# 6309 Facelift



## pauluspaolo (Feb 24, 2003)

I gave my 6309 diver a freshen up this afternoon - here are the results - quite nice I think









The dial & hands are from a military dialed Seiko 5 (SNX431K), I've swapped the original 6309 movement for a hacking 6306 movement (from the Seiko Silverwave that I advertised on the forum recently). I've brush finished the case & finally I machined the writing & numbers off the back, leaving the Tsunami logo intact.

Opinions welcome









By the way I put the 6309 movement in the Silverwave case - not sure whether to keep it or try & sell it again cheap.

Here's the reworked caseback









Another & that's it folks


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## K.I.T.T. (Sep 5, 2003)

Mmmm Well I think that you've done a really nice custom Job on that Diver Paul...









Mike


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## deano42 (Jun 12, 2005)

Hi Paul

Thats a nice mod.!

Few questions:

1. The crown from the silverware was it at 3 or 4 o'lock.?

- There has been somw chat on the S&C forum recently about the day/daye wheel lining up

2. Did the newer sand coloured dial just drop into place or did you have to modify the dial feet.?

- I was under the impression that the newer dials / hands did not fit the old divers.

3. Also did the hands just fit on.?

- I was under the impression that the newer dials / hands did not fit the old divers.

Thanks

deano


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## pauluspaolo (Feb 24, 2003)

deano42 said:


> Hi Paul
> 
> Thats a nice mod.!
> 
> ...


Hi Deano,

to answer your questions:

1. The crown on the Silverwave was at 4 o'clock so it was a straightforward swap for the 6309 movement - in fact the movement swap was the simplest part of this mod.

2. On these watches there's a plastic ring behind the dial (both the Silverwave & 6309 had the same part), this has two cut outs in it, the dial feet go through these cut outs & are held in place by screws which trap the feet against the side of the movement (I wish I'd taken photo's along the way







). The plastic ring acts as a spacer to keep the back of the dial away from the day/date discs - in effect it's sandwiched between the dial & movement. The new dial's feet were in the wrong place (of course!) so I cut them off & stuck the new dial to the plastic ring with tiny slivers of double sided tape, I then stuck the plastic ring & dial to the movement with tiny bits of blu-tak - trying to make sure that the blu-tak didn't interfere with the day/date discs. The whole lot is then held in place when the movement ring & caseback are refitted. It's all a bit of a botch job (I suppose) but it seems to work well - seeing as the watch is working fine so I don't suppose there's too much wrong with it.

3. The hands fit on without any problems at all - Yao hands (designed to fit the 7s26 movement) fit both the older & newer divers so I figured the hand holes must be the same (or at least very similar).

Hope this helps a bit









Ta for your positive comments so far - I like the watch & am wearing it today


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## Griff (Feb 23, 2003)

....................eerrm.....well done...........I think

Can I please ask why you did this and did you not like the original.

It's a bit like one of these:-


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## deano42 (Jun 12, 2005)

pauluspaolo said:


> Hi Deano,
> 
> to answer your questions:
> 
> ...


Hi Paul

Thanks for the explanation, I thought you managed to create a work around solution for dial feet. But it seems you do what the rest do.

Its good that the Silverware was a four o'clock so that the day/date lines up well. I messed up once when I used a 3 o'clock crown movement and it is slighly off.

Top class mod.!

I had a look though my stash of spares, no orig 6309 inserts, but I did find an insert that has the "l" on the 10 and a large lume dot.

However I believe its an aftermarket as the lume dot does not go all the way through.

If you want it PM me your address and you can have it.

Thanks

deano


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## pauluspaolo (Feb 24, 2003)

In answer to your question Griff - why not? I've got loads of black dialled divers watches & I fancied a change & I fancied having a go at making those changes myself. I like the cushion cased 6309 so decided to give it a go. All the parts I've fitted are genuine Seiko & apart from the caseback, which was fairly worn anyway, there's nothing I've done that can't be reversed. If you're concerned about the originality aspect, well it wasn't original when I bought it didn't - the dial was incorrect for this case shape, the bezel insert certainly isn't genuine Seiko & I'm pretty sure the hour & minute hands were replacements too (though genuine Seiko items I think).

I like customising/changing things (as you might have guessed) - I do it with my cars (smaller, chunkier, leather steering wheel, different alloys, uprated suspension bushes etc etc etc) & I do it with some of my watches too. It's nice not to follow the herd & have a little bit of individuality occasonally
















PM sent Deano - many thanks


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## Jeremy67 (Jun 27, 2006)

It looks pretty 'right' to me which is always the test of customisation. You see so many cars with alloys on that look so wrong they should have stuck with the originals.

My Austin Healey Sprite is far from original but like PP and his Seiko I acquired it already messed around. Fine with a mass produced item of which there are plenty of originals, maybe less acceptable with a Sinn or Bugatti of which there are only 10.


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## PhilM (Nov 5, 2004)

Top job Paul what is it with you and doing mods of your beloved Seiko's


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## pauluspaolo (Feb 24, 2003)

PhilM said:


> what is it with you and doing mods of your beloved Seiko's


Dunno Phil - I just get bored looking at the same ol' same ol' again & again so I start experimenting - sometime it works & sometimes it doesn't - I think it's worked this time. The fact that my 6309 had some non-original parts fitted helped in my decision to modify - had it been an all original minter then I wouldn't have dreamt of modifying it. I currently own only two customised Seiko's & I'm trying to sell one of those!!

Another factor is that cushion cased 6309's aren't exactly thin on the ground so I should be able to replace it if I get the urge to own an standard one again - an original one, in what looked to be decent working condition, went for Â£43 on Ebay a week or two ago!

Maybe the fact that so many Seiko parts are interchangeable is one of the reasons I like them so much


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## PhilM (Nov 5, 2004)

Sounds a good enough reason to me


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## Steve264 (May 29, 2006)

I've seen and handled it







and it does indeed look like a proper watch. Nice work, Paul.


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