Seiko Gen 2

[Morgan45]

Please Mr/Ms Mod, I don't move this post to nowhereland, I put it here because nobody can know better than these guys!!

To Prrune Users, sorry this is only slightly aircrew related, so bear with me!

Gents/Ladies I need you invaluable help.
In a few days time I will be the proud owner of a Gen 2 RAF issued Seiko wristwatch (from Ebay auction). The watch should be in good conditions, but I noticed from the pictures that the main dial and the 24h dial are not synchronized. It will come with no papers and I believe it will be quite tricky to sort out the problem without instructions. Is there anybody among you who owns/owned the said watch and can direct me to the right procedure?

Thanks so much

Morgan

[Lima Juliet]

Google is your friend...see :http://home.earthlink.net/~nederick/...20_Setting.pdf

Nice watch, but wish I'd not played conkers with my Gen 1 with a Herc mate in Akrotiri (needless to say I lost ).

Enjoy your watch

LJ

[Morgan45]

Thanks LJ,
I found that myself, but after what I've paid for it, the line "Attempt this at your own risk" really worries me a bit!

So sorry for your Gen1, really Herc guys have no respect!

[Lima Juliet]

Morg

This "attempt at own risk" business was how my original instructions (long since lost since 1995) described how to do it - I'm pretty sure it's a red herring!

LJ

PS They used to be £85ish from stores in the mid 90s and about £180 in the jewellers - I hope you haven't paid a fortune for the watch?

[Lima Juliet]

Mate

An apology - just tried it on my Seiko and it doesn't work - the hour hand should be synched to the 24hr clock hand (mine isn't!). Have a look at these original Seiko instructions for a watch with the same movement...

http://michael57d.diinoweb.com/files...SEIKO_Y187.pdf

I've also Googled and found it looks like a return to factory job - anyone for a game of conkers?

LJ

[Morgan45]

Well, being a military watch I guess a little risk is included, then... Let's seen what happens when I'll put my hands on it!

LJ, collectors are strange and totally absurd! Why on earth should I want that old, scratched and battered time piece when I could get a brand new one? Maybe because I've always been mad about military a/c and RAF but unfortunately I was born in the wrong place/time/sex to even dream of becoming a pilot and this is the closest I can get to the real thing. I like to think that this watch belonged to someone that shared my dream and managed to make it real. romantic, right?
Anyway, I broke my piggybank and said goodbye to my summer holidays!!

Your Gen1 would have made you a litte fortune these days......... go and get that Herc guy!!!!!

[Siggie]

Blimey, they do sell for a bit don't they, I might still have my old RAF watch somewhere, it's not as old as that one but you'd be welcome to it if I can find it, but the postage might be too much from Oz. Any of you ladies or Gents out there still got your RAF watch collecting dust?

[airborne_artist]

Of course the irony is that the watch probably spent more time on a stacker's wrist than on an aviator's wrist

[spheroid]

Are these the same watches which have been banned or is that the Gen 1... ?

[Op_Twenty]

Gen 2 was banned cos some idiot played with it in the cockpit and it broke. The guys still wear it anyway though. The 'powers at be' said ' the watch broke so you can't wear it anymore' the pilots then said 'ok, in the complete absence of any replacement, we'll go and put our old casio and citizens back on then'. Now instead of having one controlled watch you have 1,000 ish uncontrolled ones. You can't teach that kind of knee jerk reaction - brilliant.

[Lima Juliet]

Op20

When was that ban instigated then? I have been playing soldiers for a wee while at Her Majesty's request but I was still flying Dec 2008 with a Gen 2 on my wrist with potentially no idea it had been banned!

LJ

[BEagle]

Took my last aircrew watch to stores and asked for a new battery....

"No batteries, you'll have to have a new watch"

"OK, please make it so"

"We haven't got any new ones"

"Don't care, anything will do as long as it doesn't have blood on it"

Stacker disappears and returns with something which Bader had probably handed over on demob.

"Here you are sir. It doesn't seem to have a battery though"

"It doesn't need one - you just wind it up"

"Eh?"

"Just turn the crown and you'll hear a clicking noise...."

"Eh?"

"Just hand it over and I'll sort it out. Besides, I only need it when my non-RAF watch has to go for a new battery...."

3 months later, during clearing...

"OK, here's my aircrew watch"

"Never seen anything as old as that, Sir. Wherever did you get it?"

"From you!"

[Lima Juliet]

Beags

And that sort of guff is probably the biggest thing you miss after leaving - you just couldn't make it up...

It made me chuckle!

LJ

[BEagle]

One of the most amusing 'clearing' stories I ever heard was from Vulcan maestro Joe l'Estrange.

He was off on some non-flying tour, so had to hand in all his flying kit as one did back then. This included all 'flying suits'. Amongst which was a somewhat elderly Sidcot suit.

When Joe handed it over, the young stores basher jumped back in alarm - he thought he was being attacked by some large hairy animal!

[Lima Juliet]

some large hairy animal

You are mistaken, Sir, that was Black Robertson...

[Op_Twenty]

Leon, it was about Dec 08 - I think people realised how petty the decision was to ban it and just cracked on. Some of our guys just flew without watches and when the honchos found out they quietly told them to wear the watch anyway. That's just the way we are nowadays. No Senior Officer is willing to stick his neck out and question a decision for fear of getting a poor OJAR. We seem to have lost a pair of b*****ks somewhere, maybe we never had them at all. Each man for himself and all that. It makes me laugh that when guys return from theatre they find out about these issues that are 'oh sooooo important!' back at home - one day we'll wake up are realise that watches are not important but that the guys deployed in badlands are. We won't need to have charities for returning servicemen and women because they'll be being looked after properly by the government they were called to serve. The government will wake-up and realise that if you take money from defence and hand it to quangos (is there an apostrophe there?), NHS to squander, big business (how'd that work out?) that it gets people killed - very actually gets people killed, real people, not the MPs offspring of course, but lower down, 'beneath them' people all the same.

Stop, stop - becoming rant, sorry guys. As I said:

Leon, it was about Dec 08.

[GOLF_BRAVO_ZULU]

Originally Posted by Op_Twenty

Gen 2 was banned cos some idiot played with it in the cockpit and it broke. The guys still wear it anyway though. The 'powers at be' said ' the watch broke so you can't wear it anymore'

As I remember it, the "problem" was the RADHAZ from the Tritium luminized (although some were Promethium) face markings. In the case, nil hazard. Broken case, radiation hazard. As ever, the H&S bollox takes over and common sense departs via the window. That's why you've now got the Pulsar house brick.

[Op_Twenty]

I heard that this time it was because some chap pulled it apart and spindles etc ending up bouncing about the place inside the cockpit. He was a nav, though, and thus bereft of the delicate touch the ladies so appreciate.

[nwid]

On a practical note, thanks for the links - got all the hands back in the right place again.

[difar69]

Op20, not quite correct, the Seiko Gen 2 has never had issues falling apart. It was replaced by the Pulsar brick due to Seiko not offering a tritium face when the bids were opened up for replacing the gen 2. The flt safety message that was distributed last year concerned the Pulsar falling apart in the back of an F3. That's what you get for a £30 watch I guess. MOD now looking for a suitable replacement, which might just be a Seiko...