My Dad has owned this Seiko 5 for approximately 1 billion years. It's had the occasional service, the glass and strap replaced a couple of times, but now it is desperately in need of a some proper TLC. It will stop running if left still for more than a few hours, and just by listening to it, it sounds less than perfect.
He had a Seiko dealer look at it, but was told that it was too old to service.
He was gifted it sometime in the early 70's, and it holds huge sentimental value, not just to him, but to me also. It's the watch he's worn almost everyday for the last 50+ years.
I know there's many of you here with vast watch based knowledge. Can anyone recommend a good place to have it looked at?
It's not a super expensive, rare, or sought after example, by the looks of the prices on the second hand market. But to us, it's very special.
t's not a super expensive, rare, or sought after example, by the looks of the prices on the second hand market.
Have you looked on the hour hand market instead 😉
Sorry. I like it though. It reminds me of my late grandfather's watch - his had multiple dials IIRC.
... I thought the thread was going to be a video stream of a group of boffins at an event.
Thats a lovely watch and hats off to you for wanting to keep it going (I have a "thing" for vintage Seiko's so I am somewhat biased)
Your most economical option is probably to swap the movement - thats if you're OK with not keeping it 100% original (donor movement could be from another Seiko 5 or an aftermarket replacement) If you are committed to keeping it as original as possible, there are quite a few Seiko specialists (Insta is a good place to start) that would be my starting point.
I would prefer to keep the movement original, as much as possible. I expect that a rebuild will entail replacement parts to some extent, but keeping the movement as close to original feels like the right thing to do.
That makes sense. The glass and strap have already been replaced and then you replace the movement, the only original parts are the case and the dial.
Have you tried anywhere else? Maybe a small independent? Had a watch once that a couple of places said was beyond repair, then the third chap pulled a small fibre out of it and it's been perfect since.
There's a member on here who replied my ancient Omega, he's a proper watch maker. I'll have a trawl through the big watch thread later because as usual my terrible memory for names means it alludes me.
I’ve had stuff done here before and still use him
https://smarttimesolutions.co.uk
Aaron is the owner, is a proper watch maker and does a lot of work for jewellers that send him stuff because they can’t do stuff in house.
I’ve used him for prob 15 years and my dad has had stuff serviced by him also.
I used Chris who has the listings below to overhaul a 1962 Rolex and he was great and sourced some parts to complete the work at very favourable prices.
I would recommend dropping him a line in your case
If you are near Birmingham I can recommend taking it here: https://www.fmeeks.co.uk/
It's worth it just to see the shop where they have drawer upon drawer of spare parts for watches, including a balance staff for my 1940s Cyma.
You could do a lot worse than send it to the official Seiko Service Centre - Repairs & Servicing - Seiko UK Limited - After Sales Service
I've used them a couple of times for servicing/repairing the 30 year old Seiko 5 that I got as a graduation present from my folks. Wherever you take/send it it you will absolutely pay more to get it serviced than it is worth, but (if you're like me) that's hardly the point, is it?
I thought this was going to be a video of some boffins gathering somewhere
I've a Seiko Kinetic that's 25 years old that stopped working and, after some research, went with: https://kinetic-repairs.co.uk/seiko/
Came back perfect. Only do seiko and not just kinetic.
In fact here's a pic; not of high value but i love it and wear it every day... 
Those Kinetic Repairs folks don't sound very keen on doing Seiko 5's
Here we go, a recommendation from Chipps too that sounds exactly what you're after @seadog101
I'd definitely use again.
The page with this discussion and his contact details is here. https://singletrackworld.com/forum/off-topic/watches-n1/paged/216/
This is great, I'll get in touch with the one you're all mentioning and go from there.
It's Dad's 85th birthday later this year, it'll be a great present to get it up and running properly again.
Only place I send my seiko. Top fella busy thou
Wherever you take/send it it you will absolutely pay more to get it serviced than it is worth, but (if you're like me) that's hardly the point, is it?
Absolutely! The Yema Rallygraf Super I’m currently wearing I bought roughly fifty years ago for £50, quite a lot of money back then, but it was the first watch I bought with my own money, and after having a problem fixed by a retired watchmaker, the mainspring broke and I couldn’t find anyone who could sort it out, until I came across a group of shops in Marlborough, Royal Wootton Bassett and Swindon who have in-house watchmakers, so I gave it to them.
They repaired it and gave the whole watch a full service with a new crystal, etc, and it cost me about £460.
A lot of money, sure, but it had great sentimental value, so I was happy to pay it.
Hunting around on the internet for similar examples, I found quite a few decidedly iffy ones, but then I found one that had sold at auction in London, Watches of Knightsbridge in fact, with the reserve price, so I phoned them up and asked what it had sold for, as I have one the same: £3950 was the answer, which made me a very happy bunny, justifying, if it was needed, what I’d spent to have it fixed.
I'm going to see what the Watch Doctors say. They've come up positively in other searches.
