# My Custom Pulsar Diver



## pauluspaolo (Feb 24, 2003)

Hi all, just thought Iâ€™d give you a potted history of the modifications Iâ€™ve done (or had done) to my Pulsar 200m auto diver.

Version 1.0










It started off like this â€" standard Pulsar 200m auto. It uses the auto only Seiko 7S26 movement, had a brushed/polished stainless steel case, steel bezel, black dial with day/date window at 3, sword hands, chapter ring with minute marks & cut outs for the luminous dial indices. I especially liked the styling of the chunky case (same as the Alba Manta Ray range of divers) but I wasnâ€™t keen on the chapter ring/dial/hands - it was cheap off Ebay so thought that I could change the bits I didn't like reasonably easily.

Version 2.0










The first modification I made was to brush finish the case & to fit a different set of hands & a different dial. Not having anything else I ended up using the standard chapter ring but I was never very keen on the results & the watch didnâ€™t stay like this for long!

Version 3.0










The next incarnation of the watch took a while to achieve as I decided to send it off to Bry1975 for beadblasting. He contacted me when the watch arrived suggesting that it'd look great DLC coated. I thought "what the hell, why not?" so Bry sent it off to Switzerland (I think) to have a ding in the bezel repaired & the case DLC coated. DLC stands for Diamond Like Carbon (I think!) & the coating is used to reduce wear & tear on whatever itâ€™s applied to. Apparently itâ€™s used on a lot of motorcycle/car components, as well as hard drive discs & reader heads & even in/on artificial hearts! Itâ€™s very hard wearing & can be had in various colours/finishes. In this case I asked for a black satin finish which ended up more of a deep charcoal grey than a true black â€" I have to say that it looks absolutely bloody superb & I've yet to scratch the watch despite wearing it many times! When I put the watch back together I fitted a plain silver chapter ring & kept the watch like this for quite a long time. Eventually though, the lack of a date display started bugging me & caused me to change the dial yet again!

Version 4.0










This is basically the same as the previous version bar a grey/black dial from a Seiko 5. I liked having the day/date but wasnâ€™t keen on the shiny dial (the previous dial was matt & matched the satin case finish much better), I also hated the red numbers alongside the orange hands! I kept it like this for quite a while though but eventually I stopped wearing the watch  Whilst looking through the watch box a week or two ago I decided to resurect it & tried wearing it again. I decided that I still really like the DLC'd case so thought I'd try yet another dial/hand set on it - which brings us to â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦

Version 5.0










This is the watch as it is now. Itâ€™s sitting on my wrist looking good & ticking away quite happily. The dial & hands are from Harold (a well known purveyor of custom Seiko parts) who resides in Hong Kong but sends bits & pieces all over the world. Price was very reasonable & the bits arrived in about a week. Iâ€™m still not entirely convinced & think the chrome edged plongeur hands might look better with the Version 4.0 dial â€¦â€¦! Or the Version 5.0 dial might look better with white edged plongeur hands â€¦â€¦!! Anyway I like it well enough & I think Iâ€™m going to leave it like this for a while now â€¦â€¦ never say never though!! Many thanks for reading & opinions/questions are welcome as always


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## Davey P (Sep 9, 2010)

Excellent stuff, I love reading things like this :thumbsup:

For what it's worth, I think the Seiko variant looked best, but needed white hands.


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## Service Engineer (Dec 28, 2007)

A very interesting read. Good pictures and good workmanship on the watch. Well done.

Not too many people seem to mod' Pulsars but yours is excellent. Can't wait to see what it becomes next . . .

Regards,

Chris


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## Phillionaire (Jan 23, 2010)

Version 5 is superb. Great read tho, as has been said not many people seem to do much with the pulsars. I'm damned if I know why when I look at this


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## johnbaz (Jan 30, 2005)

Crumbs Paul- that looks nice in all it's guises B) B)

Did you see the Smp that Bry did- it was stunning :good:

John


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## bry1975 (Feb 6, 2004)

Hi there,

The bezel ding was laser welded at the Birmingham school of jewellery and then carefully blended by myself

not easy considering the ding was right on the bezel edge, the case was then refinished and then beadblasted

to achieve the satin look required prior to DLCing in Switzerland at the place below:-


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