interesting experience on "Johnisthewatchguy"

[friendly_jacek]

this is hilarious. recently changed batteries in 3 dead ladies watches that belong to my wife. one of them started working and the other 2 (pulsars, BTW) are still dead and/or malfunctioning. so I went to a watch forum, lets call it "Johnisthewatchguy", and explained hoping someone will give me some constructive ideas. instead they asked how often the watches were serviced besides changing batteries. Well... never, besides changing batteries.
then they said that's it.

i thought about it and realized this was like a new guy signing on to BITOG, never changing oil in the life of the car and asking why the car refusing to run with a new battery.

apparently i neglected lots of watches in my life, LOL

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: friendly_jacek
this is hilarious. recently changed batteries in 3 dead ladies watches

Sounds morbid rather than hillarious. Why do dead ladies need working watches?

Quote:

so I went to a watch forum, lets call it "Johnisthewatchguy",

watchuseek?

 

[javacontour]

I was thinking the same. Odd placement of the modifier dead. Does it describe the ladies or the watches?

 

[EdwardC]

Originally Posted By: javacontour
I was thinking the same. Odd placement of the modifier dead. Does it describe the ladies or the watches?



I read the same thing.

Servicing a quartz watch is rarely worth it, and if it's sentimental, a new movement is probably more economical. Even some a mechanical watch in the affordables category doesn't seem worth it a lot of the time. My guess would be WUS too

By the way, I did a battery replacement once using cheap batteries from Amazon. It didn't initially work as it turns out the battery was dead (although not expired). I tried another and it was fine. I would try it again, if you have more batteries. Also, be careful that you aren't shorting out the battery during the installation.

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

I have a 33 year old Seiko Quartz watch that stills keeps time. Replacing the battery is the only service it ever had. You replace a quartz watch when it won't run.Jewelers I have talked to say they don't service quartz watches.

 

[JJ717]

EdwardC has good advice: check the "new" batteries for proper voltage, and look at the contacts in the watch for signs of corrosion.
If those conditions are good, then unfortunately, the movement may be dead. There are quartz watch cleaners ( here's one), but some aerosol contact cleaner may work just as well for a lot less $. Also, replacement movements are surprisingly reasonable, and a local jeweler may be able to swap the hands and dial over - it's not hard, just very fiddly.

 

[friendly_jacek]

Originally Posted By: javacontour
I was thinking the same. Odd placement of the modifier dead. Does it describe the ladies or the watches?


sorry man. my bad. i meant to post it on BITOG, somehow i got it on bobisthegrammerpoliceguy.

 

[440Magnum]

Quartz watches don't really need service. Well, not much anyway. I've never done anything but change batteries, and my oldest quartz is over 20 years now and still works. Now that's a step-type watch, not a high-beat electronic watch like a Bulova Precisionist or old tuning-fork Accutron. Those do wear faster, especially Accutrons.

A real automatic or manual-wind watch, on the other hand, needs going through about every 5 years, maybe every 10 now that watch oils are synthetic also. The difference being a real watch may last >100 years with that kind of service, whereas a quartz will be dead in maybe 50 years at best for lack of available replacement parts.

 

[friendly_jacek]

Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
watch oils are synthetic also.


now you have my interest. are those OEM or aftermarket? is there a rating/certification system for those?

 

[Benzadmiral]

Originally Posted By: friendly_jacek
Originally Posted By: javacontour
I was thinking the same. Odd placement of the modifier dead. Does it describe the ladies or the watches?


sorry man. my bad. i meant to post it on BITOG, somehow i got it on bobisthegrammerpoliceguy.

Grammar. "Grammer" is the actor who was on Cheers and Frasier.

 

[JJ717]

Originally Posted By: friendly_jacek
Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
watch oils are synthetic also.


now you have my interest. are those OEM or aftermarket? is there a rating/certification system for those?


Ummm, yes? Probably the biggest name in watch oils is Moebius, who's owned by the Swatch Group, who also own a number of the Swiss watchmakers. I'd consider them the OEM oil for many brands, and they're also the first choice for many watch servicers. There are other brands, such as Nye, Novostar, Anchor, etc, which I'd think of as the aftermarket.

They're mostly rated in terms of viscosity, with smaller movements wanting lighter oil, and different gears within the same movement wanting different viscosities. Moebius 9010, which is considered a general purpose synthetic, is 1.5 stokes at 20C.

 

[friendly_jacek]

interesting info, thanks.
so, 5 years with mineral and 10 years with synthetic OCI?

when the watch gurus told me that quartz watches should die in 3-5 years without service, I didn't buy it. after all, the one watch I jumpstarted was 10-15 years old (citizen IIRC).

this is exactly like mechanics saying you have to change your engine oils every 3000 miles/3 months, and they gladly collect your money, LOL.

 

[440Magnum]

Originally Posted By: friendly_jacek
Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
watch oils are synthetic also.


now you have my interest. are those OEM or aftermarket? is there a rating/certification system for those?


Both OEM and aftermarket, but I don't know about the rating system. Its not a big market in terms of gallons per year! As someone else mentioned, the Swatch Group is the big gorilla in watch movements. Omega and Hamilton are the well-known watch names within the Swatch Group but heir movement division is ETA, which for decades has supplied movements to literally dozens of other brands (Breitling, Accutron, Tag, pretty much every big name you can imagine other than Rolex or the hand-builders like RGM here in the US), and they use synthetic Moebius oil. They've actually reduced production- at a rate limited by the Swiss government so as not to disrupt the industry- to force other manufacturers to pick up manufacturing for non-Swatch movements, so over the last couple of years there's been an upswing in movements from companies like Ronda and Sellita. Interestingly a lot of those newer non-ETA movements are reverse-engineered clones of ETA movements so as to minimize changes to the watch cases. If you have a mechanical self-winding chronograph watch made since 1974, its probably got a movement based on the ETA 7750, if not an actual 7750 movement. And if it was made (or serviced) within the last 10 years or so, its ticking on synthetic oil in the jewel and journal bearings. Where Swatch/ETA goes, the rest of the watch industry follows.

 

[440Magnum]

Originally Posted By: friendly_jacek
interesting info, thanks.
so, 5 years with mineral and 10 years with synthetic OCI?

when the watch gurus told me that quartz watches should die in 3-5 years without service, I didn't buy it. after all, the one watch I jumpstarted was 10-15 years old (citizen IIRC).

this is exactly like mechanics saying you have to change your engine oils every 3000 miles/3 months, and they gladly collect your money, LOL.


The thing about watches is that its often just the age that kills the oil, not actual wear-and-tear. Its such a tiny amount of oil on the shafts and jewels that any volatility at all will cause it to dry out in a few years. That's where the newer synthetics have an advantage. With quartz watches that tick once per second, it almost doesn't matter because everything moves so slowly. But a balance wheel and pallet lever that beat 6-10 times per second are a different matter, as are self-winding mechanisms that move all day long as your arm moves around..