Forums Latest Members

Seiko 8T23 -- the world's first and last hand-wound quartz watch

  1. timjohn Jun 6, 2023

    Posts
    1,105
    Likes
    6,546
    The Seiko 8T23 is a bit of an oddity. It's the grandfather of todays Kinetic line, but was not a sucess when it was released in the late 1980s because it took a hard three minutes of winding to charge the capacitor. With the invaluable help of @krogerfoot, I managed to find one on Yahoo Japan, but the vendor had replaced the OEM rechargable capacitor with a battery. Seiko doesn't make the capacitors any more, but found a place in France that still had some residual stock.

    Got it running again this morning -- with a little winding help from the cordless drill....

    IMG_6174.JPG
     
  2. STANDY schizophrenic pizza orderer and watch collector Jun 7, 2023

    Posts
    16,077
    Likes
    43,702
  3. timjohn Jun 7, 2023

    Posts
    1,105
    Likes
    6,546
    It does, which makes it all the more satisfying. The original capacitors had the lug welded to the case and were a weird 2.4v if IIRC. They're impossible to find with the lug and almost impossible without it.

    There's another good review here.
     
    joeshoup likes this.