Building a Watchco SM300

Edward53 · Jan 17, 2021

@Dimitar Adamski if you can be patient, someone will sell one eventually. I'm a big fan of the Watchco Seamaster 300. I bought mine in the UK in 2016 for £2500 serviced, about a year too late to catch the lower prices and it felt very expensive for a collection of parts, but it was well worth it. They feel great, they look great and you are getting a "vintage" outdoor watch that you need not be afraid to wear. Mine comes with me on day trips into the hills and is gradually acquiring character, which is fine by me as it is "my history" on "my watch". They don't have to be made by Watchco; that's just an easy name for all rebuilds and mine was made by an independent watchmaker. It won't be cheap but if you are determined, you will get one and you will love it.

G4_Chrono · May 30, 2021

This is also of interest to me, great information shared here.

I was in touch with Watchco when they built there last ever batch. I got an email offering me one as someone else dropped out. . But I didn’t take it! The UK import taxes would have taken me over my budget at the time.

A new build was on the sales forum a few weeks ago but it was a date model and I want the no-date.

It will be good to see what is feasible in a build these days; I was thinking of starting to research this again recently anyway.

tdn-dk · May 30, 2021

Here is the parts from back then when I got mine made (the Genéve was the movement donor watch)
Got my parts before prices went up

jaegodylan · May 30, 2021

Lewis Watch company in Australia occasionally have them for sale.

This is one he did with “heavy patina” that is pretty cool.

marco · May 30, 2021

jaegodylan
Lewis Watch company in Australia occasionally have them for sale.

This is one he did with “heavy patina” that is pretty cool.

He may still make them to order. Adam is Omega accredited and does great work.

jaegodylan · May 30, 2021

marco
He may still make them to order. Adam is Omega accredited and does great work.

His last email in January stated "I often get asked about the SM300 builds and when Uncle Seiko posted one of mine on IG in December, things got a bit crazy. At that time there were none available as I'm no longer building these unfortunately."

marco · May 30, 2021

jaegodylan
His last email in January stated "I often get asked about the SM300 builds and when Uncle Seiko posted one of mine on IG in December, things got a bit crazy. At that time there were none available as I'm no longer building these unfortunately."

I should have kept my mouth shut.
Here's my original.

JwRosenthal · May 30, 2021

tdn-dk
Here is the parts from back then when I got mine made (the Genéve was the movement donor watch)
Got my parts before prices went up

Ahhh, 2014- back when the world was still somewhat sane.

SkunkPrince · May 30, 2021

I paid extra for mine because they claimed a NOS movement, which my watchmaker says, "could be, nothing conclusive to say it wasn't."

I'll say this for them, I was having an issue with the crown and crown tube fitment and my watchmaker communicated with them and they sent up some parts so my watchmaker could fix the problem without having to send the whole thing back to Australia from USA.

marco · May 31, 2021

Afaik "watchco" now is now based in NZ.

davidswiss · May 31, 2021

SkunkPrince
I paid extra for mine because they claimed a NOS movement, which my watchmaker says, "could be, nothing conclusive to say it wasn't."

I'll say this for them, I was having an issue with the crown and crown tube fitment and my watchmaker communicated with them and they sent up some parts so my watchmaker could fix the problem without having to send the whole thing back to Australia from USA.

Mine from Watchco had the same problem when it arrived from NZ. It was fixed by a watchmaker in West Sussex.
Watchco paid for the parts and work without any problem. I found out by having the watch pressure tested after it had arrived with me.

Building a Watchco SM300

Edward53

G4_Chrono

tdn-dk

jaegodylan

marco

jaegodylan

marco

JwRosenthal

SkunkPrince

marco

davidswiss

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