Story of me trying to repair and destroying my first watch: a Seiko Perpetual Calendar 8F32-0049

[texasbear 0]

Fifteen years ago I was in high school, working as a grocery store cashier, and I decided I wanted a watch. I had watches before it, but none bought with my own money. I had several watches before, I've recovered a couple, all very low quality, but sentimental in value. I cashed my paycheck and walked into a mall jewelry store with no brain at all. I look back on me at the time and shake my head. I wanted something cool, had no idea about movements or horology. I don't remember how I settled on it opposed to other watches. I liked anime, liked Japan, Seiko was a brand I recognized, and I thought titanium was awesome. Simple thoughts for a simpiler time. This isn't my photo, I didn't think to snap one. I put down about $350 if I remember correctly and walked out a happy boy.

 

 

Fast forward through the years, I lost and found my Seiko, found my wrist was bigger and I couldn't wear it. Put it away, it would pop up, I'd put it away. I found it again with the battery seemingly dead and decided I would get some links. Seiko gives you three for free! I bought a watch tool kit, extended the strap and decided to crack it open and replace the battery. I was in for quite a surprise when I finally got the case back open and saw that massive battery. I tried following the video I found here

to replace the battery but everytime something seemed easy for the author to move or pry free I was having to use actual force, which I knew wasn't right. That battery was really really stuck on there and did not want to come free.

 

I was in over my head, called a couple of local shops who wouldn't work on it. One finally took a look, said the battery was good, the watch was ticking! Which surprised me because it was dead since I found it again. It stopped, started, I went to put it back together and managed to break off the crown. I had my watch splayed open, o-ring, dial now out, and boy did I feel like a doofus. At this point I was was in over my head, I needed spare parts, stuff you collect after years of working on something.

 

I put it all in a bag and just shipped it off to Seiko who will report back to me with an estimate for the repair costs. Amazon has messed with my expectation of shipping, spending $20 to ship a little box feels outrageous. I read somewhere the battery replacement runs $60 bucks, not sure about the crown. I'm on the fence, part of me wants to repair it at whatever the cost, to show my appreciation for my first big selfish purchase. I want to see her back and ticking again, let her see the world outside. The other half has a hard time spending what could be $120 on getting it fixed, though my imagination runs wild I have no real idea what the prognosis will be.

Edited March 5, 2015 by texasbear

[sbryantgb 0]

You have kept this watch for a long time. All be it in the back of a draw, so something kept you from getting rid of it over the years. So as you have written it has a lot of sentimental value. Thats hard to put a price on. Some would spend three times what you expect others only what it would cost to replace it. $120 seems a small price to pay for someone who appreciates watches, and wants to save a valued piece of their own history. I suppose then what if you had lost this watch completely would it have mattered? And if it showed up on Ebay for $120 completly repaired and serviced, would you be tempted to buy it back?

[texasbear 0]

I think you're right. I remember having looked everywhere to find it, and having that sad thought I really did lose it forever. I looked in all the boxes, even ones I didn't think it would be in before I did find it. Yup, I'm going to pay whatever the repair cost is. I sure as hell would buy it back for that much off eBay! I need to find some kind of watch repair video series to learn more, I felt so clumsy breaking that crown.

[sbryantgb 0]

Grab some cheapy Pulsars from Ebay and play with those until you have more confidence

[texasbear 0]

I just signed off on the repair bill! It came in at $250 at first, but they mentioned the band, which was fine when I shipped it. Turned out someone didn't look much at all and wanted to replace a perfectly good band because I didn't put a link pin in when I sent it. I talked to them about it and they said the movement is getting a full overhaul. Final repair cost $140, and I'll be happy to see her come home.

[plankton 1]

Nice......................................................................

[texasbear 0]

It came in yesterday! Happy to have it back and in working order. Next up is researching how to polish the titanium band. I forgot just how light it feels!

 

 

And a lume shot for kicks:

[sbryantgb 0]

[JLind 0]

Spin forward 5 years later.

You were very fortunate Seiko was able to repair your watch. They don't have any spare replacement movements anymore. I hope you've learned how to change batteries now. I wouldn't trust a Seiko 8Fxx Perpetual to just any jeweler. Mall watch kiosks are the absolute worst and don't know why any are trusted to do battery changes. The shopping mall jewelry stores aren't much better. Their skill ends with common battery changes . . . they cannot deal with these movements. I've got three of them and learned how to replace the Lithium cells myself after the Seiko AD with its own in-house full-service mechanical watch and clock repair could never get the reprogramming right. They were also using very old cells that had exceeded shelf life that lasted only a few years. I've done four battery replacements now. The 4F (women's) and 8F are a very special movement series, with the quartz oscillator running at 196 kHz, six times the standard 32 kHz. Enables very high accuracy compared to the standard quartz movement - about ten times the accuracy if you wear the watch daily, or nearly daily. This has to do with quartz oscillator temperature being about skin temperature 2/3 - 3/4 of the time. Off the wrist it will run just a shade fast. I've little doubt what swayed you when you bought it was the 10 year battery life and the high accuracy with a perpetual movement . . . you'll never have to reset the date for 10 years and you'll only be resetting the time when daylight savings time changes. That, and the Titanium coolness factor.

I've kept mine running. Seiko dropped the perpetual line entirely for several reasons. One is what you discovered, the fragility of the movement. Circuit board is paper thin and easily destroyed. Jewelry stores accustomed to common battery changes - pry one out and slam one in - were frequently destroying movements prying on the wrong things in the wrong places. In addition, a standard quartz doesn't need to be kick started to get it running again. They were declaring good watch movements dead when they didn't magically start running again on their own. Then there's the date, month and leapyear programming. They were clueless about it. HAQ (High Accuracy Quartz) watches are a tiny niche market. Seiko discovered they're not much of a selling point. Neither are "perpetual" movements. The average consumer is accustomed to a battery lasting two to three years, after which they pitch their thrashed and scratched watch and buy a new one. Finally, Seiko introduced their kinetic line which made ten year battery life redundant and obsolete. Add this up with a movement series that was more expensive to manufacture, and the demise of the 4F/8F perpetual line was a predictable business decision.

Went through the batteries changes about 4 years ago in these three plus another I had given to someone in return for some huge favors. Two are three-hand with date 8F32 movement. One is four-hand with date and GMT 8F56 movement. From the back side when changing the battery they look nearly identical.

Best Wishes,

John

Edited June 22, 2020 by JLind

[GingerApple 7,285]

FYI you just spent 30 minutes replying to a guy who hasn't visited the website in the last four years.

I appreciate your enthusiasm, but you might be better off sticking to more recent posts.

[FunnyStarSystem 7,538]

I'm so confused right now, but thoroughly entertained! 

I will say, if this was a similar story and involved Citizen instead of Seiko, there would be some type of violence at the climax.