# My Newest Incoming 7A38 ....



## SEIKO7A38 (Feb 12, 2009)

My long term goal, as some of you may be aware, is to collect every variation of Seiko's 7A38-xxxx range.

Yup .... All *80+* of them. I'm well over half-way already there, in a just over 12 months - 50+ currently.

I'd recently allowed myself to be side-tracked by other 7A38-powered watches:

The delicious Yema's; quirky Kamatz's, and even a Cartier Ferrari Formula 7A38.

But I have a problem with Seiko's range. It includes a few 'Divers' versions.

Now I've never really had a thing for 'Divers' - they're unneccessarily bulky.

So in the first 12 months of my starting collecting, I'd mostly eschewed them.

Maybe it was Michael Rothe kindly donating his 'beater' 7A38-7050 to my collection ....

Or maybe it was those chunky Yema 7A38's - the Spationaute III and the FlyGraf that swayed me. 

Anyway, I've been and bought my first 7A38 'Diver'.

And it's an extremely rare and totally O.T.T. version.

I'd only ever seen a single reference to one before, here, in John Gauch's photo gallery:

http://www.csce.uark.edu/~jgauch/photos/dir1/chrono_quartz/7A38-6109/index.html - and it's a rather tired worn looking example.

Searching back through the Seiko and Citizen forum, it turns out that particular example belong to Hung Pham (Time2Fly).

I emailed him about it. He wrote back saying it was the very first 7A38 he ever bought, and had never seen another.

Unfortunately, the case-back was impossible to remove (internal corrosion), so he was unable to replace the battery ....

So he sold it on to a chap in Florida, but he never heard back whether he managed to get it going again.

I did see and saved, purely out of interest, this small photo, though I can't remember where from, now:










It shows the same watch's dial (7A38 609L) and hands (lume missing) in a 7A38-706x case (on a non-original bracelet).


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## BlueKnight (Oct 29, 2009)

I find white face very classy. Well done.!


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## SEIKO7A38 (Feb 12, 2009)

SEIKO7A38Fan said:


> Anyway, I've been and bought my first 7A38 'Diver'.
> 
> And it's an extremely rare and totally O.T.T. version.


But, remembering how rare the 7A38-6109 model was, when I saw this come up on eBay:










.... and in Poland of all places - I simply couldn't resist - and made the seller an offer.

I took a bit of a flyer (as one sometimes has to on eBay), because the seller's listing description included the phrase:



> "Not working due to battery run down". (or somesuch similar)


It arrived a week or so ago. Cosmetically pristine, with virtually no wear of the gold plating -

Just a few tiny 'desk diver' marks on the underside of the bracelet. The crystal was unmarked.

I got the case-back off fairly easily, but wasn't too pleased with what I found inside.

The old battery must have been left in there for at least 10 years. 

It had leaked, and caused some very localised corrosion. :angry:

Strangely, it had eaten away the lugs on the end of the (steel) positive terminal plate ....

Yet the gold-plated negative terminal (which usually suffers in such cases) was virtually like new. 

I cleaned it up, best I could, in situ, with Rodico and a small stiff brush, before dropping the movement out.

Closer inspection revealed that there was more corrosion to the PCB and crystal, under the anti-magnetic shield.

Tried a new battery in it, making sure that it was properly earthed, but nary a twitch from the second hand.

Totally dead. Oh well - some you win, some you lose. 

Easiest solution would be to swap the 609L dial face and hands over onto a good spare 7A38 movement.

It just so happened that I had one with the same English / Spanish Day wheel (it's a US market model).

Finally got round to getting them swapped over this afternoon. 

Photos will follow tomorrow ....


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## SEIKO7A38 (Feb 12, 2009)

BlueKnight said:


> I find white face very classy. Well done.!


Thanks - Yes the 609L white dial face is really gorgeous. Shame the rest of it is so blingy ! :rofl:


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## SEIKO7A38 (Feb 12, 2009)

SEIKO7A38Fan said:


> But, remembering how rare the 7A38-6109 model was, when I saw this come up on eBay:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


In fact, what he actually wrote was:



> This watch is currently not running due to the battery being drained.


I managed to find the eBay listing: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270515841327 - There's a few more photos of it.


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## SEIKO7A38 (Feb 12, 2009)

SEIKO7A38Fan said:


> I managed to find the eBay listing: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270515841327 - There's a few more photos of it.


This is another of the eBay seller's listing photos:










As you can see, it still had the case-back inspection sticker on it - another indication of having been worn very little.



SEIKO7A38Fan said:


> I took a bit of a flyer (as one sometimes has to on eBay ....


That 'nastiness' you can see near the 4 o'clock pusher wasn't corrosion - just some of the previous owner's 'DNA'.


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## DMP (Jun 6, 2008)

Congrats on finding such a rare beast!


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## SEIKO7A38 (Feb 12, 2009)

DMP said:


> Congrats on finding such a rare beast!


Thanks, Dave - Yes it was a very fortunate 'snatch and grab'. :naughty:


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## SEIKO7A38 (Feb 12, 2009)

SEIKO7A38Fan said:


> Photos will follow tomorrow ....


He said cockily ! :blush:

The light has been really cr*p all week - or at least every time I had the opportunity. :angry:

Today, I finally managed to rattle off a few shots at lunchtime (between the snow showers) ....

With apologies for lateness ....


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## SEIKO7A38 (Feb 12, 2009)

SEIKO7A38Fan said:


> Cosmetically pristine, with virtually no wear of the gold plating -
> 
> Just a few tiny 'desk diver' marks on the underside of the bracelet ....





SEIKO7A38Fan said:


> That 'nastiness' you can see near the 4 o'clock pusher wasn't corrosion - just some of the previous owner's 'DNA'.


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## SEIKO7A38 (Feb 12, 2009)

SEIKO7A38Fan said:


> BlueKnight said:
> 
> 
> > I find white face very classy. Well done.!
> ...












You'll note, that the face is (unusually for a 7A38) annotated '*Sports 150*'.


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## SEIKO7A38 (Feb 12, 2009)

SEIKO7A38Fan said:


> You'll note, that the face is (unusually for a 7A38) annotated '*Sports 150*'.


Most other Seiko 7A38 'Diver' variants are only rated as 'Sports 100'.

The only other 7A38 I can think of which is '150' rated is the 7A38-6060.

I checked Seiko's (Oceania's) parts list / bill of materials for the 7A38-6109, and it uses exactly the *same*

pusher seals (p/n EC0060B0A) crown stem seal (p/n EC0060B01) and case-back gasket (p/n FH3180B0A)

as all the other 7A38 'Sports 100' rated models. Must be the 2.75mm thick crystal that makes the difference. 

The case-back even states: 'Water Resistant *15Bar*' - not something I've seen on any other 7A38 before.










Reckon it's all marketing hype though .... Bragging rights for the wearer.

I can't imagine any self-respecting diver ever being seen dead wearing one.

However, with the weight of the bracelet, it might mean carrying less lead ballast ! :rofl:


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## SEIKO7A38 (Feb 12, 2009)

SEIKO7A38Fan said:


> I got the case-back off fairly easily, but wasn't too pleased with what I found inside.
> 
> The old battery must have been left in there for at least 10 years.
> 
> ...


This is the movement which I removed from the watch. You can still see the staining around the battery recess.

Note also the corrosion to the crystal, visible top right. It'll be interesting to see how bad the rest of the PCB is.










(The friction spring for the sweep second hand was subsequently robbed for another movement - swapped over).

I've seen a few 7A38 movements with much worse battery acid corrosion damage still running quite happily.

This is the topside of that same damaged 7A38 movement, for anyone who hasn't seen this view before:










Hopefully just a PCB swap and general clean up and service will have it running again soon.


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## ketiljo (Apr 22, 2009)

Seems to have some corrosion around the crystal. It might stop it oscillating. Maybe a good clean would make it running again.


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## SEIKO7A38 (Feb 12, 2009)

SEIKO7A38Fan said:


> This is the movement which I removed from the watch. You can still see the staining around the battery recess.
> 
> Note also the corrosion to the crystal, visible top right. It'll be interesting to see how bad the rest of the PCB is.
> 
> Hopefully just a PCB swap and general clean up and service will have it running again soon.





ketiljo said:


> Seems to have some corrosion around the crystal. It might stop it oscillating.
> 
> Maybe a good clean would make it running again.


Ahem. I don't think that particular crystal will be oscillating again any day now - or ever:










It's soldered to the underside of the PCB - which has virtually crumbled to dust in that area. 

Fortunately I still have this NOS 7A38 PCB put to one side, for just such an eventuality.


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