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Old Seiko Diver's Watch - First Time Regulating

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1.9K views 9 replies 8 participants last post by  kevinkar  
T
#1 · (Edited)
I bought this Seiko Diver's Automatic Watch model 7S26-0028 years ago - maybe 20 or 30 years ago, I think - but didn't wear it much because it was very inaccurate. It ran really fast, gaining about 60 to 90 seconds or more per day. It has sat for years in one of those winder machines, and every time I would think about wearing it I would look to see that it was literally months ahead, and I would just shake my head and walk away. I thought about taking it to a watch repair place, but just never got around to it.

Over time I've gotten more interested in watches, I discovered this forum, bought a few tools to work on watches, and finally screwed my nerve up enough to get on with it.

Over the last week or so I would set the watch to an "Atomic" watch, then wear it for a day or so to see how much it was fast or slow, take the back off and tweak the escapement oscillator adjustment, put it back together and set it again - wash, rinse and repeat. It took about 5 or six tries, making tiny adjustments each way as needed. Here are the results:

Image


I last set it on Saturday mid-morning, and here it is Wednesday evening. I've photographed it with my Casio Solar Atomic so you can see that it's finally drifted about a minute over those several days.

I am stoked! I never thought this watch would ever be that accurate.

By the way, on Saturday I replaced the caseback o-ring with a new one, which I lubed before installing.

So what do you all think? Is it possible, or even worth it, to try tweaking it some more?
 
T
#5 ·
Good work! That watch was introduced somewhere around the mid-90s (it replaced the 7002 diver, which had a date-only window), and is bulletproof.

You'll notice the two levers on the watch balance - once adjusts the accuracy (causes the watch to gain or lose time per day), the other adjusts the beat error (essentially ensures that a "tic" and a "toc" are the same length of time). It sounds like you've only focused on the accuracy of the watch - which may be enough - but if you aren't able to get it to a satisfactory accuracy (with patience, the 7s26 movement can easily run at less than 10 seconds/day), it may be worth having a watchmaker evaluate the beat error. One other suggestion on the accuracy: there's a smartphone app called Kello that you can use to evaluate the accuracy of the watch while you're adjusting it, so you don't have to wait a day or two to see how it runs. I had good luck with that app for over a year, until I finally gave in and bought a timegrapher. The app works by plugging in a smartphone headphone (with microphone), and then placing the watch on the microphone - it then listens to the ticking and outputs the accuracy of the watch. Not essential, but may speed up your process! Good luck!
 
#10 ·
I think you can try to continue adjusting but the problem, at least in my experience, is that additional adjustments have to be sooooooo small as to be practically imperceptible to you as you make them. Meaning the next adjustment you make has to be basically touching the adjustment lever and not pushing it so you feel it move. Maybe bumping it a bit but not moving it. Just enough to "microscopically" move it.

I've gotten a watch or two to be really close to where I want them to be so I made *one more correction* and it was suddenly too far the other way. Ugh. Pushing it back usually over corrects again so I'd have to start over again. Sometimes I've had to push the lever pretty far one way, much farther than you'd ever want to, and then back the other direction and center it again. Repeat the regulation process trying to zero in and that usually works well in extreme cases.

So you should keep trying to get it where you want it so you're happy. Otherwise you'll always be annoyed. Just know that sometimes the watch just won't get to where you want it to be so you have to be happy with it.

Good luck.
 
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