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RonkPM

Oakley Expert
286
753
Choctaw, OK
I had a damaged coil in my Oakley Timebomb as well as a bad capacitor, so I took it upon myself to tear it down and repair it. Hopefully this guide will help you resurrect a watch you might have sitting around that Oakley can’t/won’t repair. The movement/caliber that is in a Timebomb is a Seiko 5M42. The Seiko 5M42 is a kinetic style caliber that uses an oscillating weight to recharge a capacitor. The capacitor is the old term/part, the replacement cell is a Lithium rechargeable battery, Seiko # 3023-5MZ. This energy is used to power a quartz circuit to run your watch. This caliber was used in a bunch of Seiko watches and you can use those to help repair your watch. I bought a couple of broken/damaged Seikos off of the ‘bay so I could get replacement parts and have a couple of movements to practice on. The pair I bought was $20 from “thewatchcollector” (no affiliation, but highly regarded on the watch forums) in the Philippines. Not a bad price for replacement parts at all. One watch still had a perfect caliber/movement inside of it that when I tested it out with the new capacitor, it fired right up. You could also replace the whole movement if you had a capacitor leak and corrode your watch. Brand new replacement calibers are available online for around $100. I’ll cover this as well.

Before you begin, Google search for the Seiko 5M42A Parts Catalog/Technical Guide for the parts breakdown and oiling points. Here are some of the tools that I used in my repair of my damaged Timebomb. Most of these I picked up off of Amazon. I also had a couple of small magnets handy for finding errant screws and parts.
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1. Screwdrivers 2. Band Pin Tool 3. India Hand Remover 4. Homemade Dial Protector (sandwich bag) 5. Workmat 6. Case Knife 7. Toothpick 8. Moebius Watch Oil and Oiler Needle 9. Rodico (handy for picking up small parts/residue free cleaning) 10. Case Holder 11. Hand Press 12. Movement Holder 13. Tweezers metal and plastic 14. Hammer and Band Pin Punch.

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Having something to store and separate all the parts comes in really handy!
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This is one of the best things you can get to help with working with all these really tiny parts!

**Standard Disclaimer: I am not liable for any damage you cause or trouble you run into.**

Pop one side of the clasp off so you can get to the back of your Timebomb and tighten into your watch holder. Remove the four screws with a PH000 Phillips screwdriver and lift off the back cover and the gasket. Here you can see the Seiko 5M42 caliber that is the heart of your watch. That half-moon weight you see with Inertial Generator printed on it, is the kinetic oscillating weight that drives the generator that recharges the capacitor. Use a 1.5mm screwdriver to remove the screw that retains the weight and remove. Under that is the oscillating weight wheel that drives the generator. It lifts right off and you can now get to the old capacitor.

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You can also see the coil that HQ damaged when they had my watch. Remove the two capacitor screws with a 1.0mm screwdriver. Lift the capacitor cover off and pull off the insulator. Set those two aside as the new rechargeable battery comes with different replacement bits. Study how the two tabs of the capacitor fits into the mainplate before you remove it so you can get it placed back in the exact same spot. The straight tab fits into a small slot in the mainplate and the side with the hole presses down on top of the gold capacitor connector. Use a non-conductive tool here so you do not short out the capacitor. If all your watch needs is the capacitor replaced, please skip ahead to the reassembly. If your watch needs something else replaced, please follow along.

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Now take out both circuit block cover screws and lift the circuit block cover off. Watch your screwdriver so it doesn’t slip off of the screw and destroy a coil like the HQ “repairman” did. These little coils are fragile.
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Underneath the cover is the circuit block. It lifts off with no connections.

Now you can remove the two oscillating weight bridge screws and carefully lift out the bridge straight up off of its posts and wheels.
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Under the oscillating bridge are the intermediate wheel and the generating rotor which are supported by the two pinkish/purple jewels you see in the bridge. That oscillating weight wheel that is under the rotating weight meshes with the intermediate wheel which drives the generating rotor that recharges the capacitor. You can now lift out the intermediate wheel, generating coil, the generating rotor and stator. The rotor will probably stay inside the stator, but be careful that it doesn’t fall out. No big deal if it does, just don’t let it get away from you. Then remove the last screw for the other coil block and lift it out as well. To test the coils, use an ohm meter. The spec on the generating coil is 280Ω - 380Ω and the coil block is 1.7KΩ – 2.1KΩ.
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Now the rest is not for the faint-of-heart. If you really want or need to go farther to replace damaged parts or if the caliber is dirty proceed. These photos are from my practice watch. I’d recommend using a ruined watch to do this the first time. Study how everything works together and take pictures/notes. Remove the train wheel bridge screw and carefully lift off the train bridge.
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Under the bridge are five gears and all of the setting levers.
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Lift off the + capacitor connection and inspect for damage or corrosion. The train wheel setting lever lifts off its plastic post easily. Caution as the next bits could be under spring power and you don’t want them flying away. Slide the switch lever off its plastic post and away from the yoke post, remove. The setting lever and yoke now will lift right off their posts. In order to be able to remove all the gears, the seconds hand must be removed. Remove all of the wheels/gears, the step rotor and the rotor stator and clean as needed. That is as far as you can go on the back of the caliber.

Reassembly of wheels and setting levers.

These steps can take some finesse. I had to do it a couple of times to get everything right… Slip the rotor stator back into place and insert the step rotor, sliding its axle back into its hole. Slip the third, fifth and minute wheels back into their respective holes/jewels. Slide the fourth wheel back through the caliber to help hold all of the wheels together. Place the clutch wheel back into its slot and slide the setting wheel back over its post.

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Diagram taken from Seiko Manual.

Place the yoke back in, ensuring that it engages the clutch wheel in its slot and the spring arm side of it is snug against the main plate. Slip the setting lever on its post with the dog leg headed downward and nestled into the cam slot on the yoke. Place the switch lever over both pieces, engaging both its post and catching the leg of the spring against the yoke post. Then place the train wheel setting lever on its post over rotor stator and make sure the long tip of the yoke engages the outer slot. After all of that, don’t forget the capacitor connection. Place the train wheel bridge over everything making sure that all of the wheels are inside their holes and not bound up. Tighten the two screws incrementally while checking that nothing is bound up. Whew….hard part is done.

Put all of the coils and the circuit back in the reverse order.

TIPS: Make sure the generating rotor and intermediate wheel are not bound when you install the weight bridge. Make sure the oscillating weight wheel engages the intermediate wheel when you slip it back over its bearing. Oil as you go along in accordance with the manual. Replacement gasket is 29mm if needed.

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Caliber Front-Side Tear Down

If you are in need of replacing the whole movement, you will have to disassemble the front side of your old movement to reuse the Hands, Dial and Date Dial. All of the replacement movements I could find have the date showing at a 3 o’clock window where our Timebomb is set up for a 6 o’clock window. The numerals on the Date Dial that comes with the new movement won’t display in the right orientation so we have to use our original Date Dial. I have not done this to my Timebomb, but with talking it over with my local watch repair gentleman, we believe that there would be no reason why this wouldn’t work just fine. (Disregard the different colors of Date Dials; I was working with two different movements)

Remove the back off of your watch as per the beginning of the guide in preparation to removing the whole movement. You may want to remove the Oscillating Weight and Capacitor. There is a lever that you will need to push down on to remove the winding stem. TIP: Before you remove the hands, set them to 12:00 so when you reinstall them, the date switchover function still operates correctly.
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The lever has a little dimple in it to push on with a needle or toothpick to unlock the stem. Push down gently and pull the Winding Stem out. You can now gently work the movement out of the case. There may a different way that the movement locks into the case, but on my practice watches, the movement came right out. Turn the movement right-side up and install into a suitable movement holder.
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Take a sandwich bag and cut a suitable sized face protector out of it. Cut a slit in the plastic to allow you to slide it under the hands.
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The India hand puller has plastic feet that slide down to leverage off the hands, but a little added protection can’t hurt. Slip the jaws under the seconds hand and slowly squeeze the side springs to start pulling up on the hand. A little study on how the tool works will show you exactly how this is supposed to happen. Go slow as the hands are really easy to bend. After you get the seconds hand off, follow with the minute and hour hands. Now the dial should pop right off by slipping a fingernail or other suitable tool under the edge. There are two locating posts on the dial that slip into friction fit holes on the mainplate. Don’t lose the Dial Washer under the dial.
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Now remove the Dial Washer and loosen the three screws holding the Date Dial Guard down with your 1mm screwdriver. Remove the Date Dial Guard. Slowly lift up on the edge of the Date Dial and lift it off of the movement trying not to disturb the tiny Day Corrector Setting Wheel and Calendar Correction Intermediate Wheel. The Date Jumper will be hooked into the Date Dial and will want to jump off. I didn’t do anything with the Date Jumper, Date Driving Wheel or the Hour Wheel but have included a picture with what it looks like under the Date Jumper.
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The Day Corrector Setting Wheel slides back in a slot to engage the Date Dial and Intermediate Wheel when you set the date with the Stem. The Date Driving Wheel arm is what drives the Date Wheel when the watch is in normal use. Clean any dirt or fingerprints from the area using cotton swabs and your Rodico and oil the end of the Date Jumper where it contacts the date wheel.

Now when you get both movements disassembled to this point, you can swap the Date Dial over and start your reassembly. Set your old Date Dial onto your new movement ensuring that the Date Driving Wheel Arm can be engaged into the teeth while keeping it flush and square to the movement. You will need to gently pull the Date Jumper arm over so that the diamond shaped end of the spring arm is engaged in the teeth on the Date Dial. This will want to pull the Date Dial of center, so keep a gentle downward pressure.
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Without disturbing the alignment of everything, carefully place Date Dial Guard over the works and tighten the three screws. Drop the Dial Washer back down on top of the Hour Wheel and re-align your Dial back into its mounting holes. Press gently down to set it in place. Use your Rodico to clean all of your finger prints and smut off of the dial. This stuff works amazing and leaves no residue behind.

I used a hand press to press the hands back on, but there are other tools that you could use as well. Take your hour hand and line it back up with 12:00. Pick the correct tip for the press that supports the most surface area on the hand and has a big enough hole in it to keep from pressing in on the movement. Once the hour hand is seated, align the minute hand and press it on as well. Press the second hand on with the solid tip and you are done. Clean your fingerprints off of the hands with the Rodico.
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Make sure your case crystal is clean and place the movement back into your watch case. Reinsert the Winding Stem and give your watch a spin. Check that the hand movement is smooth and they aren’t touching or dragging on anything. Check that the date advances as you spin the hand. Reinstall your new capacitor and put your watch back together, swapping over your Oakley marked parts like the Circuit Block Cover and the Oscillating Weight. Congrats! You should now have a working Timebomb again!

I hope this will help someone bring back a ruined or dead iconic watch like it did for me. Good luck and if you have any questions that I might be able to help with or suggestions that can make this clearer, please let me know.
 
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Absolutely amazing post! One of the best written guides I have ever seen! I converted all images to be hosted on here.
 
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