New watch

Total price, including shipping from India, was like $39. It even came with this strap.

That's a nice watch for $40 delivered. How can you tell it's genuine? Or is that about the going price for a Seiko these days? Is it an auto-winder or batteries?

Nice looking watch. The first decent watch I bought was a Seiko and I love the way it feels and the weight behind it.

Dr. Hess wrote: That's a nice watch for $40 delivered. How can you tell it's genuine? Or is that about the going price for a Seiko these days? Is it an auto-winder or batteries?

I figured that's what an older Seiko 5 is worth. It's an automatic.

I need to ask more details- how thick is it? What size?

Alternately, where did you find it? I can always have the face changed to one I have (which is also a Seiko that died)

I bought it via Etsy, and there are some more details there: Linky.

And according to the receipt it was $37.99 delivered.

Link doesn't go to your watch, but it still went to etsy. So I looked up some seikos. Have to really figure if I want to go that way, or just get a movement that will fit in it....

Here are the details:

seiko 5 watch automatic men vintage day date 21j clean condition two tone color wrist watch Cal.7s26

Item Details Japan Made Seiko 5 Automatic Day/Dater Automatic 21 Jewels watch Original clean condition two tone dial ,After market strap(not original) clean Crystal, Recently serviced ,Keeping Good Time Recently Serviced but please expect them to lose or gain 2-3 min.in 24 hours time Case Dimension --35 MM ----Across The Diameter( Excluding Crown) And 39 MM ---Lug To Lug

Please see the clear back engraving - 100% Authentic Watch carefully Polished /buffed by a professional I take and post real pictures and what you see is what you get. Sometimes Better than As it appears In Pictures Vintage watches are all used and show signs of usage. It is possible that some parts may have been replaced with other original/after market used parts.

That looks interesting.

So, just how good do the seiko automatics keep time? Curious, really. My Rolex is 6 seconds a day fast. Every day, 6 seconds. I can argue that it does specifically say on the face that it is a chronograph, and chronographs keep rate, not time, so if it is consistently 6 seconds a day fast, that is keeping virtually perfect rate.

2-3 minutes a day is kinda not-good by my standard.

In reply to David S. Wallens:

Given the right case and band, my class face (the one from college) would go right on.

Right now, I'm looking at a using a replica of the ETA 2892 which would fit in the original case. It would be cool to use the Seiko movement of the similar size, but those watches are going for more than $1000....

So I think I'm going with the Chinese movement and the case I have.

In reply to Dr. Hess:

From what I've read, your ETA movement can be adjusted better(or worse). Need Civic here to talk more about it- he seems to know much more about it.

But all movements wear and age. If Dave has this one serviced, it will be much better.

None the less, my beginner looking at the movements- the Seiko is held in quite high regard.

I have not worn a watch in years.. and I do not miss it. If I had to go back to wearing a watch it would be one of these:

Slow-time

I've had it serviced a few times. I used to go to a Chinese watchmaker in South Houston. He was great. He had one of the super special audio based printing machines synced to WWV or something and set it by that. I saw the printout and it had zero drift over the hour or so it was on the machine. The problem is, as I see it and I am not a watchmaker, is that the spring will have different tension throughout the day. Wear it and it is wound up. Put it on the nightstand and it will not wind. Whatever specific conditions it had when it was set by the machine will not necessarily be a general average of the day's wear conditions. Anyway, 6 seconds is pretty good, I think, and like I said, it's a chronometer not a watch or clock. Maybe the distinction is lost on people that have never navigated by the sun and stars.

mad_machine wrote: I have not worn a watch in years.. and I do not miss it. If I had to go back to wearing a watch it would be one of these: Slow-time

I don't necessarily wear one to keep time. I like how it looks.

My automatic watches are all re-set to my phone anyway.

Those are pretty cool. But not my style of face.

I spent too much time in machine shops. I want to wear watches, but no longer do.

Dr. Hess wrote: I've had it serviced a few times. I used to go to a Chinese watchmaker in South Houston. He was great. He had one of the super special audio based printing machines synced to WWV or something and set it by that. I saw the printout and it had zero drift over the hour or so it was on the machine. The problem is, as I see it and I am not a watchmaker, is that the spring will have different tension throughout the day. Wear it and it is wound up. Put it on the nightstand and it will not wind. Whatever specific conditions it had when it was set by the machine will not necessarily be a general average of the day's wear conditions. Anyway, 6 seconds is pretty good, I think, and like I said, it's a chronometer not a watch or clock. Maybe the distinction is lost on people that have never navigated by the sun and stars.

Nice watches like these are jewelry. They look cool, or pretty, or nice. If we wanted an accurate time keeper, we'd get a digital watch from Timex.

Can't go wrong with a Casio F-91W with a decent strap either ftw. Cheap to boot, accurate, day/date, alarm, stop watch and hourly chime..

I actually bought a new Seiko 5 from Amazon after seeing the previous thread about these. I've only had it a couple weeks, but it's been a nice watch so far. My only quibble is that I was accustomed to automatics having a manual wind function, which this watch does not. If I don't wear it enough to keep it wound, it will need to be reset and resetting is a little bit complicated because of the day and date feature. I am getting accustomed to it though. Maybe I should get one of those stands that keeps automatics wound...

In reply to mtn:

I was just about to say, I haven't adjusted my $25 Timex in probably 18 months (it has two times set, so I can flip back a forth daylight savings easily), and I bet it is less than a minute different than when I set it.

In other news, can you guys elaborate on the difference between a clock and a chronometer? Is it like the difference between weight and mass?

Dr. Hess wrote: The problem is, as I see it and I am not a watchmaker, is that the spring will have different tension throughout the day. Wear it and it is wound up. Put it on the nightstand and it will not wind. Whatever specific conditions it had when it was set by the machine will not necessarily be a general average of the day's wear conditions.

The watch will have a system that makes for a constant speed regardless of spring tension. I'm pretty sure this sort of thing was sorted out about 350 years ago when clockmaking was a big deal due to those astrological readings you mentioned. I read a really good book a few years ago about the race to develop a clock that would keep accurate time on ships to solve the longitude problem - fascinating stuff.

Dr. Hess wrote: That looks interesting. So, just how good do the seiko automatics keep time? Curious, really. My Rolex is 6 seconds a day fast. Every day, 6 seconds. I can argue that it does specifically say on the face that it is a chronograph, and chronographs keep rate, not time, so if it is consistently 6 seconds a day fast, that is keeping virtually perfect rate. 2-3 minutes a day is kinda not-good by my standard.

I know this is a lame answer, but I'd have to say "good enough for me." I have been wearing my original Seiko 5 for nearly 10 years. I have never found it too far off, but I haven't compared it against my phone, either. Plus since it has a non-hacking second hand, I just set the minute and hour hands.

The "new" (well, used one) is doing fine. It current says that it's 4:33, which my computer confirms.

Robbie wrote: In other news, can you guys elaborate on the difference between a clock and a chronometer? Is it like the difference between weight and mass?

A clock keeps time. What time is it? 16:07:12CST. Give or take. A chronometer, such as is used to navigate or the one on my wrist at the moment (which I have navigated with), keeps rate. It runs at a particular rate and is designed to run at that rate as close as it can. Now, you would like the rate to be close to Time, so that other stuff gets easier, but the most important thing is Rate. For example, let's take my wrist chronograph as an example. If it keeps a Rate and is 6 seconds per day fast, then if we start with a known time, like 21:07:12 GMT, and compare that to what the chronograph says, 16:07:12 (let's just assume we know to add 12 hours to the "4"), and to keep it simple, we'll just say that we add 5 hours to get to GMT. Now, lets go forward in time and say it is 12 hours later. We know from observations that the chronograph is gaining 6 seconds per 24 hours. 12 hours / 24 hours = 0.5. 0.5 * 6 seconds correction = 3 seconds. So at 04:07:12CST tomorrow morning, the chronograph will show 04:07:15. To get to actual GMT, we would subtract 3 seconds and add 5 hours and get 09:07:12 GMT. We then use that time in the almanacs to get our celestial calculated positions. If we did this 4 hours in the future instead of 12 hours, then we would do 4/24 = 0.16667 and multiply that * 6 to get a 1 second difference instead of 3 seconds.

As long as we know the Rate of our chronometer and the offset at one point in time, we can get the actual Time.

Update: My "new" watch says that it's 9:38, so looks like we're still doing good.

I have a problem - I love watches. Thats not the problem though, the problem is I bought a refurb LG smartwatch on Woot for $60...now Im ruined on mechanicals. I love the look of nice watches. SWMBO has given me several as gifts over the years, which added to my small collection. Even after paring down the fleet a few years ago, I have 4 nicer watches left. Nicer being Diesel and Kenneth Cole - not really show stopping brands, but theyre the designs I liked most and also have sentimental value. 2 are automatic and skeleton designs, and 2 are more contemporary designs. But, I almost never wear them anymore because Ive become an addict to the functionality of my smartwatch.

Step one is admitting you have a problem...