How to wind a Seiko Automatic watch e.g. 7S26

A common problem with automatic watches, including Seikos is that they have, seemingly, no way to wind them with a ,well, winder! Having sold many new and oldSeikos I have found customers can get their prized possession and then believe that it is not working. Simply wearing the watch will not give it enough charge to maintain time correctly, although some would like to believe that this is the case. Instead follow the procedure below carefully. At all times keep a firm grip of that watch - throwing a watch to the floor is NOT recommended.

1. Grasp the watch horizontally and firmly in your hand.

2. Gently but vigorously (oxymoronic?) move the watch from side to side flexing at your wrist for a good five minutes. Don't worry if that  movement is not continuous. The longer you can do this the better - you cannot overwind the watch, its mechanism prevents this.

3. Wear your watch for eight hours a day. If you are particularly sedentary then this might not be enough, top up with some extra winding as above.

The winding above takes place as the rotor arm moves and then winds the mechanism in turn. Your watch is now a fully functioning   automatic beauty.

Beware, as the bug for these wonderful automatic watches bites deeper and deeper you will find watch winders becoming appealing - no more fiddly setting of automatics that you have left on the side. 

Seiko Gents Premier Kinetic Moon Phase SRX003P1 Review.

This is a quite extraordinary watch - real classic looks yet combined with a moon phase display which makes it highly unsusal. Only when you have the watch in your hand can you appreciate the quality and attention to detail that Seiko have put into this masterpiece. As usual I am drawing your attention to the best place to get the watch as Qualitytime have sold out. Buy from Amazon below and you are fully covered for return within twenty eight days.

Read the review from a delighted customer below:

"The perfect watch for the price with only one downside and that is that it does not have a perpetual calendar, but such an analog watch does not exist under 10.000 euros (well the citizen BU0011-63ZB has a semi perpetual calendar but it looks cheap). Also a nice thing about this Seiko is that it does not have any pushbuttons that can be pressed accidentally such that you are not sure anymore what day it is because of that, and of course it keeps the time withing 10 sec. accurate per month, a thing not even Patek philips with 40.000 euros can do and the moon phase is very nice because now you know when its time to leave the house when PMS is around the corner :) "

Fake Seiko Watches - the rise of the Feiko...

Looks a bit like a Seiko but is in fact a Feiko...

There is a worrying trend on ebay of more and more fake Seikos appearing for sale. More worrying still is that ebay takes little to no action to remove them once informed. Strange for the auction site which is, by and large run extremely well and efficiently. Clearly counterfeiters cannot shift the blantantly copied Swiss luxury watches so have moved into the mid market territory, hence the rise of the Feiko. These watches will have crude Chinese movements instead of highly regulated Seiko ones. Now the Chinese make some fine movements but the problem will be in the fact that will not be oiled and then factory regulated which will give them a limited lifetime and dubious accuracy.

I suppose my real concern is that buyers on ebay think that they are getting the real deal and are being duped. If someone wants to buy a $10 fake Rolex from a market in Thailand then on one level at least there is some honesty in the transaction. Someone paying £100 for a Feiko is being right royally ripped off. Equally worrying, though, is ebay's unwillingness to act. Previously they have relied on their community to help police itself but seem unwilling  to stamp on the counterfeit Seiko watches.

Best ways to avoid a Feiko on the Bay:

• Buy from a reputable seller.
• Check their feedback carefully - have they regularly sold Seiko watches or is this a one off sale - they might not know it is fake (I know, pretty unlikely).
• Ask for the item serial number or make sure it is in the description - beware, this in itself does not guarantee the watch you are looking at is real, the number could be taken from a genuine watch.
• Have you seen a Seiko watch like it before? There are some excellent modded watches around that honestly state their use of new parts but the Feiko can look rather strange and different.
• Email me at contact@qualitytime.org.uk and I can give you a quick opinion.

The purpose of this is not to scaremonger. I believe Ebay is generally extremely well monitiored and is responsible in policing on the whole (I think this may well have more to do with huge law suits rather than inherent ethics). Thankfully the profit margins in making Feikos are generally too small for counterfeiters to pay much attention to and the Seiko brand will never suffer in the same watch as the luxury Swiss manufacturers