Community > Muppets Threads! (And Anything Else)

Rohloff oil- an alternative that worked for me

<< < (2/2)

steve216c:

--- Quote from: Andre Jute on January 27, 2022, 07:24:15 am ---
--- Quote from: mickeg on January 26, 2022, 10:07:05 pm ---I have no clue what a Seiko 5 is.
--- End quote ---

It's Seiko's idea of a young man's first mechanical watch in a digital world. It is probably the most successful watch range of all time, with tens of millions sold. ...

... I don't like electrical watch winders for the usual technical reasons, the main one being that their regular movement wears shafts and gears unnaturally and in the same place.

--- End quote ---

 ;D My first Seiko 5 was found in 1985 in the gutter parking bay on the High Street in Camberley when I was 15. Other than a brief period of wearing a mechanical watch at 5 years old to read the time, I got my first digital as my 6th birthday present and had leaned heavily to digital up until an interest in analogue in my age group was rekindled with the launch of reliable quartz watches as Swatch flooded the market. The Seiko had had the rear plate engraved with the name Andy whom I presumed to have lost the watch while getting dropped off/picked up on the double yellow lines. I took it to the local police station assuming the owner would have wanted it back- given that I had seen similar looking watches in Hinds window costing GBP 60 at the time- in real terms, accounting for inflation is almost GBP 200 according to one online calculator. A few weeks later, a kindly PC called and informed me that the owner had not contacted them and said I could pick it up if I wanted.

A young man's first mechanical watch in a digital world? You hit that nail on the head!

I wore Andy's watch for 10 years where it performed reliably throughout. At least until I scolded myself looking at an overheated engine. In my shock I threw my arm backwards, and Andy's watch glass smashed against the engine block! Seiko watches had come down in real term price in those 10 years, but I was broke, was in the process of moving to Germany, and had just got engaged. A new glass fitted cost more than I was prepared to endure, so I went through a series of 'disposable' watches (never more than a couple of pounds a piece) until my wife and I bought matching his/her Citizen watches as wedding presents to each other a couple of years later.
I had begged to get matching Seikos, but the Citizens, with similar faces and straps were super slim quartz movements. My wife didn't like the chunkier Seikos which cost about the same price.

I had presumed the Citizen to be a stainless steel design. This was important to me as I get allergies from many other metals. But at some point I started to notice irritation around the crown as the chrome coating wore away to the base metal. And then my wife lost hers.

In 2003 I was on holiday in the USA, and saw Seiko 5 for about $60 in Walmart with the 7S26 movement. This was around half the European price. So my wife and I treated ourselves. I'd later fancied a different watch face colour, so when friends from US came to visit, they purchased another Seiko on my behalf before flying. And my two watches have been worn in rotation since then. Stainless Steel cases mean no skin irritation, and with no batteries to worry about, performed much like a Rohloff. They simply worked without any intervention day after day and year after year. I did manage to knock one of them into gaining 6 minutes a day after a day of hammering and power tools. Having watched a jeweler open the back and adjust back to good time keeping in under 2 minutes and EUR 25, I decided to order a case removal tool (EUR 12 from China) and attempt this myself following youtube guides. I adjusted the other one to be slightly more accurate, and since then both have kept pretty good time until this incident. As I had the right tool to remove the back, and the internet as a guide on what to do, it was a no brainer to give this a go.

So I, like Andre, am not overly partial on electric watches. While I cannot fathom what drives me to want to wear a mechanical watch that is not as accurate or as slim/stylish as a slim modern watch or useful as a smart watch, I love the fact that this is old school technology that may not be cutting edge, but is simply a joy to own. Those Seiko springs and gears working harmoniously together and requiring little to no input from the user- much like a Rohloff hub. Most of us will never have the need to open them up because of their proven reliability and durability.

And Andre, thanks for the tip on the NH35/NH36 movements. I had indeed wondered about the compatibility issues, for which I am now wiser from your advice as my 7S26 watches both have 4 o'clock crowns. 

Tiberius:
steve216c - That's a great little story, very well done.

I would definitely avoid sending anything back to Seiko (UK) It took them three stabs to get my NEW Seiko SKX007 (stone age 7s26 movement) to anywhere near it's accuracy range. I think that they eventually just popped a new movement in, job done.

I love mechanical watches.

mickeg:
I have several watches, usually am wearing one with hands.  Several have hands but no digital data.  I have a couple with hands and also a digital window for alarm, stop watch, etc.  I probably have half a dozen different watches that I occasionally wear, most Casio.  The two Seiko vintage mechanical ones, have not worn in decades but I have no reason to part with them.

And one pure digital that I only use for travel.  For travel I wear the one in the photo, it has five alarms, barometer, compass, these things come in handy for travel.  On the morning I took the photo I was trying to get to the ferry before it left, this might be the earliest that I ever packed up my campsite on a bike trip, the photo was to document the time I got underway.  But I prefer to read time with hands, thus that watch normally is in storage and waiting for the next time I go on a trip.

If I want to wear a heavy weighty thing on my wrist to improve my arm strength <sarcasm alert>, I wear one of these.  Mine is all black, not silver.  I am on my third band, the band is proprietary, no other band fits which is a bummer.  I mostly wear it as a dress watch, and rarely dress up so most of the time one of the two batteries is dead.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YANJ-8rQz1w

ADDENDUM:
And to make this discussion more pertinent, that is a Rohloff hub on the bike in the photo.

steve216c:
Fill 'em up...

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[*] Previous page