WatchUSeek Watch Forums banner
Cancel
Create thread New Forums

best drop in replacement for 7s26 movement?

1 reading
Jump to Latest
1 - 20 of 99 Posts

whitestripes

· Registered
Joined
·
1,187 Posts
Discussion starter · #1 ·
I think the movement in my SKX031 is crapping out on me soon... the power reserve is less than a day after shaking it and active wear for a day when it used to last 2 days. the movement is too cheap to service so i'd rather just drop in a replacement (the watch has sentimental value to me).

is the ne15 a drop in? maybe i can upgrade it to a hacking handwinding at this point in time. how much?

thanks!
 
#3 ·
It is very disappointing to come across so many people having bad feeling about the 7S26 movement. To be honest, the movement is one of the best - aside from cheapness [ cost wise] as well. My SKX 007 has now been tweaked to excellent time. Before I used to have to turn the hand back to 2 mins. every two weeks & now it's + - 2 secs. after three days running without exception. Thanks to SEIKO again.
 
Save
Reply Quote Like Like
#4 ·
ec633 said:
It is very disappointing to come across so many people having bad feeling about the 7S26 movement. To be honest, the movement is one of the best - aside from cheapness [ cost wise] as well. My SKX 007 has now been tweaked to excellent time. Before I used to have to turn the hand back to 2 mins. every two weeks & now it's + - 2 secs. after three days running without exception. Thanks to SEIKO again.
Click to expand...
Who said anything bad about it? The OP's probably needs a service, and they're not worth servicing (which costs $150+) when you can buy em for 50 bucks a pop. Hacking and handwinding are nice to have, so OP figured he might as well see what else is out there i assume.
 
#5 ·
ec633 said:
It is very disappointing to come across so many people having bad feeling about the 7S26 movement. To be honest, the movement is one of the best - aside from cheapness [ cost wise] as well. My SKX 007 has now been tweaked to excellent time. Before I used to have to turn the hand back to 2 mins. every two weeks & now it's + - 2 secs. after three days running without exception. Thanks to SEIKO again.
Click to expand...
I'm surprised how many Seiko 5 users have them super accurate out from the factory. And i've seen loads of similar reports from users here. Which is surprising for a such "low grade" automatic watch. Sure it varies a lot but still, the average is pretty impressive.
 
Save
Reply Quote Like Like
#7 ·
I would definitely just drop in a new 7s26. Its a straight swap and a much cheaper option to using any higher end handwind or hacking movements. They can be had for $50 from 10watches or around $65-80 with a watch wrapped around it in the form of any cheap seiko 5 eg. snk809.
 
#8 · (Edited)
box_of said:
I would definitely just drop in a new 7s26. Its a straight swap and a much cheaper option to using any higher end handwind or hacking movements. They can be had for $50 from 10watches or around $65-80 with a watch wrapped around it in the form of any cheap seiko 5 eg. snk809.
Click to expand...
This is very interesting. The 7S26 movement is cheaper to buy than doing a service on the old 7S26 movement.
Hmmmmmm. I wonder why it's cheaper to buy a brand new 7S26 movement than it is to service the old one? Has the 7S26 movement become a "disposable" movement? That's what it sounds like.
It would be nice to "preserve" this movement rather than disposing it and throwing it away like that. There will come a day when the 7S26 movement will become scarce if everybody starts tossing them away like this whenever they need service. The savings cannot be that much of a difference with the labor cost involved to physically transplant a brand new 7S26 movement inside the watch when compared to the costs for servicing it.
 
#9 ·
Tick Toc said:
This is very interesting. The 7S26 movement is cheaper to buy than doing a service on the old 7S26 movement.
Hmmmmmm. I wonder why it's cheaper to buy a brand new 7S26 movement than it is to service the old one? Has the 7S26 movement become a "disposable" movement? That's what it sounds like.
It would be nice to "preserve" this movement rather than disposing it and throwing it away like that. There will come a day when the 7S26 movement will become scarce if everybody starts tossing them away like this whenever they need service. The savings cannot be that much of a difference with the labor cost involved to physically transplant a brand new 7S26 movement inside the watch when compared to the costs for servicing it.
Click to expand...
Speak to your local watch maker and ask them how much they charge per hour for servicing any movement... They can answer your question as to the reason why
 
#10 ·
Just a small important point I learned when getting a recent mod done at NEWW. The 7s26 movements have two different types of spacers. One for diver cases, another one for say, dress Seiko 5s. You may need to swap spacers or make sure you get the right one for the case. Duarte at NEWW confirmed that the 7s26s sold on Chronograph.com do fit SKX cases. Jake's are not a direct drop in because the spacer is more shallow. Just passing along something I learned through experience.
 
#12 ·
aladin_sane said:
I am curious about this spacer you mentioned. I have on several occasions taken 7s26 movements out of seiko 5 dress watches and transplanted them into divers. I never saw or changed any "spacer".

Do you have any pictures?
Click to expand...
They probably mean the movement holder ring. And the parts lists show only one part.
I have done lots of swapping of 7s26/36 movements and have only ever seen the one style of ring also.
 
#13 ·
aladin_sane said:
I am curious about this spacer you mentioned. I have on several occasions taken 7s26 movements out of seiko 5 dress watches and transplanted them into divers. I never saw or changed any "spacer".

Do you have any pictures?
Click to expand...
It is the black ring around the movement. You need to remove the date wheel to do it cleanly. I swapped one with a shallow ring into my Stargate, and I don't know if it was due to the spacer, but the rotor ended up failing.
 
#14 ·
Pawl_Buster said:
They probably mean the movement holder ring. And the parts lists show only one part.
I have done lots of swapping of 7s26/36 movements and have only ever seen the one style of ring also.
Click to expand...
I have actually seen 3 sizes of the ring. The diver being the tallest, then the one out of a Seiko 5 snk809 was very close, maybe 0.5mm difference, then a very shallow one from a 7s26 dress watch that allowed the movement to hang 1mm with the case back closed.
 
#15 ·
subterfuge said:
It is the black ring around the movement. You need to remove the date wheel to do it cleanly. I swapped one with a shallow ring into my Stargate, and I don't know if it was due to the spacer, but the rotor ended up failing.
Click to expand...
Got a part number? The technical sheets/parts lists show only one movement ring.

Ok; just double checked the tech sheet. Had to go down to page 7 where it lists two part numbers(4408 170 and 4408 171) to choose from. It references the casing guides to help choose the correct one.
 
#16 · (Edited)
xristianos said:
Speak to your local watch maker and ask them how much they charge per hour for servicing any movement... They can answer your question as to the reason why
Click to expand...
I fully understand that there's labor cost involved when disassembling an reassembling the movement during service. That's a given.

What I'm really referring to here is that there will be labor costs no matter what. There will be labor costs involved just to take out the movement and the hands and dial and the old movement and replace it with a brand new whole movment including the price for the brand new movment. How long does it take to do this when compared to disassembling and reassembling the entire movement during servicing? If the cost difference is only $30 to $50, then it would be unwise and not frugal to replace the old movement with a brand new one just to save $30 to $50. Do you see what I mean?
I would think that this would be a judgement call depending upon what different watch repair people would charge for a full service.
 
#17 ·
You can install an already complete movement into an existing watch in under an hour. A pro could do it in his sleep.

Taking apart, cleaning, and lubing an existing movement is simply a lot more work.
 
#18 ·
W123 said:
You can install an already complete movement into an existing watch in under an hour. A pro could do it in his sleep.

Taking apart, cleaning, and lubing an existing movement is simply a lot more work.
Click to expand...
And it's not even close. You still have to remove the dial & hands regardless. I'm just getting to the point where I want to start servicing my own movements, but it purely an academic pursuit. I have some old 7s26s laying around that I want to see if I can resurrect, but if it were a matter of dollars and cents (or sense for that matter) there would be no question as to what would be more economical in time, money, and effort.
 
#19 ·
Hi Aladin, I thought what you said is true too. I'm sorry I do not have any photos, it's simply something I passed on from Duarte at NEWW and Jake B collectively. I was building a SKX031 mod from scratch, meaning case, movement, stem, caseback, crystal... everything sourced separately and Duarte just told me the movement from Jake's site was not a direct drop in. I have no actual hard evidence, admittedly.

aladin_sane said:
I am curious about this spacer you mentioned. I have on several occasions taken 7s26 movements out of seiko 5 dress watches and transplanted them into divers. I never saw or changed any "spacer".

Do you have any pictures?
Click to expand...
 
#20 ·
Is there a link or website to search for parts for the 7S26/36 movements? Thanks in advance.

Pawl_Buster said:
Got a part number? The technical sheets/parts lists show only one movement ring.

Ok; just double checked the tech sheet. Had to go down to page 7 where it lists two part numbers(4408 170 and 4408 171) to choose from. It references the casing guides to help choose the correct one.
Click to expand...
 
1 - 20 of 99 Posts
About this Discussion
98 Replies
23 Participants
Last post:
mgp123
WatchUSeek Watch Forums
posts
24M
members
618K
Since
2005
A forum community dedicated to watch owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about watch collections, displays, watch winders, accessories, classifieds, and more! We welcome all manufacturers including Casio G-Shock, OMEGA, Rolex, Breitling, Rolex and Tudor, Seiko, Grand Seiko and others.
Full Forum Listing
Explore Our Forums
Public Forum Watches - Private Sellers and Sponsors Affordable watches Dive watches Casio G-Shock