adrian@VTA

Geday Everyone,

Currently there’s no disruption to VTA tech work due to the virus issues. Tech work is progressing as usual and in fact, I am catching up on work in this period. Due to the nature of the business and the business structure, I’m not compelled to shut anything down or isolate.

There are some significant delays to freight however. In March, I totally dropped the postal service for global and Australia wide deliveries. This is due to the total lack of transparency and responsibility from several postal bodies (both here and overseas). They simply do not take any ownership of the service they provide, and ultimately, I pay for.

If this was to happen in a private business, the ACCC (in Australia) or BBB in the US or other similar government bodies would hunt them down like criminals and levy hefty fines against them. As the postal services are semi government, they just seem to shrug and say it’s not their problem that they’ve lost hundreds of dollars of your property.

Currently watch service returns (with DHL Express) are unaffected to most countries. Delivery is still 3-5 days to most places globally.

EBAY sales (With DHL eCommerce) have lengthy delays. In most cases, the delay is 15 days to 5 weeks right now, depending on the country. Some countries are totally locked out (e.g. Japan) and I can’t deliver to them right now. DHL has their own planes to fly stuff out but as they can’t use other networks right now, they are overloaded with shipping.

I’m told anecdotally, AUSTRALIA POST has over 4000 mail containers sitting in the overseas depot waiting to fly.

I’m guessing this will continue to the end of June but it’s still not entirely clear how the situation will progress.

Stay healthy, stay inside and keep loving horology.

Adrian.

Geday Everyone,

Another year is just about to pass us by and I’d like to thank all my fantastic customers this year and in the past for the strong support of our business and making our success possible!

In 2020, we have some changes coming along and are expanding operations in a few areas. This will ensure we can continue to keep these iconic watches going for years to come.

I haven’t had too much time to do website updates over the past few months but have been reasonably active on YouTube. Check out the channel here –

https://www.youtube.com/user/hal0eight

As for shutdown over the new year period, the first week of Jan will be just half days but then back to normal. I am currently well behind on email, but will get back to you.

Thanks again!

Adrian.

I’ve finished a bunch more repairs for customers, and thought I’d combine them in one post –

SEIKO 6105-8110

SEIKO 7548-700B

SEIKO 5606-7000

SEIKO 6139-6005

SEIKO 6139-6009

SEIKO 7017-6040

SEIKO 7018-7000

SEIKO 6139-6010

SEIKO 7546-604A

SEIKO 6105-8110

The SEIKO 7005-8030 is confirmed as an issued watch to special forces during the Vietnam War. The owner of this piece tells me the watch was actually in Vietnam and was not a civilian purchase later on.

This piece dates to 1970 and was in very good condition. I ended up servicing the watch, replacing the seals, crystal and some parts inside that were damaged due to water intrusion. It’s now running great and ready for a few decades more service!

Another fantastic result. This watch was damaged by a past water intrusion. The minute track dial print was damaged and unrecoverable. Fortunately the luminous paint was in good condition and didn’t require replacement. To complete the job, a set of aftermarket hands was added, a new glass and new seals.
Inside the watch, the movement was upgraded with a 6119 top train plate and escape wheel along with the barrel arbor jewel upgrade. This brings the jewel count to 22 jewels. The setting on the escape wheel now has a “DIAFIX” setting on one side which will help with consistent timekeeping and better resistance to shocks.
After “re-packing” the crown with a new VITON seal, and a fresh set of seals elsewhere, the watch passed a 100m pressure test.

The service on this watch went like a dream. Already in excellent condition it only needed a full service, new seals and a new crystal. In this case, the customer decided to add my new urethane GL-831 substitute strap, restoring the watch to the original look.

After service & cleaning, the watch passed the standard 100m pressure test.

Geday,

Despite these watches being called the “Doctor Chrono”, the pulsations scale is useless for measuring someone’s pulse. It’s likely the scale was more useful for timing radio signal pulses or something but nobody knows for sure the intent of the scale.

This watch was serviced, new crystal fitted and the hands coloured to the correct “tomato red” colour.

Geday Everyone!

I’ve just moved to a new workshop and a new address. The fairly convoluted move and longer than expected move process really put a dent in my updates.

My new adddress is –

VINTAGE TIME AUSTRALIA
PO BOX 245
OHALLORAN HILL
SA 5158
AUSTRALIA

And the next lot of completed jobs are a bunch of SEIKO 4S15 “Alpinist” watches. All were serviced, cleaned and had the seals replaced. All tested a PASS on the pressure tester at 100M. The 4S15 movement is a modern respin of the 5256 movement from the 1970’s and regarded as one of SEIKO’s best movements.

Green dial –

Black dial –