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Well, I like to finish what I started so I'm getting to a happy conclusion of this thread with a picture. Here is the sum of all my efforts and a small experience to share: Seiko crystal was ordered from CousinsUK and replaced. Replaced the battery AND replaced the back gasket that was pressed into the "pressure groove" and therefore cut by the back when snapping close. It was preventing the watch to be opened! The dial was cleaned to remove all the dust accumulated through the years in a drawer with a hole in the crystal!

Well that's the holiday over. My good lady and me spent the last week in York and had a great time. On the Monday we visited The Red House Antiques Centre and as usual I was on the hunt for old watches. I did find a section specialising in wrist watches but as you can guess, the prices were a bit more than I wanted to pay. OK the search went on and we discovered the "Clock Room", and there he was all seven feet of him looking resplendent. It was love at first sight, and better still he was from Scotland! My wife gave me a look that equates to.............He's about to do it in public..............and I did. I got intimate with the big fella, he had such a gorgeous face and large magnificent hands. On opening his private compartment, there it was swinging to and fro, large and perfectly formed, what a bob! I just had to have him. Being a major decision in my life I pondered for a few days and then struck. The deal was quickly done and this lovely grandfather clock was mine. I even managed to pack all seven feet of it it into a standard Vectra, along with all the holiday stuff for the journey home. Here are a couple of pictures, I know it's not a wrist watch, but at least the dial looks like a chronometer!

Lovely clock and it looks at home already. My wife just pinched my iPad to have a look.

I've come across a few whatsits and the the thingamajigs in chronographs!

It's a lost cause, chums. I've got the addresses of two large antiques centres in the area, and my debit card is champing at the bit... :money:

I also name the parts, most are called Dave, so I get really confused......... :unsure:

Top stuff Bob! I really like the new band too mate ... as you said, it goes very nicely with the gold case.

I'd like to apologise for the lack of correct terminology, I'll get there. When I turn the movement over to work on the motion side two cogs and a small lever fall from the side I've just been working on. After a brief panic, both cogs are back in place along with two levers, spring and plate, all screwed back into place.

This week I took delivery of a www.brunelmicroscopes.co.uk BM1 long arm microscope. Several of you where interested in this & how I got on so I thought I'd do a review. bear in mind its written after only a couple of uses, by someone who has a few years experience on quartz but only 6 months experience on mechanical watches. Image from brunelmicroscopes Cost (including post & vat at time of writing) £219.60 First impressions where pretty good, for a couple of hundred pounds you get a well made, heavy & positive feeling microscope. you get a nice cover & some additional madnifications You can adjust the eye lenses to suit your eyes & adjust the long arm in various directions. I found three faults with the microscope, the first is if you swing the arm by 90 degrees the base is not weighty enough to support it & the unit tips over this means you have to pretty much use it directly inline with the base which gives a more limited space under which to work, especially if you adjust the eyes to suit a seated position, although once I got going I didn't notice it, it was enough. The second issues was the light got pretty hot & it didn't half make me jump when I touched the back of my hand on it, which being made to jump when your talking watches isn't the greatest of news is it! but I think this is only a matter of getting used to it as a set up The third issue was the quality of the lenses as you can see they look quite cheap & Chinese nasty & I'd like to have perhaps had something to put them in to keep the dust out of them. To work with the microscope is a joy! I mean a serious joy! my hand was a lot steadier, things where more precise. changing lense is a simple case of sliding one out & sliding the next in I found with the angle i'd set the eye lenses to gave me about 10cm of work space, which was more than enough, I didn't foul with the microscope at all. the first job I did with the microscope was to change a date when on a 255.411 from the white it was supplied with to a gold one from the watch I was repairing & I have to say I have never found doing a piece of work on a watch so pleasing. the preciseness So all in all, as a user you can see & feel this is an entry level stereo longarm microscope, but its still a long, long was out in front of an eyeglass/loupe and is a sound investment for an intermediate user & I would throughly recommend one at this price I'd give it about 7.5 out of 10. Lee