to try another little 'upgrade', by fitting a black chrome SQ 5-hole clasp, to match the bezel.

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Hmm. Not convinced that's actually any kind of improvement. :| Perhaps these things are best left as they were. :lol:

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