# 'Strictly Come Dancing'? Latest just in. (Pic heavy)



## Roger the Dodger (Oct 5, 2009)

Having wanted a Seiko 'Dancing Hands' watch for a long while, I eventually got lucky and found the exact model I was after a week or so ago. The watch had been fairly extensively worn, then put away in a drawer (with the battery removed) about 8 years ago. The module fired up and works perfectly after I fitted a new battery, but cosmetically, the watch was in pretty poor shape. The two tone bracelet, while still showing a good amount of the plating on the intermediate links was fairly scratched up, as was the clasp. While the crystal was relatively unscathed, the cyclops was almost opaque, and of course there was the usual build up of wrist crud and DNA all over. So I set to, and had a go at bringing it back from the brink. These watches which date originally from 1988 were unusual in that they contain 4 stepper motors, and all adjustments to the hands and date are done via the two pushers on the left hand side. The crown does nothing apart from move the selector at 6 o'clock round to the various functions. The watch features normal time, chronograph, alarm, countdown timer and month indication, where all three hands point to the relevant month printed on the rehaut. Another unusual feature is that when the timer is selected and set, the hands move counterclockwise as they count down, until an alarm sounds at the given time. In demo mode it shows the famous 'dancing hands' which identify that all the motors are working. This is model 6M25-6000, the sports version of the watch with a two tone bracelet and bezel markers. There were several other versions produced. This one dates from March 1993.

This is the watch as recieved. Here, I have removed the bracelet, ready for the ultrasonic m/c.










Here's the bracelet in the ultrasonic, before switching on...nice clean water!










...and after a 3 minute cycle...eueeeeew! The black patches on the bottom are the dirt that's come out!










First to come off is the bezel...look at the crud under there!










Here, the circular bezel click spring has been removed, and there's still more crud under that!










Over to the back, and here's the serial number showing a date of March 1993.










Back off, and a little press on this lever with the forceps and the stem slides out...



















Followed by the spacer ring...










...and finally, the dial and module.










Next to remove are the pushers which will have loads of muck under them. Two tiny 'C' clips secure them in the case...they just need pushing off.










And here they are removed...I've stripped one of them down here, ready for the ultrasonic...the Q tip is for size comparison. Note the fluff and crud on the spring.










This is the cyclops before attempting to polish out the scratches. I could have bought a new one from Cousins for a couple of quid, but the UV glue and a UV light to set it would have been over £50. These scratches are fairly deep, and I know I won't get them all out, but I'll try coarse and fine polishing compounds on a felt mop in the Dremel and see what happens.



















This is the final result after about 15 minutes gentle polishing. I had to keep stopping and let it cool down as I didn't want the glue to melt and lose the cyclops. It's way better, but there's one really deep pit that won't come out and a slight distortion of the numbers, but I can live with that.










Reassembly time! Here're the parts after going through the ultrasonic.










First, the pushers are reassembled, a tiny bit of silicone grease applied and inserted into the case.The most difficult part is getting the 'C' clips back on!










The inside of the crystal is cleaned, the module replaced, followed by the spacer ring and crown. Here, I'm using a bit of Rodico (very similar to Blu Tack) to remove finger marks from the module plates, before greasing the gasket and screwing the caseback on.










Over to the front, and the now pristine click spring is replaced, before pressing on the bezel. Here you can see that while now clear, there is a slight distortion on the cyclops. (2nd pic)



















Finally, the bracelet was carefully rubbed on some 1200, then 1500 grit wet and dry paper, followed by a scotchbrite pad to remove the worst of the scratches...I was particularly pleased with the way the clasp cleaned up with hardly any scratches noticable.










...and on the wrist!










Hope some of you found that useful. I was going to make a video of the dancing hands and various other functions, but there's already a good video on Youtube...slightly different model, but mine does exactly the same.


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## WRENCH (Jun 20, 2016)

Impressive job done. Well done. :thumbsup:


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## Bonzodog (Aug 29, 2018)

That's a great job there,well done.


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## BlueKnight (Oct 29, 2009)

Well done...!!!


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## ong (Jul 31, 2008)

Wow, really impressive and congratulations on a great find.


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## spinynorman (Apr 2, 2014)

Great work and very good of you to capture it all for us.


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## Toronto John (Jan 2, 2019)

Impressive...Wish I had the skill to do that.


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## jsud2002 (Nov 7, 2015)

Looking good Roger I enjoyed seeing the photos from the different stages of the cleanup. Well done fella :thumbsup:


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## ZenArcade (Aug 17, 2016)

Good restoration work on the watch (Sort of reminds me of that thread on watchuseek years ago where the guy bought a watch only to open the box and find bits of poo fell out. The seller had lots of cats that presumably had erm....toilet trouble)

There were quite a few of these for sale on the other forum a few years back (The dancing hands watch not watch boxes full of cat poo) For some reason they seem to be hard sellers though admittedly some of them have designs that haven't aged well. Still, a good and interesting Seiko to own.


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## Caller. (Dec 8, 2013)

Great thread, thanks for taking the time to show us all the different stages. I envy you and others that can do such work.


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## Shoughie0 (Jan 17, 2005)

Super job on the watch and thank you very much for the step-by-step tutorial. Excellent post!


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## mrzee (Jun 22, 2012)

Awesome work there fella


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## Teg62x (Dec 28, 2016)

Great job mate, and another great Seiko to add to your Collection. I love the video showing the watch "dance". :clap:


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## deano1956 (Jan 27, 2016)

interesting, those pusher c clips are incredibly same I would need a electron microscope to see them in real life , never mind R&R :thumbsup:

deano


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## bowie (Mar 12, 2005)

super job well done. I can only dream


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## Roger the Dodger (Oct 5, 2009)

Thanks to everyone who has looked and replied...it makes it all worthwhile! :thumbsup:


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## Cassie-O (Apr 25, 2017)

Wow, it looks like brand new after your hard work! I could never attempt anything like that! Also, what a beauty of a watch. You have impeccable taste. :king: Nearly forgot to say a great write up too. :yes:


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## Lann (Jan 17, 2019)

Very impressive work. What a lovely watch


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## Foxdog (Apr 13, 2011)

Cracking job mate, well done. :thumbs_up:


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## Redwolf (Jun 15, 2010)

Really well done. I'm always impressed when people do work like this as I know it's not easy.

And bringing a good watch back from the brink is a bonus. Well done mate.


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## Q.Lotte (Feb 10, 2014)

Nice one bruv,

Reminded me to take mine out of the box and replace the battery!

Actually - it reminded me of one of the last times I had the battery replaced in a jewelers. When the new battery goes in the watch immediately goes into dancing hands demo mode. The person behind the counter had obviously never seen one before and freaked a little, thinking they had broken it!


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## Leedub (Jan 25, 2019)

Very impressive post, great work sir


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## no8yogi (Oct 1, 2012)

Impressive work looks fab!

I have a Seiko yachttimer which looks very similar to this, unfortunately whilst it still beeps and the hands wiggle a bit it seems to have given up on me, would this use the same movement? Or a variation there of?


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## stdape (Mar 9, 2018)

Cleaned up well. What cleaner did you use?


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## Roger the Dodger (Oct 5, 2009)

no8yogi said:


> Impressive work looks fab!
> 
> I have a Seiko yachttimer which looks very similar to this, unfortunately whilst it still beeps and the hands wiggle a bit it seems to have given up on me, would this use the same movement? Or a variation there of?


 While it looks similar casewise, I can't answer if it uses the same module. If you take the model number and casecode from the back and do a google search, you should find out more.



stdape said:


> Cleaned up well. What cleaner did you use?


 The watch parts (not the module, obviously) went into my ultrasonic machine which removed all the crud and filth from the surfaces, and while I had the fine polishing compound (the green Dialux) on the Dremel mop, I lightly gave the case a quick going over.


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## sabailand (May 28, 2010)

Nice job and good step by step pictures, its obviously a passion, and if you have a passion for something it becomes easy, just a description wouldnt have peaked as much interest...well done that man. :thumbs_up:


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## Roger the Dodger (Oct 5, 2009)




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## Thimo2 (Mar 6, 2019)

Your voice is much more "Radio 4" than I'd imagined it, Dodger. That was well narrated and excellently presented, fantastic clean up too. Great work!


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## Watchgrocer (Sep 3, 2018)

What a skill. Great job. :clap:


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## Tazmo61 (Oct 3, 2016)

Excellent video , Roger . A very clear and precise explanation of the functions , fantastic . :thumbs_up:


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## paulbravery (Nov 18, 2017)

Love the dancing hands seiko watches, I think I have four, maybe five. I got my first for my eighteenth in Jersey. 
I have just got from eBay, a rotary 6m30 with similar functionality. Unfortunately the description of"may need a battery" translates to"tried a new battery, broke a contract spring and left a hair in it and it doesn't work so I'll palm it off"... Does anyone know about these?
















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