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Some of my Seiko mods

72K views 39 replies 37 participants last post by  PPBart 
#1 ·
I have wanted to try this for a while now. Bought the right tools to get started, and picked out one of my Seiko SKX007 to be my first "victim" about a month ago....

The watch was already a yobokies mod, but it was all I had at the present time.....

First a lay-out of the tools needed:





Equipmentlist:

1st Pic:
- Caseback opener/closer
- Eyeglass loupe
- Case holder
- "Custom" made dial-protector
- Jars for parts

2nd Pic:
- Hand setting tools (top left corner)
- Screwdrivers
- Handremoving tool
- Knife with bezel/snap-back case remover
- Pliers
- Tweezer
- Movement holder

The crystal press is shown further down in this post....

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Before start, this is how the seiko skx007 looked like:



It's time to start this highly difficult surgical intervention and both me and the seiko diver are nervous....

Step 1.

Remove the caseback:





Step 2:

Crown and stem to be removed...



Step 3:

The movement is removed from the case....



Out of the case.....



Step 4:

Custom made dial protector on the dial.... ;-)
(link on the dial protector refers to a norwegian watch forum :-!)



Step 5:

Hand removal...



Step 6:

Dial removal:



Step 7:

Crystal glass removal:





Half way through it's time for a break...



Part II
After 17 cups of espresso my hands are shaking enough to start up again :-!

Step 8

Chapter ring installed again....



Step 9

Crystal installation....





Step 10

Dial is mounted again....



Step 11

Now the tricky part.... installing the hands....





Step 12

Putting the movement back in the case......



Step 13

Mounting the rotor...





Step 14

Installing new bezel insert and bezel ring....





And the result?????



First mod went well with no problems, everything went silky smooth. Not the coolest mod, but due to lack of parts in stock I had to take what i had. The intension was to determine if this was doable for a noob like me....

Time spent on project including coffee break: 3 hrs

A week after my first mod attempt, I got new parts in the mail.

Our friend the Seiko diver from my first attempt volunteered to get back under the knife for another plastic surgeon...

Here's a picture of our friend from my first post and his new parts.....



I did not make this a photoshoot operation, since the procedure is the same as last time....

But here's the result:





This time I only used 2 hrs... and it was easier without the shaky hands....

My next project was modding a Seiko 5 Military watch.... It uses the same movement as the SKX007 and the parts are interchangable....

Only have before and after pics.....

Before:



After:





Time spent on the project: 1 hour....

After modding the Seiko 5 Military, I decided to do another mod that same day (yes I was bored out of my mind...)

This time our friend from my previous posts yet again volunteered....

Again only before and after pics....

Before:



After:





This time i also changed the crown with one from an orange/black monster... a bit tricky since the new stem was longer than the one on the SKX007, and the crown had to be screwed on the stem. Had to cut it short to make it fit properly...



Wristshot:



Time spent: 1 hour

My latest project, I borrowed the design from a fellow WUS member because I liked it so much... hope he's not angry with me....



 
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#2 ·
Step by step... great post. :)
Nice mods, I really like the first one you made and yellow sub200 is perfect for summer.
 
#5 · (Edited)
very nice post. It makes me want to put one of my monsters under the knife. But then I'll spend all of my time and money on mods and have little for new watches.

Very nice post. very well done indeed.
 
#13 ·
Stipey,

This really is a great post! :-!

I have been contemplating trying this out myself, but I was not sure if it is something I should tackle. I have a few questions if you don't mind. Can I ask you how you removed the crown and stem? I recall that there is some sort of locking mechanism that keeps the crown and stem in place. Also, after the crown and stem are removed, can the movement be lifted out of the case without any procedure?

Thanks again and I'm definitely looking forward to trying this out myself.
 
#22 ·
Stipey,

This really is a great post! :-!

I have been contemplating trying this out myself, but I was not sure if it is something I should tackle. I have a few questions if you don't mind. Can I ask you how you removed the crown and stem? I recall that there is some sort of locking mechanism that keeps the crown and stem in place. Also, after the crown and stem are removed, can the movement be lifted out of the case without any procedure?

Thanks again and I'm definitely looking forward to trying this out myself.
To remove the crown and stem: unscrew the crown but do not pull out the crown. Then simply use a toothpick or similar to push down the tab as shown on the picture. (picture borrowed from SCWF)



After you have removed the crown and stem, you can carefully remove the movement from the case.

Great mod! Thank you for taking the time to show the full process, I'm sure taking pics every minute wasn't the most comfortable to do when working such a fine job! Excellent, thank you very much!
Thanks, I must admit it was challenging to take the pictures with shaky hands and trying to show the process... :-d

Great Mods! Super pictures!
Nice reference for newbie or seasoned modder. I've done alot of mods myself but never got around to shooting nice close ups like you did.

Just curious...what did you use for a hand setting tool?
And, why did you remove the rotor in the 1st mod?

Thanks again for the write up! Keep modding!
I used a standard handsetting tool set. Allthough I'd recomend that you spend a little extra on theese tools and go for the bergeon hand-setting tool set (3 pieces). My set is of medium quality and I will upgrade to the bergeon set soon.

After open the caseback, I'd remove the rotor, so I can place the movement in a movement holder after removing it from the case. Simply as that.

------

My next mod will be a Seiko Monster. I'm waiting for my case, bezel, caseback and crown to return from a "paint job" at Jay/V8/MCWW....

It will be awesome, I promise... :-!:-!:-!

By the way, I managed to f*ck up the nylon crystal gasket on one of my SKX00 victims, and I can't seem to find any place on the world wide web that sells only the gaskets. Any help on this would be great!
 
#21 ·
Great Mods! Super pictures!
Nice reference for newbie or seasoned modder. I've done alot of mods myself but never got around to shooting nice close ups like you did.

Just curious...what did you use for a hand setting tool?
And, why did you remove the rotor in the 1st mod?

Thanks again for the write up! Keep modding!
 
#23 ·
My latest mod is a real MONSTER :-d

This was already modded with a titanium look-a-like coating, but it had started to wear off, so I decided it was time to do a real makeover for this one.

Here's how it looked before...



I went to Jay at motorcitywatchworks and went for his special ceramic coating. This one would get the "Dark Earth" colour. I also ordered one of Jay's custom monster chapter rings. Samurai hands arrived in the mail, as well as a new nato strap in similar colour.
It took some time to get the coating done due to me living in europe and Jay in the US plus that Jay had a lot to do at the time, but when the parts arrived from the "paint shop" it was all worth it. Fantastic work Jay!!! |>|>|>|>|>

It was now time to start the modifikations, a pretty straight forward operation. The critical part was screwing the caseback on at the end and mounting the bezel due to risk of scratching up the custom paint job... :-d

I'll let the pictures talk....

The parts laid out...



The end result...







 
#25 ·
Wow. I am very impressed.

I recently attempted some surgery on an old Orange Monster of mine and . . . let's just say the patient didn't survive (I've since bought another). I will probably sell the dead OM on the sales forum for someone looking for a good organ-donor.

I don't have as many quality tools as you do (and no crystal press), but mostly it was my espresso-fingers at fault.

LOVE your yellow military mod. And the new ceramic-coated Monster is simply fabulous. I am definitely going to get one of those one day (the whole thing to be done by MCWW, though!).

Thanks for the post!
 
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