How To Use An NH70 To Build A Skeleton Watch
So you want to learn how to use an NH70 to build your own Skeleton watch, right? Well we are going to dive into this head first and help you build your dream watch. You might be new to Seiko mods or you might have never used an NH70 movement before. For these reasons it can be slightly intimidating. Especially when you first open up your NH70 package and see that it doesn’t look like an NH35 at all. Maybe you didn’t know what to do when you saw that it came without a gray movement spacer like other NH family of movements.
Let’s get right into it and get started!
NH70 vs NH35
The difference between the NH70 vs NH35 can seem like a lot at first, but in reality, spec wise they are identical. The NH70 is actually based off of the NH35 and is the same size, power reserve, and hacking/handwinding capabilities. The major differences being the lack of a date wheel and the lack of a gray movement spacer. You’ll also notice a skeletonized top plate.
So, how do you fit the NH70 into the skeleton watch you’re building and what cases will they fit? Let’s find out!
NH70 Case and How To Install
What cases will fit the NH70? Well, the easiest answer is; any case that fits an NH35 movement will also fit the NH70 movement. But how do you do this? It’s simple, just install a gray movement spacer like the NH35! They fit perfectly and are easy to snap onto your NH70 movement. Just remember when buying your caseback, to buy one suitable for the gray movement spacer and not the OEM black movement spacer found on 7s26 movements. Since you are building a skeleton watch, I’d recommend going with a sapphire display caseback. Now, what to do with the metal spacer included with the new NH70? Well you wont need it, so put it to the side. These metal rings, tabs, and screws that come with the skeleton movement are not for Seiko mods, but rather to replace the NH70 in a skeleton watch that came factory with one.
Once you have your gray spacer clipped in place, you can add your movement to a NH35 movement holder to make work easier. We went with the Watch-Modz red movement holder for this mod.
NH70 Dials
Now to get to the NH70 dials, and what fits. I’m sure you already realize you will not be using an NH35 dial on this movement as there is no date function. But what dials can be used on your Skeleton watch build? There are 3 types of dials you can use for your NH70. The first being a dateless dial, these are perfect if you do not want a phantom date change like you would get using an NH35 on a dateless dial. This gives a more refined and factory feel to dateless builds. But, lets be honest, you want top show off that movement in a skeleton build!
Another option for dials would be to use a dial specifically made for NH70 and NH38 movements. This would include the dial used in the photo above. The dial we used was the White X-Ray NH70 Dial developed by Watch-Modz.
NH70 Hands
What about hands? What will fit and are there “NH70 hands“? Great news! Your choices of NH70 hands are unlimited because NH35 hands fit perfectly. Like we mentioned earlier, the NH70 and NH35 are identical when it comes to specs. This includes hand sizes! For our Skeleton watch build, we went with the popular Black Kunai Hands from Watch-Modz. We felt like these were a good choice of hands for our NH70, especially since they were slender allowing more movement to show through. The black finishing also added a nice contrast to be able to distinguish the hands from the movement at a glance. This was an important choice for ease of time telling.
NH70 Skeleton Build Conclusion
Now that you know what dials to use, and what hands will fit, you can now finish your build as normal! Adding the Gray Movement Spacer to the NH70 lets you install this movement into any NH35 Case you would normally use. You can now install into a Seiko compatible case, or you could go for the NH35 Sub Case from Watch-Modz like we used in this skeleton watch. These sub cases fit any sloped SKX007 bezel insert and come with a free insert of your choice. For this build we wanted to keep focus on the beautiful skeleton movement, so we opted for the Brushed Steel FF style insert.
On The Wrist
If you enjoyed this article and it helped you in anyway, please give it a share to help someone else needing this information. Thank you for stopping by!