Seiko Vintage Mechanical Service (+20 years old):

One of our specialties is properly restoring old and 'challenging' Seiko automatic mechanical watches.  We began offering this service after being contacted by numerous customers who had worn older Seiko watches during the Vietnam war, and were experiencing frustration with other 'Internet' watch repair shops.  Our price for service may be higher than the competition, but we can assure you that very few good watchmakers are properly servicing vintage Seiko watches.  We take the time to do it right.  

Allow us to share with you why these older Seiko watches can be so challenging to properly service.

1.  The entire watch HAS to be completely disassembled to reveal wear and prior damage from improper service and repair.



In the photo above you see a vintage mechanical Seiko. Note that it is COMPLETELY disassembled to allow for closer INSPECTION of worn or defective parts.

There is a long and closely held secret by many watchmakers in America.  It is rooted in the U.S. history of watchmaking from the 1960's & 1970's.  This was a time when competition for mechanical watch repair was at its zenith (prior to the quartz watch explosion), pressure to repair a watch quickly was overwhelming, and the cost to have a watch "overhauled" was almost nothing. 

To meet these market parameters, watchmakers developed an efficiency "technique" to repair your watch.  This technique was called the "swish and lube."  What this involved was removing only your dial, hands and date disk (also seen removed in the above photo), and then the remainder of the ASSEMBLED movement was placed in an ultrasonic bath. 

If the customer was lucky, the mainspring would be replaced.  The movement was then immersed in a final rinse, called Solo Lube, to take the place of hand oiling all the friction points and pivots in the watch.  If the watchmaker felt like it, the balance pivots might be hand-oiled.  The movement was reassembled, and hastily regulated, re-cased and then out the door.  All for about $8-15, and in about a week!  What a deal? 

A customer unwilling to wait for a quality repair might definitely appreciate this.  So much so that he might not also mind taking his watch back for service AGAIN in 12 months or less - about as long as it would run before requiring more "service."  Only the next service might require more intensive repairs, as poorly or non-lubricated critical parts might now require outright replacement.  And this would complicate the repair, and increase the cost.  To solve this dilemma the watchmaker of the day would simply tell the customer, "Sorry, your watch can't be repaired as there are no parts."  This would hide the poor service history, and end the customer's potential complaint.  Since most watchmakers worked in a jewelery store, the counter staff would simply tell this customer to buy a new watch.  "There are some on sale right over here."

However, this efficient technique was FAR from effective.  Effectiveness is defined, in watch repair terms, as returning the watch to its factory-rated operating condition.  When a watch is properly serviced, its service interval is much longer than 12 months, somewhere on the order of 5-10 years would be more the norm. 

If a watch can be repaired to achieve this dramatic service interval, then why wouldn't all of TODAY's watchmakers repair watches to this standard?  

Answers - Greed, lack of modern training, poor ethics and uneducated and/or impatient customers.

2.  Critical and worn parts have to be REPLACED to PROPERLY SERVICE a mechanical watch, and to provide the best, long-term insurance that the watch will perform well into the future.

 

In the photo above the watchmaker is holding a RED pointer (actually a specialized Bergeon tool in its own right) to show you a "barrel complete."  This factory Seiko part, still in its unopened package, is NO LONGER AVAILABLE for this watch.  The old barrel is visible in the lower right of the photo. 

Also visible in the top of the photo are a new crystal and a new crown and stem.  The stem for this particular watch is NO LONGER AVAILABLE; however, the owner of this particular watch had NO PROBLEM waiting for the parts to be located. 

But why is a "barrel complete" so important to the proper servicing of a watch?
                             Good Question!

A barrel complete houses the automatic mainspring of the watch, a very sophisticated piece of machinery.  "Complete" means that the mainspring was installed and torque tested at the Seiko factory, and meets the rigid requirements for service in this particular movement.  THIS IS THE HEART of the watch!  In conjunction with the rest of the overhaul and proper service, a new barrel, barrel cap, arbor and automatic mainspring, this OLD Seiko will operate according to its design specifications.  The alternative would be to remove the old mainspring, clean it and reuse it.  Any wear patterns that might affect operation or timekeeping would just have to be "ignored" by the watchmaker, and perhaps the owner wouldn't really notice the difference.

But our watchmakers would know the difference, and we like to sleep nights knowing we have performed the best job possible - no matter how long it takes to do it right.

3.  Factory assembly guides must be utilized to insure the watch is repaired to factory standards.



Here you can see a page from the Seiko factory technical assembly guide for this base caliber movement.  The 6106A is the base caliber for the 6119C being repaired in the technical guide above. 

So how long does it take to do the repair properly?  And why might your vintage mechanical Seiko take several months to repair? 

                         PARTS AVAILABILITY!

Why are parts so difficult to obtain?  To be certain, it is NOT for the lack of good distributor companies.  Two reasons prevail:

1. In the case of a vintage mechanical watches, the part manufacturer no longer finds it profitable to make or stock the parts.  Can you blame them?  We can't.  Watch repair is A BUSINESS.  When parts are no longer available, most watchmakers will REFUSE to service a watch. 
   
2. New parts on high-end watches have restricted parts accounts by the manufacturers, designed to protect the manufacturer's name and to protect the consumer from the type of watchmaker we have already described.