King Seiko 45KS

I recently spotted a nice little 45KS high beat no date on the auctions being sold as junk. Crystal was a bit rough, but the dial looked nice and the price was right so i bit.

Alas I went right on down the rabbit hole as once it arrived I learnt that the crystal would not be a case of sourcing a new piece of sapphire and a suitable gasket, but instead that these are bonded to a SS ring and they are long out of production with new ones going for a considerable fraction of what I paid for the watch.

Then to top it off I discovered that someone had really tried to wind this one, to the point that the mainspring had snapped, the barrel had lost 2 teeth, the minute pinion had also lost a few teeth, the 2nd wheel (i dont know if its even still the second wheel at this point due to the different layout of a seiko movement but I digress) pinion had taken some damage and the 3rd wheel had lost a pivot.
My theory is the watch was dropped, the 3rd wheel lost its pivot then and then when the watch stopped running the owner wound it till all the other parts broke.

This led to another trip to the auctions to look for a donor, and I was lucky to find a 4502A powered movement also being sold as junk due to it being now paired with a wrong dial that had been crudely redialed.

A nice overhaul later, including a re-do from half way when I suddenly realised I had forgotten to include all the hacking components but had already oiled the main train including those fiddly dia-fix jewels... and shes all back together and ticking away at that lovely 36000 vph.

I have a display caseback on the way too 😀

was actually quite nice to work on something other than an Omega for a change, a nice little change of pace, hopefully this won't lead to yet another thing for me to collect...

display caseback arrived, I'm very pleased with the outcome

Where'd you get the display back?

The nodate 45KS is a gem of a watch, with very intricate details, but I feel that the current market is beyond what I would pay. They need to be unpolished and that is rarely the case + the dial is fragile.
I just wore my beater 45KS this weekend and everytime I do, I lust after a good one. Maybe I come across a wreck with good case and dial someday...

You can find one her
https://lapinist.com/en_US/c/DISPLAY-CASE-BACKS/17

I found it on yahoo auctions while looking for my donor, appears to be an independent manufacturer, he does a few vintage seiko casebacks.


It really is a case of buying one for the dial and another for the rest, but in my hunt for parts, and jow rare yhey are becoming, I start to understand how the fully put together examples start to demand the prices they do, crystals are getting well up there in price, I am currently waiting on a piece of double domed sapphire to do an experiment with my busted up crystal and see if I cant make a new one.
It also seems the high tourque needed for the high frequency can cause the barrels to fail too and the barrels are also very expensive too.

Along with a GS56, one of the great watches I think.

KS is a really fun watch. Here’s my 45KS with linen dial.

Wehre is the shop located?
There is no information concerning "about us" on the website.....curious.

Thanks, Jim.
Where did you get this information from?

Agree, any intransparency is suspicious to me.

this caseback isnt a lapanist caseback btw, but I believe this guy is somewhat well known in the vintage seiko collectors world for his case refinishing services, or at least a friend of mine has mentioned him in the past. I didn't even know he made casebacks.

https://wornandwound.com/meet-the-o...age-seiko-cases-one-zaratsu-polish-at-a-time/


https://www.fratellowatches.com/sei...e-seiko-and-grand-seiko-by-the-lapinist/#gref

I have personally bought a caseback from him for my 4522 and can vouch for it