Projects: 1989 Seiko 7A28-7120 'Gen 1'

The Seiko 'Gen 1' was the first quartz chronograph issued by UK armed forces. The 7A28 movement - the world's first analogue quartz chronograph - is a fantastic piece of engineering. Apart from two plastic spacer plates, all components are metal and the watch can be fully stripped and serviced for long-term maintenance. The watch includes a trimmer so it can be adjusted for accuracy, but the increments of adjustment are quite coarse, so the degree of accuracy obtainable varies slightly from watch to watch. However, accuracy well within the original +/- 10 seconds per month specification is almost always achievable.

This example, one of 1750 issued in 1989, was obtained from an MoD surplus supplier and had not been traded before on the civilian market. As is often the case with Gen 1s that have come direct from MoD, it still had the long-dead original Seiko battery fitted. They were of such good quality that even after 30 years they generally do not leak. As a result, the movement was in good shape, but after so long the original lubricants were completely dry, so the movement was fully stripped, cleaned and serviced according to the Seiko technical manual.

This watch was in generally good cosmetic condition, but as with a large number of other Gen 1s and 2s we acquired, it had a damaged crystal (in this example being held together with sellotape). The assumption is that when the battery ran flat, they were returned to stores and then deliberately damaged to put them out of further use before disposal. As we have seen from many, many examples, the original battery was still fitted, so the watches were considered disposable even to the extent of not replacing a flat battery.

This one cleaned up very well indeed, considering how it looked at the outset.