Question about watch battery replacement (In-Time)

Here's mine, it completes perfectly my G-Shock. Louder alarm, timer that can be set at the second.

1da52196-0af1-4bae-a674-55d761923cdc_1.54ea9cc24600f6d22bece32d12dc4bc3.jpeg
 
My 15 years old Speedmaster needs a overhaul this year, the price is about £450 more or less...:D (still saving money for this purpose).

You should find a reliable watchmaker. Omega quoted me Can.$650, about £400, to service my 18 year old Constellation; however, my trusted local German watchmaker did the exact same service for Can.$200, about £125. I've used him for years and his work is always top notch. I have 5 'high-end' watches, which I take to him for servicing/repair including a 47 year old Vacheron Constantin. The only watch he won't handle is my Patek Philippe Calatrava, which I send to PP in Switzerland for servicing.
 
OK fellas, we've moved on from changing the battery worth £1.50 in a Timex to owning five "high end" watches which are probably worth more than my house with servicing costing hundreds of pounds and sending watches away to Switzerland for attention.

I've got nothing more to add here so will leave you to it.
 
You should find a reliable watchmaker. Omega quoted me Can.$650, about £400, to service my 18 year old Constellation; however, my trusted local German watchmaker did the exact same service for Can.$200, about £125. I've used him for years and his work is always top notch. I have 5 'high-end' watches, which I take to him for servicing/repair including a 47 year old Vacheron Constantin. The only watch he won't handle is my Patek Philippe Calatrava, which I send to PP in Switzerland for servicing.

I had a guy like that when I was living in France. He was Omega accredited and a "Maître-horloger" (Master watchmaker?), he had to let down Omega few years ago when Omega decided to become a Rolex wannabe and shortened its retail network. Unfortunately, where I am now (London, UK), my best bet is an Omega Boutique (and they are pretty greedy...)
 
I had a guy like that when I was living in France. He was Omega accredited and a "Maître-horloger" (Master watchmaker?), he had to let down Omega few years ago when Omega decided to become a Rolex wannabe and shortened its retail network. Unfortunately, where I am now (London, UK), my best bet is an Omega Boutique (and they are pretty greedy...)

That's unfortunate. Hopefully, Omega will do a first rate job and make your outlay worth it. In a similar vein, I had a very annoying experience with Vacheron Constantin a couple of years ago: through the local authorized VC agent I had to send my watch to Geneva for a routine serving because of its age. VC, Geneva sent me a quote for US$5,500 to do a complete restoration of the watch. I responded that the watch needed only a servicing and VC responded that because of the age of the watch, 45 years at that time, they would only do a full restoration. When I challenged this and requested a complete explanation of why a full restoration was necessary I was stonewalled be VC Geneva. I asked them to return the watch whereupon I took it to my trusted German watchmaker for an assessment. He concluded that other than some minor cosmetic issues the watch required only a full servicing. His charge was Can.$250 and his opinion was the that the watch was more valuable in original condition than being fully restored. It's been two years now and the watch is working perfectly.
 
That's a lot of money indeed.

Personally, I was into watches (Omega, Panerai, Seiko, no name auto/mechanical) for a while and then suddenly decided to keep only one mechanical (Speedmaster), a radio controlled G-Shock (for time keeping) and its complementary Timex sidekick, and a few cheap quartz back up/odd job watches (Casio F-91w and the like) that I don't mind destroying or losing.
 
So I ended up doing the battery replacement myself. It was not easy at first, but once one understands how things operate, then it is OK.

Unscrew the case back, manage to remove the used battery (the hardest part) somehow without destroying the whole thing, slip in the new one, grease the seal with silicon oil for waterproofing on an earbud, reset the watch, screw the case back, check the ringtone and alarm, and voilà.

Total cost £4.5 for the batteries (1 spare left), borrowed precision screw drivers from the first cousin, used the silicon oil from the speedcubing days, and the watch is as good as new.
 
Last edited:
So I ended up doing the battery replacement myself. It was not easy at first, but once one understands how things operate, then it is OK.

Unscrew the case back, manage to remove the used battery (the hardest part) somehow without destroying the whole thing, slip in the new one, grease the seal with silicon oil for waterproofing on an earbud, reset the watch, screw the case back, check the ringtone and alarm, and voilà.

Total cost £4.5 for the batteries (1 spare left), borrow precision screw drivers from the first cousin, use the silicon oil from the speedcubing days, and the watch is as good as new.
Well done m8, I bought a el cheapo watch repair kit for a tenner on eBay, so far I've changed 5 batteries & 3 watch straps, so it paid for itself on the 2nd battery
 
After unscrewing the case back, for the first 3 minutes, I was completely lost, because the way the battery was inserted, was really not like in the Timex battery replacement videos I watched on Youtube...
 
Back
Top Bottom