Seiko F039 back on my streets

[elceedee]

The watch was actually wasted. It had bended metal between lug ends to the upside (almost impossible, a previous owner must have hung on some pin or something with his whole weight being held by the watch..), a scratched crystal and a bleeding display (maybe related to the other thing)

I de-scratched and polished the crystal, removed the bending and re-brushed the topside, polished the sides and pushers and de-scratched and re-brushed its strap. And replaced the LCD panel by a F033 panel ( CLICK )

I enjoy restoring these 'wasted' watches as a hobby and bringing them back on my streets (it takes a lot of time; 8+ hours when the movement, crystal, case and strap need service like this one) and usually I use them as daily beaters afterwards (so that I wont damage my nos and mint collection). But actually this result is almost too good to wear it as a beater ;)

Its a Seiko that doesn't pop up very much, it has a very nice build and movement, so id like to show it here

The silver rectangular around the lcd panel combined with the 'widescreen' lcd looks and its case build make that this watch gives a very sophisticated yet sporty/sturdy look on my wrist. Its not very big, not too small either, a very nice size and its reasonably flat

[PG101]

Very nice result

[simone]

Great restoration...i love F serie,elegant and simple...Now it's my turn to swap an F033 panel to an F039
Thanks for the usefull info

[elceedee]

Goodluck Simone! It cant really go wrong .. Show us your results!
I already had a weakness for the F series (some very specific more sturdy models due to the limited size of most F serie models -except the ultra flat ones-, Kasper showed one in the repair topic) but they don't come up very often. Im curious about yours

[simone]

Not easy as i expected...i had a lot of problem related to a bad connection between the lcd and eleastometers,once the panel starts to show all the digits i noted an issue: moving the wrist the digits become fainty and you can easily hear a "clik clik" (maybe the lcd) sound from the inside...

i used:

F033 lcd and panel frame
F039 elastometers

[elceedee]

Hi Simone
The problem is that both the original F039 connectors as the F033 connectors are too short.
You need to make a pair that are higher, in the picture in the repair topic these are the black ones (not original Seiko)
But, then again, you have to be lucky you have a spare pair that is higher and has the same thickness to fit the opening in the case

The clicking you hear is probably the backpanel that has a bit more space due to the thinner lcd panel, or the lcd panel that's a bit loose due to the short connectors

[cylon123]

Looks great , do you have any before pics so we can see how far it cam