Before I start, I want to be clear that my father is still with me, though he is getting up there in years. Also, I apologize in advance for the bad pictures, none were taken for this post, just old pictures on my phone. My parents got married in 1967, by 1974 they had 3 kids already, and while my father always worked, he didn't have a good job with a future. Thats was until 1974 when he got a union job working for the city of New York. As is their custom, my parents made a bad financial decision and celebrated by buying my father a watch to wear to work. They had this watch in several colors, but my father chose green for 2 reasons; 1) we are of Irish decent, and 2) he was going to work for the department of sanitation, who's colors are green. He wore this for the better part of his 20+ years, retiring the watch in the late 90's. He replaced it with an Invicta auto :facepalm2: which he still wears, and it's beaten to hell. This watch was regularly serviced as needed, but when he passed it to me about 20 years back it was missing the bezel around the date window which had somehow cracked and fell out of place and had to be removed by a jeweler, and it was also missing the case bezel. I sourced an exact watch from ebay and replaced the missing bezels myself. I gave the crystal a light buffing, but that's it. I don't want to remove the knicks and gouges.....my father put them there. The dial is in great shape, all the marks you see are on the crystal. A new crystal would make it look much better. It runs fast and needs a service, but I am in no rush to do so. I don't wear it much out of complete terror at the idea of losing/breaking it. My wife knows that in case of an emergency in which the house must be evacuated my fathers watch must be grabbed. Every other watch can burn....they are replaceable. My 1971 7006-7017. My father's watch. How I received it (it came with the original bracelet, it's just not on in this picture); After replacing the bezels; After lightly touching up the crystal; Here's the dial on it's own. It would really pop with a new crystal; And a couple of old wrist shots;
Love the story, and with the new hype of green dials, you can wear your Irish heritage on your wrist with pride and style!
Thanks for sharing. Luckily, I ended up my grandfather’s Seiko. He also clearly wore it at work for a long time as it was pretty beat up when I got it after he passed away. These old Seiko dials are really beautiful and well made. This is after I cleaned it up and buffed the crystal.
Great restoration and story! The 7006 caliber is a solid one too I believe so you'll be able to pass it on as well!
That is fantastic. I also have a 2001 Seiko 5 which was my Dads who passed away in 2004. It’s been in a draw, forgotten for all that time and I randomly found it in October 2023. Couldn’t be happier and love it.