a '81 Seiko A939-5000 restored

[elceedee]

Hey all,

A new friend arrived this week, a 1981 Seiko A939-5000. I bought the watch because of its design, i love the octagon shaped case and the dark-coloured bezel around the lcd screen makes it a good wear with dark clothes.
I havent owned any Seiko with this A939 movement yet, but allready was a fan of the A359 movement which has some similarity with this one. A nice improvement, compared to the A359, is that the chronograph is in full view (topside) together with time (downside)

I made some pictures during the process of restoring, so if you like i can make this topic a before and after topic. Just let me know.

[Cesar]

Very nice!

[vpn]

Superb restoration! I'd love to see how it did look before your restoration job, feel free to post the pics if you want!

[elceedee]

Roger that, here it is


The before picture, as advertised by the seller


The watch was pretty much damaged on both sides (signs of wearing) I use toothpicks to keep the inside of the case free of the water used while sandpapering.


Sandpapering the different angles (using a cut off strip from a card -the bank-/creditcard type- as a 'sanding block' to secure the sharp lines of the design)


After sandpapering the case on both sides the polishing of all angles using a dremel-tool and polishing-paste to remove the sandpapermarks (inside a big plastic bowl, to avoid spinned off paste flying around). I also polished the four pushers in this process.


Sandpapering the angles up and below the display with the correct grain to remove scratches and to regain the original brush. Use a mirror to do this, this way you're sure of a 100% flat surface.


Greasing the gasket with Seiko silicon grease (pushers are allready greased and fitted in this picture). I use a high quality small brush for this. The alcohol on the left i use for practically all the cleaning of the several parts.


Removing scratches on the bracelet using the correct grain sandpaper -600- (not done yet in this picture). On the mirror, in this case, as the bracelet is flat


And the finishing touch using a certain scourer with small grains inside (dont know the brand.. bought a few boxes of them years ago, they dont have a brand on them. Works perfectly)


I polished the crystal. The whole restauration process took a few hours but the result is (allmost) allways rewarding


And ehm, why so fast?????? I had just posted this on another forum

[vpn]

Wow! I'm mesmerized to see the amount of work you had to do in such a short time, the only kind of restoration I've managed to do was just the restoration of the Pulsar logo on my P2!
Congratulations for the job, it looks like a NOS now!

[Kasper]

The most difficult past is sanding the differences corners of the case, trying to keep them sharp.
Also an easy way to see if a watch is refurbished when buying on the bay. No sharp corners anymore.
Very nice work..a keeper.

Have a look at my cheap selfmade sanding machine here on another part of the forum, an easy way to keep the corners sharp

[elceedee]

Hey Casper, thanks for your enthousiasm

I took a look at your sandpapermachine, but i have to say i prefer to stick to the good old handcraft for angles as in the Seiko i described above.

I did however made something similar (well, not really a sandpapermachine, but the same tools); take a sanding extention and remove the velcro.
Take doublesided tape and attach (centered!!!) any watchpart you want which needs rebrusing/sandpapering in a circular way.
Works like a charm!