Elementary Battery-Powered Watch Repair
2024-11-25 14:43
watch repair
So this year I really got interested in watches. Big waste of time and money. But I can tell you what you can do to fix a nice battery-powered watch you found.
1. Battery replacement. Look at the battery (if still there), or else try and find the movement model number and look it up to see what batter it takes. Finally, you can measure the dimensions and there will be a standard battery type with that diameter and thickness.
Button cell batteries are absurdly cheap, you'll probably need to spend $5-10 on a bulk pack, but the most common ones (377's and 364's/AG1's) are often in variety packs.
In order to actually replace the battery, you'll need either a tiny flathead screwdriver and a hammer (ideally a stubby hammer or a thin mallet, but full size hammer works too). That's for snapback cases.
For screwback cases you'll need another type of watch opener (there's a 2/3-prong one for screwback cases, and sometimes you need to resort to the Bergeon 8008 Rubber Ball if it's a fancy oyster case.). These are cheap and easy to source.
For stubborn snapbacks, there's also the Snap Back Case Opener (I used one by PMC Supplies LLC), which looks like a sideways guillotine. This is only for the most stubborn of cases.
Now if you hammer the watch open too hard, you might break the O-ring. Oh well. Measure the diameter and get a $5-$15 O-ring set with O-rings at/around that diameter. Now you're awash in O-rings for the rest of your life!
For closing stubborn snapback cases, a clamp is useful. Harbor Freight sells a variety of Ratchet Bar Clamps. The smallest one is enough to close a watch. But you have to be careful about not breaking the glass. The best way to not break the glass is to put a Watch Case Press mold on the glass side of the watch so the force gets diverted to the case.
If you have a watch that needs this kind of setup, you'll know. Buy a case press or a mold set and keep the one that fits the front of the watch.
There's also a Watch Case Press, which uses a lever and two molds: The top one presses the back of the case down, and the bottom one has a ring so that the force goes into the border of the watch case rather than the glass.
2. Stem replacement: Stems can be bought cheaply. Cut them with wire cutters or a hacksaw. Specific movements use a specific stem type. But you can use an extension (screws into the other side of the stem to extend it) and cut that to size.
Finally, you would screw on the watch crown at the right stem length. There's o-rings in there to keep it waterproofed. Replacement crowns can be bought cheaply.
To eject the old stem, you'll usually have to use a pin (a thumbtack is enough for most models) and push a button near the stem somewhere while pulling). Some models can be tricky to remove... look up how to do it first instead of using brute force and breaking stuff.
3. Glass replacement: Measure the diameter of the glass. All you do is clean out the old glass, and use glue. It can be lightly clamped on or weighted while it dries.
4. Movement replacement: This is easiest for battery-powered watches. Just buy a copy of the same movement, and keep the old stem and hands. You'll have to assemble the hands, then put the stem(s) in, then the battery. But when you do this right you can easily restore a watch that had a broken movement.
5. Hand replacement: This is trickier. You need to know the hand size for your watch. I've seen and used variety packs which have most of the standard sizes.
Watch Recommendations
Electric Watch: Casio Illuminator w/ moonphase for $15-30 has pretty much all the features you will need. Great battery life too, uses a CR2032 lithium button cell battery which is readily available in stores and online.
Watch Band: 3 main options here: Leather two-piece band, nylon adjustable width band, or stainless steel fancy band. I like the nylon bands the most for electric watches.
Watch bands have a measurement at the part where the spring bar is. In order to change/replace watch bands, you need to use a thin forked tool to push down the spring bar (which is very likely to spring and land somewhere... wear glasses if you are doing this for the first few times because it can shoot you in the eye if you're looking directly at it).
Spring bars are generally standard sizes between 6-28mm and you can easily buy a full set of them for like $5-10. Usually when you buy a new watch band, they'll send you a replacement tool.
For adjusting width of watch band: Stainless steel ones have link pins which can be pushed out to remove / add segments.
Leather bands have holes in specific places.
Nylon bands are easily adjustable to any size.
Analog Watch: You've got battery-powered, and mechanical. Automatic mechanical watches are nice, but magnets and heavy wear can screw them up easily. Usually the higher end watches are automatics.
I'm never an advocate of buying ridiculously expensive luxury goods (there are plenty of watches in the $1000 & $10000 price zones). Exception: You expect to end up in jail and know you'll have a way to make a bail bond with jewelry. (As a consequence of this use case, you can expect wearing a ridiculously expensive watch to increase your chances of being sent to jail!)
But there are some really nice low-end watches.
You can have a calendar 29.5-day moonphase watch powered by a Miyota movement for like $30-60. If you know how to replace batteries and movements, you can basically buy a "broken" fancy watch for dirt cheap online and just fix the movement. (Unfortunately, low-end watches are so plentiful that you should not try to arbitrage on them. It will probably end badly.)
Or, Option B: An analog watch with a chronograph (stopwatch).
Generally I prefer the moonphase/calendar stuff because you can use a cheap digital stopwatch for actual stopwatch stuff, and not be fooling around with a mechanical thing on your non-dominant wrist to track time.
Resist the urge to collect watches, just get one electronic watch (which will basically last forever), and one cheap but fancy analog watch if you like. "Silver" (stainless steel) and two-tone bands go well with pretty much everything. As do the leather bands, which come in flexible colors like navy blue, and light/dark brown. Leather is easier on the wrist.
As far as NOT collecting fancy watches, clothes, etc. I just save a picture of anything that looks nice to an "art gallery" folder and thereby am cured of actually wanting to buy the thing to have it in a physical "art gallery" jar / Ziploc bag in person!
If/when the first analog watch breaks beyond repair, that's when you get another one (or the same one).
Easy and simple!
If you want to change stuff often, switch watchbands instead of the watch. It's way cheaper than accumulating watches you can't all wear at the same time.