Fitment take 2:
I think I can see how this works now, or at least speculate.
The bottom of the top white spacer fits over the "factory" grey spacer like a shroud. It then narrows to fit closer to the movement.
There is a bump on the side of the spacer that fits in a groove of the case to locate the spacer so it doesn't rotate. On the opposite side there is a cutout for the crown stem.
IMG_20181013_100350.jpg
There is window cutouts at intervals around the white spacer. The cutouts make it so there is a thin bridge and on top of these bridges there is a bump that protrudes up. These bumps are what makes contact with the caseback. The bump is pushed down when the caseback goes on, the thin bridge flexes downwards (kind of like a thin plastic leaf spring)
When the watch is first made, the plastic is new and unflexed. When the caseback is screwed down, the plastic flexes downward and forms quite a tight fit. Things are good, everybody is happy.
Over time, the watch endures normal movement and shocks etc, which will inevitably cause micro flexing up and down of the bridges on this plastic spacer, losing tension and integrity on a small scale, and eventually opening up the prospect of unwanted movement.
IMG_20181013_100216.jpg
IMG_20181013_101231.jpg
IMG_20181013_101235.jpg
When the watch is opened like I did, all pressure is removed from the plastic bridges, but the plastic stays put, because plastic doesn't like to flex up and down too much before getting fatigued and losing integrity/tension.
All in all, a spacer on a spacer is not optimal, and relying on thin plastic bridges to maintain force/tension is also not optimal in the long term.
I don't think it is a burning train wreck like some some people are making out, just a manufacturers design decision that is not as good as it could be.
This is a cheap micro watch after all. (I do think this kind of quality puts an upper limit on the pricing of a watch like this though. I think they should ditch the Seiko movement and use 9015s, or make the cases to natively fit the Seiko. Anything else
IS a compromised solution.
I hope people benefit from knowing what is going on inside here, but also I think torches and pitchforks aimed at Unimatic is a bit much. If it was a big expensive Swiss brand, then hell yes they should get flamed, but in the context of a cheap micro not so much (IMHO)
For me, I flexed the plastic bridges up a bit and reattached the caseback. This has improved the moving around, probably back to the level it was before (when I didn't notice it) Obviously I notice
any movement now (ignorance is bliss I guess)
u1b.jpg
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.