Grand Seiko Servicing

ipreferjester
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After some digging around in old shelves and bookcases today, I happened upon an old GS 6145-8000 that I had misplaced and not worn for a few years (5-7 years approximately). While I'm sure many other vintage GS owners know this, the process to get them serviced from factory is an absolute mess and is near impossible sometimes, based on the circumstances. That being said, does anyone on the forums know of any servicers who would be able to take a look at it and fix it up? I'm at a loss, despite having scoured the interwebs a bit 🙁. Any help is appreciated!
 
Dan S
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Unless you think it will need special parts, any watchmaker who is experienced with vintage watches should be able to do a routine service. There are a few Seiko specialists around the world (e.g. Duncan, Adrian, and Spencer), but I'm sure you've already figured that out. And you also know how long you may be waiting to have a watch serviced by them.
Edited:
 
dsacks30
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ipreferjester ipreferjester
While I'm sure many other vintage GS owners know this, the process to get them serviced from factory is an absolute mess and is near impossible sometimes, based on the circumstances.

Care to elaborate? As an owner of a modern GS, I was under the impression they were quite efficient at servicing their pieces. They have a full service center in New Jersey with trained Japanese watchmakers so they usually don’t have to ship the watch back to Japan. Are you saying GS refuses to service their vintage pieces? They’ll do so but it’s prohibitively expensive? Or they take a long time to service them?
 
ipreferjester
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dsacks30 dsacks30
Care to elaborate? As an owner of a modern GS, I was under the impression they were quite efficient at servicing their pieces. They have a full service center in New Jersey with trained Japanese watchmakers so they usually don’t have to ship the watch back to Japan. Are you saying GS refuses to service their vintage pieces? They’ll do so but it’s prohibitively expensive? Or they take a long time to service them?
Sure; it was moreso with regards to the timeliness. Several friends of mine who have tried to get their watches serviced have had to wait months (albeit this was a few years ago) to receive a piece/part that needed replacement, and in a certain circumstance, GS had sent one a message regarding the inability to produce/supply a part and couldn't service it until there was an availability of said part. Their watch was sent back with an apology of their inability to service soon after. I'm not too sure on the specifics for others, but if you look on many forums, there's lots of gripes that vintage owners tend to have with GS in their inability to service their pieces in a quick fashion or sometimes to get serviced at all. At the end of the day though, I still love the brand and hope to get a few modern pieces in the future.
 
ipreferjester
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Dan S Dan S
Unless you think it will need special parts, any watchmaker who is experienced with vintage watches should be able to do a routine service. There are a few Seiko specialists around the world (e.g. Duncan, Adrian, and Spencer), but I'm sure you've already figured that out. And you also know how long you may be waiting to have a watch serviced by them.
I'm not particularly familiar with those names. If possible, could you supply some contact information?
 
Dan S
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ipreferjester ipreferjester
I'm not particularly familiar with those names. If possible, could you supply some contact information?

If you simply use google to search each of those names in the context of Seiko repair, I'm confident you will find plenty of information. If you are really stuck, send me a PM. As you may know, there are also watch collector forums specializing in Japanese watches. SCWF and Wrist Sushi come immediately to mind.
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Braindrain
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Hisao at International Watch Repair in Vancouver. Specializes in vintage Seikos and has parts that were long discontinued.

He's personally serviced a 6139 of mine and, when I went to get it, he was field testing a 62MAS and another diver on his arms, after he had serviced them.

Truly old school and he gets sent pieces from around the world.
 
Archer
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Parts can be an issue with these older models. Doesn't matter if it's a GS or a regular old Seiko, and in fact the higher the grade the tougher it can be to get parts, since fewer of those were made, and parts were not as widely distributed before GS came to other parts of the world.

One reason I stopped trying to service these is that I could not get new parts for many of the movements.
 
Spinakerr
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The 61GS is, as others have noted, a relatively standard watch to service for a competent watchmaker, especially one with Seiko experience.

The biggest issue is access to replacement parts if required, I resorted to buyee.jp for a donor which took a while. I can also recommend Mitka at Mitka.co.uk who is a Seiko fanatic and after went the extra mile check the the sounds of my 61GS rotor was not something amiss!
 
Bauhaus
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ipreferjester ipreferjester
After some digging around in old shelves and bookcases today, I happened upon an old GS 6145-8000 that I had misplaced and not worn for a few years (5-7 years approximately). While I'm sure many other vintage GS owners know this, the process to get them serviced from factory is an absolute mess and is near impossible sometimes, based on the circumstances. That being said, does anyone on the forums know of any servicers who would be able to take a look at it and fix it up? I'm at a loss, despite having scoured the interwebs a bit 🙁. Any help is appreciated!

Where are you located?

I agree with @Dan S that any solid watchmaker could do a regular service if no specific parts need to be replaced.

Zaratsu polishing is something else, but I'm assuming you don't want it to be polished?
There are some amazing experts available if you would wish to have it polished.
 
ipreferjester
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Bauhaus Bauhaus
Where are you located?

I agree with @Dan S that any solid watchmaker could do a regular service if no specific parts need to be replaced.

Zaratsu polishing is something else, but I'm assuming you don't want it to be polished?
There are some amazing experts available if you would wish to have it polished.

Im down in Florida, USA. And actually, I wouldnt mind having it polished. The case isnt majorly dinged up and I'd always worn it on a nato to protect the gold medallion from pitting because of wrist sweat, so a little shine back to factory level (or close to) of zaratsu polishing would be nice.
 
sdre
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A watchdealer shared with me; to avoid Hi-beat Vintage Seikos because of the speed of which the movement runs; wears out pretty fast.

Just a heads up.
 
Dan S
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ipreferjester ipreferjester
Im down in Florida, USA. And actually, I wouldnt mind having it polished. The case isnt majorly dinged up and I'd always worn it on a nato to protect the gold medallion from pitting because of wrist sweat, so a little shine back to factory level (or close to) of zaratsu polishing would be nice.

Polishing these grammar of design pieces seems quite risky to me. I would have to be extremely confident in the person doing the work unless the case were already ruined and I had nothing to lose.
 
Bauhaus
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ipreferjester ipreferjester
Im down in Florida, USA. And actually, I wouldnt mind having it polished. The case isnt majorly dinged up and I'd always worn it on a nato to protect the gold medallion from pitting because of wrist sweat, so a little shine back to factory level (or close to) of zaratsu polishing would be nice.

Grand Seiko themselves can do it for you. That’s the case in the Netherlands (they have a Zaratsu trained person), so maybe the same applies in the USA?
 
Archer
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sdre sdre
A watchdealer shared with me; to avoid Hi-beat Vintage Seikos because of the speed of which the movement runs; wears out pretty fast.

Just a heads up.

I would agree that the speed of the movement is a factor. My recollection from when I serviced these is that the mainsprings were quite strong compared to a watch movement of a similar size. This meant that forces were quite high, and I saw wear like this on the pinion leaves:



And even on the pallet fork jewels:

 
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