09 Jan 2012, 20:00
I took my (new polarisers) M154 out for a walk at the weekend and in the daylight there was no doubt about it
there was a feint green 'stain' on the display where previously it had been pink. I was thinking that perhaps there was a layer of thin film left on the LC glass that I'd missed when I did the changover or perhaps the mirror was mildy cook-stained on that spot. So I took it all apart, took the new polarisers off and had a play with a kitchen foil mirror, some new polarisers and the original ones that I still have.
To the chase..... I think all this chat about burnt out polarisers is a bit of a red (or should that be pinkish-green...) herring. The anisochromic failure on my watch is without any doubt in the actual Liquid Crystal. The improvement seen on my watch appears to be down primarily to a change of the angle of the crossed polarisers of a few degrees when I changed them over. I can get the pink with the new polarisers and the green with the old ones if I set them at precisely the right angle - it really is just a matter of a few degrees one way or the other. The slightly darker new polarisers also helped to mask the remaining tinge when viewed inside my dimly lit Watchmaneering Facility.
So, only a sample size of one but I think the polariser change can reduce the Psychadelicity of a fried Seiko but not, I fear, fix it.
If you do have a cosmic Seiko that you're trying to sober up I would suggest that you play a little with the precise angles of the new polarisers relative to the LC (of course keeping the films at 90deg to each other....) It seems to make quite a difference.
PS - does anyone know where I can buy really thin polariser in the UK or web with small MOQ. I need to add a shunt film to the Tissot rebuild I posted on here a while ago. The only (salvaged) pieces of superthin stuff I have work perfectly but are too small
