Introduced in 1961, Seikos original Silverwave series of watches were the precursor to the now famous 6217-8001 divers watch. Whilst the Silverwaves weren’t true dive watches they were pitched squarely at the recreational diving industry as can be gleaned from the packaging, they came in a clamshell type presentation container inside a cardboard box adorned with underwater scenes and a diver. They came with two different depth ratings, the later Sportsmatic versions had a 30m rating with a snap on caseback whilst the Seikomatics were rated at 50m with a two piece screw down caseback. They came in a variety of designs, with silver and black dials and a black rotatable inner bezel for the Sportsmatics and silver dials with either a silver or a black inner bezel for the 50m Seikomatics. These also had a plain silver dial or a starburst type with a grained lines linking the opposing indicies. In total this means there are six to collect, good luck on finding them all! This particular one came in for a service and has the plain silver dial with the silver inner bezel.
Author: thewatchbloke
Archimedes Pilot
The Archimedes Pilot is a large Flieger type watch that is based on the wartime B-Uhr watches used by the Luftwaffe. It’s powered by a veritable workhorse of a movement, the ubiquitous ETA 2824-2, but I think the current range has switched to the Silletta 200.1 due to the restrictive ebauches (movements) and parts supply policy that Swatch group’s introduced. The daft thing is that ETA’s job, when it was part of ASUAG, was to provide the Swiss watch industry with ebauches which is why it seems so completely wrong for Swatch group to now be limiting supply of ebauches and parts as it affects the whole industry it was created to support!
Anyway, moan over now back to the watch 🙂
It came in due to a problem with the manual winding, it had been feeling a bit ‘graunchy’ for some time but it was now impossible to wind any power on at all, although it still wound through the auto wind mechanism without a problem.
Rolex 16613
This Rolex 16613 came in recently for attention to the obvious smashed crystal but also for a movement service. The watch wasn’t particularly in need of one, but if you just change the crystal without checking the rest of the movement it can cause expensive damage so it’s a very sensible precaution. It’s good to see the movement had been hacked, this stops any possibility of hands getting bent or wheels being damaged by loose pieces of sapphire crystal.
Sinn/Bell & Ross chronograph
Although I’m still very busy right now I couldn’t let this one pass without featuring it, it’s a beautiful Sinn/Bell & Ross Bundeswehr type chronograph powered by a Lemania calibre 5100 movement. This movement was released in 1978, although Omega produced Lemania 5100 based Speedmasters from 1974 so the movement itself was around before Lemania made it available to everyone. Sinn, Fortis and Tutima were Lemanias biggest customers and they supplied the military with various chronographs based on the 5100. The reason the military liked the 5100 was due to it being a simply constructed but rugged movement, there were no fragile chronograph coupling wheels in this calibre, the chronograph is directly driven via a vertical clutch. This along with the nylon movement spacer blocks give it excellent shock protection, however despite its rugged construction from a watchmakers point of view it uses quite an antiquated type of pillar construction.
Seiko 6105-8110
The other 6105-8110 I wanted to post about is this example. It’s not intrinsically any different to most of these asymmetric divers, but it did need a humungous amount of dial work which is the reason it’s featured here.
Seiko 6105-8009
I’ve had a quite a number of 6105 divers on the bench in the last couple of weeks. I know I’ve posted about them on numerous occasions but there are a couple that I just have to show you. The first is this incredible 6105-8009 from the third month of production, May 1968. I’ve seen some biscuity lume on a couple of these before but I’ve never seen one with such an outstanding tobacco hue to it. The watch came in for a new crystal, a movement service and some conservation work on the minute hand.
Rolex Datejust 16233
This Rolex Datejust came in recently in a non running state. The watch has been owned from new by the husband of the lady that bought it in, and unfortunately the crystal had been smashed and replaced sometime ago. The problem was the dial hadn’t been removed to check for any crystal shards that may have made their way through the date aperture and into the movement, needless to say there were some that managed to get through. These eventually worked their way through into the inner workings and it eventually ground to a halt. Rolex were contacted at the time to see what it would cost to repair, I’m not sure what the price was but it was enough for it not to be sent off and it ended up in the back of a drawer! The owner was very fond of this watch and happens to have a significant birthday coming up soon, his wife thought it would be nice to get it resurrected for him in time for the event. What a sensible woman!
As I’ve mentioned it wasn’t running and as you can see from the picture the crown was stuck in the time set position.
Sinn U1
Apologies for the gap since my last update, this is entirely due to the volume of work I’ve got in right now. I thought it prudent to focus my energies on trying to reduce the queue length a little but it doesn’t seem to get any less no matter how hard I work! Anyway, I couldn’t let this Sinn U1 pass by without comment as I think they are beautifully crafted watches. This came in for a movement service and 1,000m pressure test recently.
Timefactors Precista PRS-10
This Timefactors PRS-10 came in with a stopped movement and a cracked crystal recently. These watches are based on the military-issue Precista G10 from the early 1980s and even carry the same name on the dial due to the fact Eddie Platts (the Timefactors proprietor) actually owns the trademark. I presume the movement had stopped due to water ingress as the insides were very mucky and there was a whacking great stretch of crystal missing around the circumference!
Seiko 6138-0040 ‘Bullhead’
It’s easy to see why Seikos 6138-0040 is nicknamed the Bullhead. It’s one of Seikos more iconic vintage chronographs and a model I love working on. This particular example came in for a spruce up and service recently.
The Watch Bloke 