This is the Hi-Beat beast that showed the horological world what the Japanese were capable of! The Seiko calibre 4522A has a rate of 36.000 bph, thats 10 beats per second, a frequency of 5hertz. This watch is in very good condition, but in need of a routine service.
I really like the design of this movement.
The performance is not terrible considering all the jewel holes have dirt in them.
Dial and hands are in very good condition.
The date mechanism is made up of a lot of parts!
Setting/winding/quick set mechanism.
Here you can see the gear train and the hacking lever after removing the train bridge.
The movement has a fair bit of dirt hiding in the jewel holes and under bridges.
The mainsprings are hard to find for this movement and this mainspring is in good condition and will be cleaned and oiled.
Movement cleaned and ready to be put back together.
The balance moving freely after fitting the cap jewels.
Mainspring cleaned and back in the barrel.
Clean gear train going back into the movement.
I get the train bridge in place before the barrel bridge as it holds the hacking lever in place.
Movement starting to come together.
I fit the winding/setting mechanism.
I now have a running movement.
Watch preforms well.
I now start putting the date mechanism back in place.
The date construction back together and ready for the dial
Dial and hands back on the movement.
Movement back in the case looking great.
Very nice watch with a very nice movement!
It’s hard to believe this watch is from 1969!
A lovely piece of work as always. Do the vintage hi beat GS movements you have worked on suffer from the additional abrasion that seems to afflict some Zenith watches which also run at 36,000?
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No I usually don’t see the same kind of aberration. On the Zenith it might be related to the power of the mainspring and the autowinder mechanism.
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Thank you – that is interesting.
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I am now the lucky owner of this watch! It is quite stunning in the flesh and one of my vintage watches which I am likely to wear quite frequently. It has been a pleasure dealing with Mitka on this purchase – he has previously worked / serviced a number of my watches. Always a delight to deal with, I can sincerely and genuinely recommend his services to anyone needing their watch repaired or his workmanship on the watches he has repaired and for sale here.
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