Problems After Replacing the Watch Battery in Your Watch
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1. My watch still won't go with the new battery.
New battery failure is very rare, so if the watch fails to start with a new battery, it may be that the watch has stopped working for some other reason and you may
need to take it to a watch mender. However, there are a couple of things you can try first:
a) The obvious one is to check that the winder (crown) is pushed fully home.
b) If so, then has the watch been left standing with an old battery inside it for a long period of time? Sometimes it can be difficult to get the movement working
again if it has been stopped for a while. Placing the watch in a warm place (like an airing cupboard) can sometimes "loosen" things up sufficiently to get the
mechanism working again. We have fitted several new batteries to watches which have started for a while then stopped. Leaving them in a warm airing cupboard over night has actually
got them going again. You can also try moving the hands and tapping the watch gently to see if that will encourage it to start moving.
It is always best to replace a battery in a watch as soon as the watch stops working.
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2. The digital display on my watch is not working.
If the display on your digital watch is not working or not showing the correct display then it is likely that the watch needs to be reset. If you remove the back again,
you should see some indication of a reset hole on the watch's movement. This is sometimes marked with the letters "AC" (All Clear).
Click on image to enlarge
This needs to be shorted out against the case of the watch or the top of the watch battery. Using a paper clip or a pair of metal tweezers place one leg
into the hole marked "AC"and touch the other leg against the main movement housing or the watch battery (creating a temporary short circuit). This should reset
the display.
Click on image to enlarge
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3. Will my watch still be waterproof?
As long as you have put the back on the watch securely and the o-ring is undamaged, the watch should retain its original water proof performance. The water resistance
performance can be helped by putting a small smear of
silicon grease on the o-ring, but be careful
that this does not go inside the watch case.
Most high street jewellers will not be able to test the water proof performance of a watch on their premises, and so after changing the battery will not guarantee
the water proof rating of the watch, therefore if you require your watch to be guaranteed water proof (such as a diving watch) it is likely that the watch will have to be
sent away.
The test equipment required to do this costs a couple of hundred pounds and consists of a small tank which is half filled with water. The watch is suspended in the air space
above the water and the tank is sealed. The tank is then pressurised with a hand pump to the required test pressure. Once at this pressure, the watch is lowered into the water
and then the pressure released from the tank. If bubbles are seen coming OUT of the watch then clearly it is not water tight (well, not air tight actually). The seal will
have to be changed again, the back retightened and the test repeated.
Water proof rating on watches can be confusing, see the Casio water proof rating chart for a detailed explanation of water proof rating on watches.