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Tip Thread

120K views 50 replies 43 participants last post by  jayhall0315 
#1 · (Edited)
I have seen many great tips here for everything from polishing a watch to drying out moisture to tightening a case back. I thought is was time to start a tip thread that I will sticky here. Here are the rules:
Use the advanced option to title your what your tip is.
One tip per post.
Absolutely no comments to posts here in this thread (they will be deleted).
Please post pictures in your tip if you can.
Please feel free to cut and past your older tips in this thread.


I think it will make a nice read as it grows.
 
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#33 ·
I've never seen it mentioned before, but here's something that worked for me: I was moddimg my SKX007, and if you've ever changed a bezel insert, you know how hard it can be, to get through the factory rubber cement. I don't have a heat gun, so I put the bezel in boiling water for a couple of minutes.

Loosened the glue up, and I didn't have to use a thin bladed knife.

AT1984
 
#34 ·
I did my first bezel insert swap on my most recent turtle 777. I had never taken off a Seiko bezel before. Reading the tutorials made it seem easy but when I tried to get any blade to get the bezel up it simply would not budge. I was using so much force that my fingers were getting sore trying to get between the case and the bezel. I got frustrated and tried prying which scrached the case and irritated me even more since the bezel still did not come up. I finally made a gap and got the bezel off and replaced the insert but after getting it back on it would not turn. I learned that there is a gasket inside the bezel that had come unseated and was keeping the bezel from turning. During that particular project I had to take off and remove the bezel about 5 or 6 times to get it right. I realized to easily get the bezel off is to put your thin blade in the gap and use the small watchmakers hammer to tap the blade in. Once the blade is in just work your way around and the bezel comes right off. This is effortless and if I had known this technique to start I never would have scratched the case by prying or gotten deep sore pressure groves in my thumb. A small amount of silicone grease really smoothed the action on the bezel also.

 
#35 ·
Should you get water inside the case - especially seawater - remove the case back and rinse thoroughly with distilled water. Dry thoroughly before replacing the case back. Of course with a quartz movement, you need to remove the battery before rinsing. This method saved my TAG Heuer quartz movement. With a mechanical movement, you may need to lubricate it before reassembly, but I'm not sure, as that is above my pay grade. You should probably replace the seal as well.
 
#36 · (Edited)
Any tip to remove Z20 or Z22 bands on non drill lugs ?

Hi guys,
I drilled to blood my fingers twice when trying to remove a seiko Z22 rubber band on an undrilled lugs watch.
I also plyied my tool (chinese steel before it was taxed).
Is ther a tip to succeed compressing the fat spring bars on a Z22 band ?

Should we make "windows" with a cutter blade on both ends before setting the band ?
 
#37 ·
Re: Any tip to remove Z20 or Z22 bands on non drill lugs ?

Hi guys,
I drilled to blood my fingers twice when trying to remove a seiko Z22 rubber band on an undrilled lugs watch.
I also plyied my tool (chinese steel before it was taxed).
Is ther a tip to succeed compressing the fat spring bars on a Z22 band ?

Should we make "windows" with a cutter blade on both ends before puttong the band ?
On my SKX007 I had success using a watch back prying tool, the one with the yellow handle in this picture.
I used it to push the rubber watch band back and then the spring bar popped right off.
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#41 ·
After all my searching this and other forums, I had been left with the belief that it is possible to regulate a 7S26 to be with in 1 S/day. In practice, I found that if your activity level varies day to day, this is not possible.

I noted that my watch was -5 s/day, put it on my timegrapher and noticed that it was +0 s/day face up, but -10 s/day crown up. After about 20 tries, I got it to +6 s/day face up, -5 s/day crown up. If my daily activity causes it to be fast, I leave it crown up overnight until it's accurate again. If if slow, I can leave it face up overnight.

If I'm going to do any really vigorous activity, I wear my wonky Tristar Orient. (lots of people have been happy with Orient, but there is something wrong with mine)
 
#43 ·
If you need to remove the stem on your Flightmaster (SNA411/413/414) or other 7T62/92/94 movement to do a crystal swap or realign the inner ring or whatever...


There's a little arrow marked "push" on the movement. It looks like it's pointing to the metal tab inside the hole, but no... you need to get a tool BESIDE that little metal tab and way down into the movement to get to the setting lever.

Also, the crown should be pulled out to the first click first. This is according to the technical guide.


Pull the crown to the first click, and get a tool through that tiny hole and into the middle of the movement to push the setting lever. The stem should pull right out after that. When you push it back in, it'll slide into that first click position. You can then push it once more to go all the way in (or pull it out to the next click to set the hands).


Also the inner slide rule ring is only held in place with the crystal gasket. So if it's out of alignment, it's pretty easy to slide it back into place after popping the crystal. No need to fight with any alignment tabs.
 
#45 ·
Guys, i have a problem. Have a SNK615 model and a donor SNK793. Both 7s26. I'm putting SNK615 caliber into SNK793. I push the caliber gently as deep inaide as i can. Stem inserts very fine, day and date switch perfectly. I tighten the case lid by hand and the rotor spins normally. As soon as i tighten the lid completely with a tool, the rotor gets stuck at some point and doesn't rotate freely. What could be the reason? It rotates pefecrly when out of the case.

Sent from my SM-G770F using Tapatalk
 
#49 ·
I had the same problem with swapping SNK371 and SNKF63: The calibre holding spacers are different,
maybe with yours it's the same (?)

As I swap dials and hands, no problem, ... but to change the spacer, you need to remove the day and date wheels, what is complicated for a non-watchmaker. So, a professional did it for me.

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#46 · (Edited)
If you are modding Seiko diving watches, this tip may help: I have tried several cheap and mid-range crystal presses and none of them worked well (and I don't want to spend $300+ to get one from Bergeon or Horotec [ ... you need a fair amount of force to set a crystal for a diving watch correctly]). After receiving a good tip from a gent in the watchmaking sub-forum about using a G clamp, I decided to give it a try with a C clamp. I got out one of numerous $5 C clamps I own from Lowes and did some practice runs with my stock SKX007 case and crystal (on the right):

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I used nylon dies I had from a cheap $17 crystal press. The C clamp pressed in and pressed out the stock crystal just fine. (Make sure you place a cloth under your watch case to prevent it from being scratched.) I was very careful to check the plastic crystal gasket and make sure there were no alignment problems (which there were not). Then I took out my sapphire crystal from Crystal Times and pressed it in just fine to the CT modded case (on the lower left). I took it over this afternoon to mechanical engineering and subjected the case to 50 bars (= 500 meters) at one of their hydraulic presses and no leaks were detected. Worked like a champ! Far, far, better than the other crystal presses I have used. $5 C clamp = 5 star crystal press!
 
#48 ·
If you are modding Seiko watches, this tip may help: I have tried several cheap and mid-range crystal presses and none of them worked well. After receiving a good tip from a gent in the watchmaking sub-forum about using a G clamp, I decided to give it a try with a C clamp. I got out one of numerous $5 C clamps I own from Lowes and did some practice runs with my stock SKX007 case and crystal (on the right):

View attachment 16110172

I used nylon dies I had from a cheap $17 crystal press. The C clamp pressed in and pressed out the stock crystal just fine. I was very careful to check the plastic crystal gasket and make sure there were no alignment problems (which there were not). Then I took out my sapphire crystal from Crystal Times and pressed it in just fine to the CT modded case (on the lower left). I took it over this afternoon to mechanical engineering and subjected the case to 50 bars (= 500 meters) at one of their hydraulic presses and no leaks were detected. Worked like a champ! Far, far, better than the other crystal presses I have used. $5 C clamp = 5 star crystal press!
I used a C-Clamp to press a tight fitting bezel on an SKX007. It works!
"If it works, it ain't stupid..."
 
#51 · (Edited)
Here is a tip for people who find ceramic bezel inserts too shiny. Before you tape or glue your ceramic bezel insert into the bezel, spray it with SprayMax 3680065 2k Clear Coat Matte (no affiliation with the company):


Because this is an activated 2K clear coat (meaning that the hardner and pigment are held in separate chambers), the resulting clear coat will resist mild scratches. If you take a sharp hit, it will scratch the clear coat, but because it is transparent, you can just spray it again. The only downside? ... One can is $25 and once activated, lasts for 72 hours.

Here is an example of the difference for one of my custom modded Seiko SKX's (both bezel inserts are exactly the same ceramic milsub model - one left shiny and one sprayed with SprayMax 2k Clear Coat matte):






Thought this might help the legion of Seiko modders out there who aren't always big fans of the bling.
 
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