Customised Seiko automatics – any experiences?

Recommendations where to buy?

Thinking of a customised SKX007

Yobokies the obvious one, get some on eBay with either his or Dagaz bits on. Tend to be over priced on there though.
Go direct to Harold (Yobokies)
I have one of each 🙂

Some mods go for strong money on ebay. I had a SNK809 (£50) fitted with Yobokies dial and hands (£45) and it fetched £160.

Best bet is to buy the watch from Creation (007’s are £120ish), source the parts from Dagaz or Yobokies and pay a local watchmaker an hours labour to put it together. Then when you get bored with it, stick it on ebay and sell it for a profit.

Yokobies Seiko 5 mod, with 70’s Tissot mesh bracelet. Doesn’t get much wear now, since I got my Seiko SPORK diver, which has a similar style face. Nice little watch.

Im after one too, would like a customised one but dont know much about them.
This site has a few vintage ones. http://www.qualitytime.org.uk/index.asp

I have a Yobokies seiko the sinn copy based on a 5. It’s for sale if anyone is interested.

Can I have a look please, email in my details. Ta

Go on MrSmith – post up a pic!

I have to find it first ( recently moved everything in boxes)

But it’s this one with a 45° date window and an unused seiko tan canvas strap but I don’t have the spring bars

Nice 😀 how much?? 😉

Lipstick->pig…

i have this one from yobokies,

Hmm, can’t be arsed to mess about with the photo bucket crap to get it working so it’s a 116610 mod on a seiko5 with a rolex bezel – that helps eh?. 😉

found it on a different forum

somafunk, thats my perfect watch, will have to try and contact yobokies.

Its rude to ask how much, but how much? 😳

I “think” by the time i paid import duties/shipping etc it was £200 ish?.

I’ve had it for two and a bit years and it’s now looking quite worn in as i’m not precious about it, it gets worn up the garage, working on the farm, collecting logs etc…. the glass face is scratched, the outer black bezel is a bit scuffed and dented in places but as it’s just a stick on item i guess i could change it if i was at all bothered and the case has a few deep scratches but to be fair i have worn it at all times and not really gave a crap about what happens to it.

Back in november i took a hit and came off the bike, the watch smacked off a rock and the second hand fell off the spindle and jammed under the minute hand so i took it to a jewellers in Dumfries who wanted £100+ to service it and replace the spindle as they said it was bent so i told them to stick it and i bought the tool online to unscrew the back, I removed the internal mech and stuck the second hand back on – needless to say it’s been fine since, and still waterproof 😀

Would i spend £200 on another one?, prob not – I’d spend another £200+ and source a Seiko Spork (which i originally wanted but could not find at the time).

boblo – Member
Lipstick->pig…

🙄
MrSmith’s is the original matt finish case version of mine, mine has been polished by Yokobies, but otherwise it’s the same Sinn-style face and hands.
Somafunk, good luck finding a SPORK for anything under around $450, or thereabouts, I was having a look out of curiosity yesterday, and they’re almost impossible to find now; I don’t think many were made, or were in production for very long.
Bloody glad I found mine as NOS with full dated warranty from a UK dealer.
Having a look at the bracelets on that Qualitytime site, I have one of those sharkskin mesh bracelets, cost me $18 from a dealer on eBay…

http://www.roachman.com/seiko/diver/SRP043K.html

There was one that came up on ebay quite recently for £450, practically brand new with all the correct certificates etc, i “almost” bought it but £450 is a heck of an amount to spend on a watch that i couldn’t wear everyday.

I’ve been trawling through my pics and thought I’d share some pics of a few of the mods that I’ve built over the last couple of years –

6309-7040 with orange dial, black day and date wheels and hands painted black and relumed –

6309 with the case machined to accept a Tuna style shroud, SBBN007 dial and SKX hands-

SNK809 with Yobokies dial and hands –

SKX007 DLC coated fitted with a Murphy bezel, Dagaz superdome sapphire and stealth insert, SKX171 dial and Ti Samurai hands –

SNK809 with Dagaz dial and hands –

SNK809 with Yobokies dial and hands-

SKX007 with a Murphy smooth bezel, polished aluminium chapter ring, unknown Seiko dial and Dagaz hands-

6309 with 6105 dial, Dagaz hands and insert-

DLC’d 6309 with domed sapphire –

Omega style 6309 with Dagaz dial, hands and insert and a sapphire crystal –

And finally,the only mod I currently own and the watch that’s on my wrist right now, a SKX171 with a Murphy bezel and 007 insert, Ti Samurai hands, clear case back and a hacking and hand winding 4R36 inside –

Fudd, awesome photos. Love the last one, really getting into the Seiko watches/mods, just need to find some good forums and guides.

Fudd – do you have any more pictures of the “SKX007 DLC coated fitted with a Murphy bezel, Dagaz superdome sapphire and stealth insert, SKX171 dial and Ti Samurai hands”? How much did it cost to do?

That is a really nice mod!

^ I was thinking that myself.

Group buy?!

Love the black one.
Still can’t find my yobokies, it’s in a box somewhere.
I had a really nice midsize 4025 diver that took ages to source a new domed crystal and bezel insert for and then after having a 31trum leather works stap made for it I think I have lost it 🙁

I have a Sinn style seiko military from yobokies, cracking watch. But unless you wear it every other day it runs out of juice. Wouldn’t be so bad if the date didn’t need changing every time

Fudd – do you have any more pictures of the “SKX007 DLC coated fitted with a Murphy bezel, Dagaz superdome sapphire and stealth insert, SKX171 dial and Ti Samurai hands”? How much did it cost to do?

That is a really nice mod!

Cheers! The coating from memory was around £80 with me sending the bare case to be done. I had the 6309 and SKX done at the same time with the intention of selling the 6309 to recoup some of the cost but it didn’t turn out exactly as planned. The 6309 sold for £240ish on ebay so I lost about £40 on that one and when I eventually sold the SKX it fetched £320, which was exactly what I had invested in it but ebay and paypal still had to take their slice 😐 . I’ve posted all the details and more pics here – http://wristsushi.proboards.com/thread/3529/dlcd-superdomed-skx-mod

Fudd, awesome photos. Love the last one, really getting into the Seiko watches/mods, just need to find some good forums and guides.

SCWF and Wrist Sushi are the two main Seiko forums I frequent and have all the info and inspiration you should need. The Seiko sub forum on Watchuseek is also worth a look.

Last time I was at my dentist he told me that his hobby was customising Seiko automatics. He’s on ebay as sausagedogseiko. If his care and attention as a dentist is anything to go by, his watches must be pretty good.

It strikes me as odd that he spends all his days hunched over doing repetitive but precision work with tiny tools then relaxes at home hunched over doing repetitive but precision work with tiny tools.

It strikes me as odd that he spends all his days hunched over doing repetitive but precision work with tiny tools then relaxes at home hunched over doing repetitive but precision work with tiny tools.

I’m friends with a retired orthopaedic surgeon who spent his work time doing fiddly work with screwing people’s hands and tendons back together, and had model railways as a hobby, which involved lots of fiddly work screwing engines together. It was a deliberate choice, as it improved his medical work.

i do not need anymore watches i do not need anymore watches i do not need anymore watches

Got a couple with Bill Yao dials and hands if anyone fancies.

Not divers, but nice and unique watches in perfect condition.

Thanks.

How do you know which bits are compatible with which watch?

Some Seiko’s are perfect just as they are… 😉

How do you know which bits are compatible with which watch?

All the Seiko 3 hand autos have the same hand hole sizes so you can buy a new set of hands and fit them to a watch made in the 60’s. The dials are also the same size but the locating feet differ depending on the position of the crown. You can fit a dial with a 4 o’clock crown to a watch with a 3 o’clock crown but the feet have to be removed and the dial secured to the movement with glue or double sided tape. Quartz and kinetics have different hand hole sizes and are not compatible with autos.

Some Seiko’s are perfect just as they are…

Almost perfect but not quite. The seconds hand with the lume on the wrong end is my only gripe with the Tuna, same goes for the SKX divers.

Is it possible to change the bezel on a Seiko solar divers?

Is it possible to change the bezel on a Seiko solar divers?

Is it the complete bezel or just the insert you want to change? I don’t know about the bezel but if its just the insert then you can compare the size here and then go from there.