Seestern 62MAS homage

So, in pursuit  of a diver (as a daily driver) and after (expectable) disappointment with the Addiesdives Willard and (unexpected) disappointment with the Rdunae 6105-8000 (failing), my next (perhaps predictable) move was to the try the homage of the Seiko 62 MAS. 

It looks and feels great. The dial is a combination of beauty in the right light, but sufficiently black for high contrast in low light. It is in fact exactly what made me buy the "Dress KX" in the first place. That was a "dress watch which was a homage to the SKX diver series" but instead the Seestern is a homage to the first Professional Diver watch by Seiko which still had elements of beauty making it a single watch for all occasions. Not too big, not too small, water resistant and functional. A "tool watch" which you'd be proud to wear to a function.

For those unfamiliar with the 62MAS I suggest this good over on another site. As is typical (and sad) few dimensions of value are given and very little time is spent looking at the watch in a 3 dimensional way. I hope to rectify that here.

The 62MAS is Seiko's first watch aimed at 'professional divers' and really started their trend of "machined billet" look and feel to their watch cases. Their next move was the (not so well known) 6105-8000 which led soon to the different case of the 8110 or the Willard. The Willard is a classic example of a watch which a movie and the internet has made more famous over time. The 62MAS not so much (unfortunately).

As far as lineage goes the directions started by 62MAS eventually led to the development SKX007 and to the more modern "Dress KX" series (which I've blogged about over here) that is now the base case used on most of the modern Seiko 5's. So as I've sold my SRPE61 but still have my SRPE63 I thought I'd show that beside the 62.

So you can see that the two are very similar watches, with the SRPE showing its "dress style" bezel and diver heritage in the very SKX style case. I think at this point I can say how the evolution of the Diver Dial in "House of Seiko" has shown improvement in legibility. Somehow the SKX (style) dial (on the right) is cleaner, less cluttered and very instantly visible as than the dial on the 62MAS.

Part of this legibility of the SRPE is that the actual dial area feels that big larger, but as you can't see it's in reality not much different. I believe that the presence of the chapter ring outside the dial, but inside the bezel and lack of the "rotating bezel dial" makes the face have more presence. Moving the markers a bit further out also helps this. The use of a clear Triangle at the 12, oblongs on the quaters (well the three has the day/date) and circular pips for the other markers instantly gives recogntion of orientation and thus reading that dial in lower light (like 2am with fading lume).

Watch thickness is almost identical, with only the crystal protruding a bit more to make the watches differ in thickness.

Crown position and curves of the body show the eventual trends that we saw first on the 6105-8000 and then Willard and then SKX007. The utility of drilled lugs is great, especially if you've ever had to hammer out a rusted spring bar (because diving will do that). Further the positioning of the drill holes (hence the actual spring bar position) makes  the 62MAS actually sit better. I mean who gives a fuck about "lug to lug" with relation to fitment when the place the strap pivots around is actually the important point.

The above shot also shows the relatively similar sizes and dimensions. Most of the specs for the 62MAS homage are pretty well known as they are published on the AliExpress sellers, however I may as well repeat the key points here:

Aspect	Dimension
lug to lug	48mm
spring bar to spring bar	43mm
Case diameter	37mm
bezel grip diameter	38.5mm
Case height	12mm
Total thickness	13.5mm

weight of the watches is often (confusingly) given with a strap or a bracelet ... myself I find knowing the watch weight itself to be important, so:

As you can see the Seestern 62MAS is a tad heavier, and annoyingly getting the weight (for comparison) of the actual  Seiko 62MAS is vexed.

To get a better look at the Willard and the 8000 case version please refer to my blog post here. The Seiko recreation of the 62MAS can be found here. 

However this bit from my above blog post about the Willards may be helpful directly.

That also features the SRPE and so its easier to make comparisons between those watches and the 62MAS homage.

Lastly I thought a quick look around in 3D on video would help:

In lower contrast lighting the dial is sufficiently black for good contrast.

Lastly the decoration on the caseback is a very nice touch. Well done and not uncomfortable on the wrist.

So that's about it ... I'll probably look at an Rdunae again when (if?) they come back in stock (perhaps...) and will be selling the Addiesdives Willard on eBay soon.

I'd call this "itch scratched".

:-)

PS today I was in a high end second hand jewellery shop and I was shown a genuine 62MAS with an 8001 case designation. As there was a scale nearby (on the counter) I weighed it and if I recall correctly it was 66g. So I weighed my Seestern and it showed 76g; thus it was lighter than my Seestern. What's worrying is that my scale shows my Seestern to be 66.2g (and all of this is watch only, without strap. Oh and the Bezel turned both ways.

also, I have added this additional set of notes related to it and the 6105-8xxx series of watches

Rdunae - the progenitor of the Willard

I wanted to start this with a picture of the progenitor of the Willard, the subject of this blog post, the homage to the 8000 cased version of the Willard (which was the 8110 case around the 6105 movement). The watch is the Rdunae R2 (their site), which I bought from AliExpress.

The specs are quoted (and confirmed by me) as 

Rdunae Turtle 6105-8000 Homage:

• Case width: 41mm
• Height : 13mm
• Lug to lug : 48mm
• Lug width : 19mm

As far as homages' go this is a very faithful copy and something that those of us who love Seiko belive that Seiko should have fucking done by now (you slack cunts). Its easily the second best "diver" I've owned (this being my personal favourite). 

Sadly you should know right here that I've already returned it because the one I got had a fault (the automatic wind rotor was blocked by the caseback). So it would not wind automatically.

I've had Seiko watches since childhood, they've been solid performers and have been on my wrist for something like 40 years. Interestingly I've only had two Seiko watches until 2020, when I bought the Seiko SNK805 to give myself a new watch. It was my first Seiko to not come on a bracelet and has been part of my journey in learning more about watches. As it happens I'm wearing it while typing this because (with a few changes) its become my most comfortable robust watch. If I have to do work (even just typing) its my go to to wear.

So with that out of the way; I recently bought the Addiesdives "Willard" homage because I was curious and because the desire of it welled up in me after my SRPE63K2 became my daily wear. I mention the SRPE because the case heritage harks back to the Willard (not so much if at all the 8000 case) and because I have loved the movie Apocalypse Now for most of my life.

Its large obtrusive, protrusive and I'm no fan of the high polish ceramic bezel. To me it looks like cheap plastic and not as should be intended; just a more durable replacement for the anodised aluminium.

Most of which I knew when getting the watch from research. I had since come to learn that Watch KingWang (abbreviated to WW for the duration of this post) has succumbed to some medieval 'bigger is better' approach and the KW's of the world value a heavy and uncomfortable lump of metal over refined and yet robust watches.

I personally do not know what led to the direction change; from the refined and stylistic 8000 case to the brutalist nature of the 8110 case. However this Fratello Watch introduction does make that  change clear in history and dates, if not the reasons for it.

Since I mentioned the SRPE series this is the progression of the bases of the watches over time

the progression from the Willard case to the modern SRPE (I'm leaving out the SKX because I don't have one) series is clear. To me the cases became more refined and the Willard is a lump of rock from which the final sculpture finally emerged. Yet interestingly there are traces of that 8000 beginning to be found in the lugs and outline shape of the SRPE.

But returning to the  case development of the diver versions of the 6105 movement and that period of time ..

The stem tube is now buried beneath a large covering of metal. Clearly lug to lug is the same, but the case on the Willard is just a big fat blob of metal. In contrast the 8000 is a more sophisticated turtle shell shape.

Shaping, sculpting and polishing is beautiful and as you can imagine results in a rather significant weight reduction

wow ... it also becomes apparent that the "lugs" are not really lugs, but just bites out of the case to enable a strap to be mounted. 

Also, while looking at this angle, the contrast of the anodized aluminium is much higher, and the polished ceramic comes out looking milky in a photograph (and like a kids plastic toy in real life).

The curve down to the lugs and the essentially thinner case sure helps make the watch lighter and not to be "a lump hanging off your wrist"

Worth noting in the top part of the above image is how much the 8000 case "dishes" compared the Willard. This means that it actually sits nicer over your wrist (which is also curved).

Basically it is curved to distribute its contact with the edge of the case, much better than a disc. Its also worth mentioning that the above "vintage" leather strap is a 18mm (the supplied one was actually a 20mm squeezed into the 19mm lug widths) and happens to fit beautifully into the 19mm and makes it easy to get my spring-bar tool in there. 

At all angles the aluminium bezel is more legible on the Rdunae R2.

A worthy aside was the very high quality large "diver sized" holes and spring bars provided with the Rdunae

So its no surprise then that the 8000 wears much better on the wrist than the Willard. The astute will observe that the Rdunae also has "lock" on the crown, which of course it doesn't because its a plain screw-down crown ... a nice touch. I also happen to like the gold variation (not available on the Willard, but is found on some Seiko Divers.

Generally I love the Rdunae

Getting back to where I started the Rdunae had a problem with the watch mechanism rotor touching the caseback and causing it not to wind. You can see here where this binding occurred.

So basically they need to reduce the thickness of the case back wall (and may have already addressed this) to increase clearance.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Lastly I recommend the interested to have a look at this blog post about the Willard and its production history.

Bottom line:

I like the 8000 case much more than the Willard. The whole thing just fits on me better. So I'm waiting for a new edition to come out (I've been told by Rdunae to expect a production run in August) and until then I'm going to sit.

Also the Addiesdive "Willard" will go to ebay, because its not comfortable to wear as a daily watch (or even for a whole day) and while I love the movie, to me the 8000 case is just a better case for a watch movement (and after all that's what counts, because as you saw in the Fratello watch post they originally housed the same movement).

Got it fitted by an expert mob

 I normally do things myself, but I head scratched and procrastinated with fitting the Mikuni TM-40 carby I bought to replace the standard carby (a VM34) on my SR500. This photo is of the old and the new (from my aborted attempt to mount it).

I could probably have done it, but then the prospect of tuning it made me feel like "I'll take it to an expert" ... as it happens I had heard very good things about Nippon Performance in Brisbane (Queensland Australia) from a friend who has had a few biked worked on there.

So first I'll show you some of their work:

Carb fitted

View to the pod air cleaner

They did an excellent job of (simply) fabricating a tube and a bracket to prevent cantilever stress on the manifold.

and it all fits in very snugly

Performance is fantastic, many of the niggling and annoying aspects of the old carby (probably related to diaphragms which were dodgy and unavailable) are gone and the bike is very smooth across the entire range from idle to redline. Bottom end power is better than it was before, although I'm still learning exactly the starting; but its better than before.

Some Dynos

This power is now slightly above the original factory specs.

But what's better than that is what doestn' show on Dyno, like; the improved smoothness, the nice linearity of throttle response, better idle and the easier starting

Great!

The next best thing (although unexpected) is that it now uses less fuel by a significant margin, giving me 3.7L/100km on the way back up the mountain range from Brisbane yesterday; normally its 5.2L/100km

The complete list of "what was done" is:

• fit and tune carby
• new steering head bearing (its been in there since 1985)
• rebuild forks (seals and inner parts) use 15 weight oil (up from 10)
• new tyres and tubes

Total bill was a sniggle under AU$4K

So, there you have it basically feels like a new bike!

Win Win

Checking Timing Chain Tension on my SR500

Sometimes things go as they should, and sometimes they don't; when they don't it can be an opportunity to learn more.

I recently did an oil change and it seemed a good opportunity to check my SR500's timing chain tension. Its actually incredibly simple to do and quite accessible right there on the right hand side of the bike.

I usually call it Cam chain and my old manual does too.

So normally one just undoes the (27mm, and the standard toolkit has exactly the right spanner for this task - yeah \o/ ) cover cap (the thing visible here)

and access the locknut beneath:

However in my case when I removed the cap I found this:

which was a bit perplexing ... please note rag and small amount of oil on rag. You need to take this into account when you remove this cap to reduce clean up.

However a quick look at the cap revealed the issue:

yep, the locknut had come 'loose' from the body and simply unscrewed with the cap ... (facepalm).

It undid with just my finger.

Note carefully that O-Ring that's in the cap ... it can fall out unnoticed and must be in there when the cap is put back on ... 

So, with the adjuster bare (no need to do this yourself) its a good time to talk about what we are doing.

Our goal here is to adjust that so that the inner pin is flush with the outter surface of the adnuster nut so, you need to use a 10mm spanner (also in the kit) and (probably) screw it in.

The process of determining this I used is to turn the motor over (with the ignition turned off and the decompression lever pulled in) using the kick starter by hand while looking at that (apparently a screw) in the center. You want to turn the motor over looking at it in various positions (perhaps starting from Top Dead Center, for which I just used the white mark visible through the window) as well as other places.

Here you can see its actually lower than the outer part of the nut (and I watched it during the turn over). So in my case I adjusted that in.

Screw the nut in untill the surfaces are flush (which is actually a cast piece of a longer component that looks like this):

its perhaps not clear in that where the adjuster is, but careful thinking about it will reveal it all. This is from an SR400 manual btw.

Perhaps turn it over again observing that it moves in and out a little. So then with that done just put it all back together, tighten to specified torques (or just firm but don't try to strip threads) and you're done.

Below is the advice I got from a friend before doing this (*thanks Stu)

Dead simple... all I do is 

* put the engine in TDC on compression

* remove the spark plug

* take it a bit past the T mark then roll it back to the T mark again

* undo the tensioner cap (angle the cap down as you remove it to catch the oil, stick a rag under the area anyway)

* loosen the big lock nut a bit so you can adjust the 10mm centre nut

* carefully screw the centre adjuster in 'till the slotted plunger comes almost level with the end of the adjuster (it's not a screw and don't try to force the adjuster with the 10mm)

* then rotate the flywheel back and forward a bit to ensure the centre plunger moves in and out slightly

* screw the lock nut back up then holding the adjuster with a 10mm spanner lightly, tighten the big lock nut.

* Change the O ring if you feel so inclined, tighten the cap a bit then all done! 

I hope this demystifies the process for any "wrenching beginners".

Best of luck with what seems harder (before you've done it) than it is.