My one remaining original Seiko 6105-8119 has been a staple in my collection for well over two years. I like it particularly because it shows a certain amount of its history. It is by no means perfect but I have spent a considerable amount on it over the years in spite of this and enjoy wearing it as one of my regulars. The big ticket fettling included a service and relume, which saw it out of my hands for over 6 months. In addition I have stripped and cleaned the case, replaced all the gaskets (except the crown - more of which shortly), added a new Seiko insert and fitted an exceptionally nice, and no longer available sapphire crystal. This is how it looked a couple of years ago:
In the Autumn last year, I finally resolved to take a look at the stem because I had suspected that it was ever so slightly too short which was causing some minor problems with the way in which it engaged in the movement. I was rather surprised when I removed it to find that it appeared to have been in the wars:
In addition to the condition of the crown itself, the stem was indeed a tad too short and it was also clear that the watch was not particularly water resistant. And so in November I emailed Randall Benson to ask for a quote to have him perform a triplock conversion on the case. Randall gave me a quote I was happy with, and an estimated turnaround of a couple of months. So I stripped down the watch and packed off the bare case, crown and stem to Randall. Just after Christmas he told me my case was next in line and a week later I had the tracking number and a further 5 days, the case itself. Earlier this week, I set about reassembling the watch. I needed to make some minor adjustments to the stem extender to get the stem to fully engage but without too much bother, it all came back together and now looks like this:
Here's a side view of the new crown:
and a comparison with one of my other large cased 6105 project watches showing how the original crown compares to the new:
A close up from the top with the crown unscrewed and at the number 2 position
and from the rear
I am really delighted with the result. Randall was an absolute pleasure to deal with and stuck to the timeframe he originally quoted which these days seems rather unusual! I am seriously thinking now about getting the same thing done to my 6105-8000 which I know for certain leaks like a sieve through the crown.
Martin
