A customer contacted me to see if I could help him. His watch, this Seiko Rally 6106-8227, had a great deal of sentimental value to him and it had been badly damaged by accidental exposure to water. Other watchmakers had turned the watch away as unrepairable. This watch belonged to his grandfather. He had fond memories of this watch while sitting on his grandfather’s lap as a child. It was the one possession he asked for when he passed-away. Watchmakers will often turn-away watches like this for good reason. It’s not possible to address this level of corrosion within any reasonable budget and therefore you perform a good deal of work for free. While I cannot take-in every watch with this kind of damage, in some cases I choose to assist because I am passionate about watches, their history, and the connection people have with them. The goal of this restoration was to keep the watch intact as much as possible to include the movement— to keep it the same watch the customer remembered as a child. The movement was preserved and donor parts were very selectively used where required and others de-rusted and polished as-required. Rust was in many places you can’t see, down to the hairspring (visible under a microscope.) After this long restoration process, the watch is now running very well, at the top of the range of performance you can achieve from a vintage Seiko of this era. It also passed a water resistance test for 3 bar which means it will resist rain and splashing. The watch is now ready once again for the next generation and future ones.