ceejay

100% Made in England

I really am very happy to have snagged this one! It's a English, Smiths Astral Diver from ~1969-1970 These were produced in Cheltenham at the same time as the military issue W10 (also 6B and 0552) watches (cal. 60465E). Indeed it is almost identical to the military watches: beautiful gilt-frosted centre seconds movement, 17 jewels, handwound with a double roller lever escapement, mono metallic balance beryllium balance spring and hack setting just like the W10’s Def Stan specifications. A nice 37mm case for my skinny wrist Tritium(?) lume still glowing nicely and a wonderful natural aged bezel and crystal with undermounted cyclops. This will be with me for many, many years

*Updated* I have not been happy with this and with my experience growing thought it was time for a update. The DG3804B became unreliable and had poor timekeeping so I stripped it completely and done a full service on it including proper disassembly, cleaning and lubrication of the shock jewels. While I was at it I removed the hacking lever as per gen. It is running much better now (~ -1min per day). I will regulate it next week when I am in class and pressure test it. Next a bezel and insert came up for sale on the forum that I liked better than the WSO one with a lower profile and the outer diameter was less so it doesn't (to me?) look too big for the case now a little grease and it is perfect! I got the end links from the Cartel 1655 that I started with and opened them up to accept the 2mm spring bars. I also have used the bracelet off this until I source something better I guess a re-lume is long overdue, whether I outsource this or have a crack myself...we shall see Over all I think it's an improvement over the Mk1 Before: After:

Have a look at this thread http://www.rwgforum.net/topic/133863-show-us-your-watches-with-bleached-bezel-inserts/?hl=%20bleaching%20%20insert

Ahhh. couldn't open it with taptalk earlier. Yeah, when I first looked at it, I too thought that the crown and crown guards were very good. Then I looked at that bezel profile and agreed with the previous poster that it looked like a WSO. When I built mine I was torn over the bezel, there seemed to be many different subtle difference in the notches on the bezel. I went with the WSO but have never been happy with it and swapped it yesterday (my build thread is about to be updated) The end links just screamed wrong to me. But I am more than happy to be corrected

Gone... Sent from my toilet using Andrex.

ETA 2834-2 the main plate and balance assembly are gen at least. This is not to say that parts in it have not been replaced with Asian parts The 2834 has Day/Date @ 12 oclock position, 2836 has Day/Date @ 3. If it's all gen and running well then value is around 60-80 Euros IMO

Lovely fit of them end links!

should be an auto anyway...no?

Just a thought.... Check that there isn't wear occuring within the movement to cause the minute hand to hit a low spot in that area and make contact with the lume?

And you will always get re-directed by Josh to make your payment at another website, last one I was sent to was a watch strap website.

Whip the back off, all will be revealed

http://www.rafflestime.com/servlet/StoreFront

He's webpage is working fine for me.

The mainspring should slip when fully wound.

I live in London, real fancy city, I have a camper van, I don't take public transport, this is my daily commute, I have a massive penis

The Seiko 5 movements are brilliant movements, bombproof, accurate and their auto winding system is simple but so effective. They are also easy to service (which is few and far between!) I am restoring a vintage one at the moment with the 7009A version of the movement. Seiko deserve much, much more respect than they get. They rattled the Swiss back in the 70's with these watches

I'm not trying to be funny fella, but 10 seconds on a Trusted Dealer website typing 6263 in their search box gave me this.... http://www.p-cls.com/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=6263&x=8&y=11 Members on this forum like to see a bit of research and effort, it's so important when buying rep's otherwise you will end up getting stung and people will just not reply to members who don't do their homework Good luck, the 6263 is a classic piece although the rep is not anything to write home about

If you have no tools or experience, take it to a local watchsmith. It will be a 20-30 minute job for a experienced watchsmith. Without the proper tools or some previous experience then you will ruin your watch. Good luck.

Superb, well done you! Looking forward to seeing this when it's done

Is that really the best off the shelf Sub C there is (excluding BK)? Pearl looks off to the right slightly?, date looks low in the window, they still have not fixed the no gap between the Officially Certified, the gaps between the Oyster Perpetual Date are massive. It should be a high beat 28,000 movement too? Shame as it's such a lovely watch.

If you search eBay for the following brands you can choose what level you go in at. Bergeon, top quality used by many professionals A*F Swiss, still good quality but cheaper than Bergeon Anchor, Indian made and good for beginners who want to get a feel for Horology cheaply.

Yes that's the A7750 Unfortunately a advanced movement to work on, there is at least 1 piece missing that I can see and if you look at your picture, at the 1 o'clock position above that red circle half of that screw head is missing. The chances of an inexperienced person repairing that (if you can get the parts) is almost zero. A watch running slowly can be for a number of reasons again none of which a inexperienced person would be able to repair on that movement. Sorry to be the bringer of bad news but it will probably be cheaper and easier to put in a new movement. If you do then have a play with the movement to get some experience of it.

Great stuff! Keep us updated.

Why does the dial need help? It looks like it's had all the help it needs naturaly to obtain a look worthy of a 50 year old watch! Don't know if that Yuki clone movement would fit in this and would accept the gen datewheel off your movement, I would look into something like that. If the movement is beyond repair, break it down into parts, get them cleaned up and eBay them you will get some funding for putting this back together. Get a clarks or WSO bezel assemble for now, source a gen aged insert. and look at getting a gen bezel assembly in the future. If done with a bit of thought this would be a cracker for sure!