MechanicalWatches

I was on a kick for a while of watching restoration videos. These days, I know a lot of them are faked, but I was still inspired to do something myself. This watch was put together largely with stuff from my junk parts.

When I was getting started in watch modding, I ordered some frankenwatches from India off eBay. They were super cheap, usually like $7 or $8. And they never worked. They were a hodge podge of different movements, different cases. Crystals that were ground to fit with no gaskets. Just all-around junk. And so they just littered the bottom of my watch tool box. But I always liked the size and shape of some of those old Seiko 5's, and wanted to fix one up after watching some resto vids. Here's our candidate.

It's an old busted 6309, with petrified gaskets, no crown tube, and a cheap, flat plastic crystal. Look at the state of this case.

This was pretty bad. It's actually lucky the crown tube was missing already, it made sanding and polishing easier. Not shown was me taking a spare 7S26 movement, and sanding the movement spacer down to fit in this case. There was a lot of sanding and polishing involved in this build.

The next issue I ran into was that the old Seiko 5's had actual 4 o'clock crowns. This 7S26 is for what is commonly called the 3:18 crown. The difference is that you need different date wheels between 3:00 and 4:00. But 3:00 and 3:18 can use the same. The 6309 date wheel doesn't fit the 7S26. I tried. So, no date window for us.

This particular flavor of the 5 has 19mm lugs. Which makes finding straps and bracelets challenging. This is the best, least expensive one I could find. I had to grind the end links to fit the curvature of the case.

Esslinger had the crown tube, crown gasket, caseback gasket, and crystal gasket I needed. Miraculously, I had a flat mineral crystal for it. I think it came from an SNK809.

And, here's the finished watch. The caseback is completely wrong for this case, but it still fit. I didn't have to grind the 7S26 rotor or anything. I polished the beveled portion, and put a brushed finish on the flat. The dial and hands are from Ajuicet, his stuff is great. I did have to snip off the dial legs and just adhere the dial to the movement spacer due to the 4:00 crown.

Mercer was a microbrand that, sadly, didn't make it through the pandemic. But you can still get watches very much like this, because at its core the Lexington is a standard Seagull ST19 chronograph.

I really wanted an ST19, because I just find the history of that movement fascinating. And I just happened to like the color options, strap, and price of Mercer. The Detroit Mint Cobra is very close to the Lexington, and I'd look at that if you're interested. The movement is (in my opinion) beautiful. It isn't finished as well as a Swiss movement, for sure. But just look at the blued screws. The visible pinion jewels. The column wheel. And since it's hand-wound, there's no rotor to obstruct the view. I love it.

The Lexington came in a lovely box, but I must say it is super annoying that the owner's manual didn't fit in it. It's still a much nicer box than a watch this inexpensive deserves.

So, everybody go get an ST19. They're fun, inexpensive, and cool to look at. Then, post pics here. I only have so many watches.

So, this is a watch I posted in my previous life at the other place. Forgive me for recycling. Also, I'm not re-uploading all these pictures, so excuse the imgur.

If you're not familiar, the Invicta Pro Diver 8926OB is a Rolex Submariner "homage." But it is one that has good bones for modding, and can usually be found pretty cheap. I got this one for under $70 on sale. It has a stainless case, decent bracelet, and a Seiko NH35A movement. For which, there are a lot of aftermarket parts. The pic below is not mine.

The click spring bezel feels cheap. The hands and dial look cheap. The lume is terrible. But we are going to fix all of that. Let's start by popping off that bezel.

I replaced it with this lovely coin edge one from Dave Murphy, that he makes just for this watch.

In that bezel, I installed this insert from Raffles Time. It's inspired by Sean Connery's Rolex from Goldfinger. Raffles makes great parts for Seikos and Vostok.

Next, the crown guards have to go. They're too modern looking for this mod. I just had to push the crown tube out, no heat or anything. If I bought this watch just to use, that crown tube would have become loose and just spun when I would screw the crown down. Very disappointed in the QC there.

I sanded and polished the case back up after grinding, and pushed the tube back in with some red Loc-tite. It isn't coming out ever again.

Last up for the case is choosing the crystal. This case is designed for a flat, mineral glass crystal and I wanted a vintage looking high-dome acrylic. I'm pretty sure I left the crystal gasket in for that reason, but don't quote me. Here are three different height acrylic crystals by Stella. I went with the middle.

The California dial and cathedral hands are from Yobokies, a staple in the Seiko modding community. I didn't take any pictures of swapping the hands and dial, sorry. And there we have it, all done!

My wife and I were just at The Melting Pot, and of course you need a chronograph to time your meats. The watch isn't the view, My wife is. We work from home a lot, and don't go out without our kid too often. And even less often do we get dressed up to go out. I think the last time we did may have been to see Cyndi Lauper last October. It's so nice to and give our full attention to each other and appreciate that we are still a loving couple.

But nobody cares about that. So, here's the watch. It's a Breitling Top Time, with the Breitling 01 movement. The Top Time line takes a lot of inspiration from automobile and motorbike racing. This one is the Ford Thunderbird edition. I got it on the polished stainless mesh bracelet, but it is currently on a red goat leather rally strap. It's a 41mm case, but it doesn't feel that much bigger than my Monaco, probably because that case is square and wears larger than its 39mm. You can't see in this lighting, but it has blue AR coating on its gorgeous double-dome sapphire crystal.

Wearing my 50th anniversary Gulf Racing Monaco today, I had several dishes to time for dinner. I saw this at the AD the day after they put it out. I thought about it overnight, and came back. Somebody else was trying on MY watch! Well, he put it down and HE left to think about it. I snatched it right up. I love this watch. I actually like that it's a Calibre 11 movement instead of the new in-house movement. And off-the-shelf movement with a Dubois Depraz chrono module is more authentic to the original Monaco. The Gulf Racing colors match mu company colors perfectly, and I always wear it on days when I wear a company shirt. It also goes well with my vintage TI calculators.