Modified Watches
Seiko SKX Pilot Thirty minute mod
The niche watch modding cottage industry that was born in the noughties has since exploded, relatively speaking, to an industrial scale with a proliferation of parts designed around the Seiko SKX dive watch architecture now widely available. Back in 2011, you had to hunt a little harder to track down interesting parts for modified watch creations. The component parts for the watch described here were: one Seiko SKX007; a Murphy Engineering machined pilot bezel; a MkII Plongeur dial (yes, that MkII); and a set of Seiko SKZ211K hands.
For the account of this mod project from 2011, please click here.
A hacking day/date Seiko 6105-8110
Seiko is a brand used most commonly by the ‘modder’ not least because of the availability of numerous donor watches from past and present. Seiko appeals too because of the easy interchangeability of parts, particularly when you get your eye in and recognize compatibility between cases, movements, dials and hands.
The most commonly modified Seiko watch is undoubtedly the SKX007 divers watch featuring the ubiquitous 7S26 movement. A few years ago, there was also a vibrant (after)market in parts for the 6309 divers and it was this compatibility between the 63 and 61-series that provided the basis for an idea in 2013 to pair a 21 jewel Seiko 6306A with a Seiko 6105-8110 case. The other components included an original dial from a Seiko 6309-7040, hands from a SKZ211 and a bezel insert from a Seiko Tuna SBBN007.
For all of the gory details, please click here.
Seiko SKX Coin-edge bezel mod
An alternative to starting with a complete watch is to construct a watch from component parts. In 2013, I took this approach to build two Seiko SKX-based project watches, one of which used as its basis a new 7S26-7020 case and combined that with domed acrylic crystal, Murphy Engineering coin-edge bezel, and an insert from a parts supplier in Hong Kong. The movement was a 7S36, a slightly enhanced version of the ubiquitous 7S25, the dial an aftermarket Seamaster style and the hands, yes, you guessed it, from an SKZ211 (clearly I was rather taken by this look).
An account of this build, compared with a second variation, assembled in parallel, can be found here.
A high-beat, hand-wind Seiko 6105-8000
As hair-brained schemes go, this one turned out a treat, once I’d navigated a path through a number of un-anticipated obstacles. The original 17 jewel 6105A automatic shares its DNA with the blue-blooded high-beat Grand Seiko 6145/6 and in principle a transplant seemed feasible. However, the physical requirements of an automatic movement running at 36000 beats per hour require more commodious accommodation than that provided by the original 6105 case. You can read about how these and other challenges were overcome in two posts made in 2016, here and here.
Seiko 62MAS hot-rod
In 2010, I bought a rather ratty Seiko 62MAS. Its movement was tired, its hour markers pock-marked with black funk and its bezel insert somewhat nibbled by corrosion. 2010 was pre-nutty inflation in vintage watch values so I felt less inhibited about setting on a path to upgrade this watch to a level considerably elevated from its blue-collar origins. That process was an iterative one, culminating in 2020 with second movement swap to a 35 jewel, seconds hacking donor from a Seikomatic 6216 (the sister to the Grand Seiko 6246).
The story is summarised in a post which can be found here. That post links at its end to an 8 minute YouTube video documenting the process in more detail.
A faux milspec Seiko 6309
Sometimes, you buy a watch not because you like it particularly, but because you like something about it: a nice case married to an ugly dial or a lovely dial in an ordinary case. In 2011, I bought a gold-plated Seiko 6309-8019 whose case was beyond salvage but with the most wonderful sunburst gilt dial featuring with lume-filled gilt-framed applied markers. I paired that dial in 2013 with a freshly-serviced 6309A, and housed it in a heavily weathered case from a 6319-8000. I revisited this mod in 2023, replacing the movement with a 6319 hybrid and housing the freshened innards in a new old stock 6309-8010 case.
The story of this watch is recounted in two posts, here and here.
Three-into-one Seiko 5 Sportsmatic Deluxe
The distinction between restoration and modification can sometimes be a little difficult to discern but this project probably just teeters over the edge into modified territory. The starting point was a Seiko 5 Sportsmatic Deluxe 7619-7050 from November 1965 but the end result is a Frankenstein construction of the case, dial and hands from the original watch, a movement and one dial hour marker from a second donor watch and a polished steel bezel sourced from a NOS 7606-7991 case.
The story of this project can be found here.
Seikomatic 6218/6216 hybrid
From time to time, an assortment of off-cuts from other projects calls to you and a concept is born. This watch combines the case, dial and hands from a 6216-9000 (whose original 6216A had been used to power the 62MAS hot-rod, described above) with a sufficiency of 6218 parts to assemble a complete movement. The original dial, which I had thought unsalvageable, has been given a new lease of life, courtesy of lashings of elbow grease. To read the full story, please click here.