Having repaired two Cordura Sea-Gulls for my clients, I wanted one myself. After a bit of looking around on eBay, I found a Lady Sea-Gull. The crystal has had it, but the case and bezel is in good shape.
The dial has a bit of damage at the top, and it’s spilled oil, so I won’t even attempt to wipe it off, as it has started to dissolve the paint. The hands are in very good shape, and I didn’t pay a lot for the watch.
The movement is an EB 8170, and you don’t find these very often. They have 17 jewels, and a pin pallet escapement! Not only that, but a date with quick-set function, which is engaged by turning the hands backwards, and it’s automatic. So a lot of complications for a pin pallet movement. There was a time when some manufacturers thought that pin pallet was the way forward, and that it was better than the Swiss lever. TImex was one of them…
The reason for using a pin pallet here can’t have been cost saving, as the movement is well jewelled and complex enough.
The balance is properly jewelled, but is itself just pressed out of a sheet of metal.
The auto winder bridge removed.
The pin pallet fork.
The gear train with the pin pallet escape wheel at the left.
I will reuse the mainspring, as I can’t find a replacement.
Now for the moment of truth – with the base movement back together, it’s onto the timegrapher…
This is pretty amazing. If you would show me this image, I would bet considerable amounts of money that this wasn’t from a pin pallet movement! So maybe there was a point in manufacturing high-grade pin pallet movements…
Pretty ingenious date construction. The date change is incredibly fast, it has a quick set (the little wheel at 12 o’clock engages with the date ring when the movement is turned backwards), and it works reliably. Not expensively made, but very effective.
I’m very happy with the end result. It looks great with the new crystal, and the movement performs incredibly well for a ladies’ watch of this size. To be honest, there are few Swiss levers that size that do this well 😉
I might give this watch to my wife for Christmas as a little side present. I won’t spoil the surprise, as my wife never reads my blog 🙂
Hi Christian.
Just wondered if you had kept tabs on the real world time keeping of the watch over a period of wearing?
Would be interested to know?
Stephen
Pretty good to start off with – within 15 seconds per day or so. After a month, performance deteriorated, and now it’s about a minute per day.
Thank you. Would that be what you would expected in reality?
Would you know why the deterioration?
Pin pallet movements in general don’t show the stability of performance that Swiss levers have. Oris did make pretty good pin pallet movements, but even they don’t maintain performance as well as Swiss levers do.
Thanks Christian.
Will look great on this NATO. They do a 16mm version to! 😉
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Black-Grey-G10-NATO-Military-Watch-Strap-Harley-UK-/290754376679?pt=UK_Jewellery_Watches_WatchAccessories_SpareParts_SM&var=&hash=item43b24fb3e7
14 mm I am afraid. I ordered a blue plastic strap for it.
I have mine on a blue plastic strap at the moment! Looks good! 🙂
http://i.imgur.com/hZCG7Fh.jpg
and on the NATO:
http://i.imgur.com/hhOohmA.jpg
Looks like we both have chosen the same colour for the strap. Looks great on the Nato, too!
Did the balance have any metal removed with a countersink, or was the pressing accurate enough?
The balance was poised – a bit of material had been removed from the bottom side.