How to Make a Quartz Watch Work Again

Quartz watch repair

I started with the repair of old analog mechanical watches and I really similar them nevertheless analog mechanical watches are always less authentic than quartz watches because the frequency with which a mechanical residue oscillates depends to some degree on the aamplitude and the position. All kinds of efforts take been fabricated to compensate an analog mechanical movement for those furnishings merely it does never really piece of work. Quartz oscillators have no position dependency and their temperature drift is as well rather small. The only trouble with Quartz watches is that they need a bombardment and i has to replace that battery once in a while.

Quartz watches are by and large much easier to fix than analog mechanical watches. The main reason is that they behave "digital". They practise either run and keep time or they have a trouble. The "working but not keeping time at all" state that mechanical watches tin stop up in does not exist here.

A lot of spotter makers but replace the unabridged movement when information technology is non working anymore. This might not be possible for onetime watches and there they just fit a new and different motion into an old watch. I call back that this is really the incorrect strategy. Quartz movements can be repaired in many cases. In those case where yous need spare parts you lot can oft use parts from a similar move from the aforementioned manufacturer and just bandy the defect part.

How to repair a quartz movement?

Skillful swiss quartz movements can be repaired. Cheap chinese or japanese movements can only be replaced as a whole.

Quartz watches take in general five areas where they tin fail:

1. Mechanical problems due to "dirt" in the movement. This is by far the almost common cause for a defect quartz movement. Just make clean the movement as described below. Cleaved or worn out cog wheels are rather rare.
2. Salts and oxidation effectually the battery compartment. Simply accept the involved parts apart and clean them. Corroded metal contacts tin exist polished with a bit of polishing paste. Those tiny parts are best polished with a pocket-sized slice of leather (2mm x 3mm). Grab the leather with watchmaker tweezers, dip information technology in metallic polishing paste and so rub it gently along the trivial contact pin or any you need to polish.
3. A defect whorl. The coil that powers the step motor is made of a wire thiner than a homo hair. It is easily damaged by somebody who does non know how to change a battery. A spiral driver or but finger nails hit accidently the gyre tin can break the wire. Information technology'south almost impossible to repair. Information technology's better to replace information technology.
4. A defect tuning fork quartz crystal. This is a very rare defect but extrem temperature changes or mechanical shock tin intermission information technology. You tin supercede them. Those are 32.768KHz tuning quartz crystals and they cost just a few cents. The watch might be off past a few minutes per month later on replacing the quartz. Some older watches can be adapted but that is a bit of trial and error without the right equipment.
5. Defect electronics. Information technology's mostly incommunicable to repair them unless it is due to a corroded wire rails on the excursion lath. Replace the whole circuit board.

Quartz watch quick diagnosis: Mechanical problem or electric problem?

A quartz lookout may not be ticking because of a mechanical problem (the motor is mechanically stuck) or because of an electrical problem. It is piece of cake to cheque the electric signal that the motor is receiving. For this you will need an sometime fashioned analog multimeter and y'all set it to the lowest possible DC voltage setting (east.g two.5V DC). Check with the probes the voltage on the coil contacts. Be certain to non impairment the fine coil wire soldered to those contacts. Y'all should run across the needle in the analog multimeter twitching every second. The voltage should alternating and you should see the needle movement just slightly beneath zero and and so slightly above zero. Those are very short pulses that the electronics in a quartz watch sends to the curlicue. A digital voltmeter will not annals those.

Analog multimeter to diagnose the electronics in a quartz watch.

Cleaning the a watch movement

Watches accumulate over time grit and pocket-sized metal debris inside the movement. All watches have a friction fit to let y'all to modify the fourth dimension while the move is running. If there is oil on that friction fit and then the movement will not exist able to drive the watch hands any more properly. The friction fit will slip and the fourth dimension will be off. A quartz watch that is off by several minutes per week has usually mechanical problems, not eclectic bug.

Quartz movements are more simple in their mechanical design. They have very few cog wheels and it's easy to become to them. This open pattern does often let y'all to launder the motion in lighter fluid without taking information technology apart.

Lighter fluid to clean watch movments.

To clean a quartz watch y'all just accept the motility out of the example, dip it in a small bowl with lighter fluid and move it a bit left and right to allow for the flow of lighter fluid through the motility. This will launder former oil, debris and dust out of the movement and you will find small particles at the bottom of the bowl.

I have installed a new battery just a few month ago and now the watch needs again a new one

If you are sure that the battery is was of good quality then this is probably a sign of oil in the motion getting old and sticky. The friction in the movement has increased.

An piece of cake way to fix this is to first use a bit of very thin Moebius quartz oil. Afterward that yous look a few days (scout running) until the oil got into all the pivot holes where information technology dissolved the old and sticky oil. Finally yous launder the excess oil away with lighter fluid. Just wash the entire motility in lighter fluid. Traces of oil will remain in the movement and that is enough. You don't need to accept the movement apart for this procedure.

Replacing watch crystals

This is not specific to quartz watches but I don't have a generic "sentinel" page therefore I am putting information technology here.

Old pocket watches have often damaged or scratched crystals and replacing cracked or chipped crystals or polishing scratched ones can make a big diffrence. The lookout man looks much better when the crystal is clear and gratis of cracks.

Plastic crystals need only to be replaced if they accept a cleft. Scratches can polished out with a bit of 1μm diamond polishing paste (or any univeral metallic polishing paste). Just put a tiny amount on a dry material and ploish the crystal by mitt using round movements. About scratches volition be gone in near 3 minutes. Do not use motorized ploishing wheels. They practice ofttimes rotate likewise fast and go very hot. Heat volition damage the plastic.

Plastic or glass watch crystal?

A chipped or cracked crystal needs to be replaced. I would always endeavour to find out what the original crystal looked similar. Just considering the watch is old does not mean it has to be a glass crystal. Molnija watches from the 1940's had already "un-breakable" plastic crystals. With old watches you are ofttimes non the first possessor and previous owners may have replaced the crystal already. To just copy the way of the previous one might non exist correct either. Look at photos and descriptions of like models. Real railroad watches had glass crystals.

Replacing a plastic crystal

At that place are special crystal replacement tools but you don't need them. Just remove the move from the lookout and then attempt to press the plastic crystal into the corresponding groove on the bezel. It should just pop-in. There is no mucilage neede. The plastic crystal is held in place with a compression plumbing equipment. Sometimes yous volition have to bend the crystal a scrap with your fingers (eye of the dome upward, outer perimiter down).

Replacing a glass crystal

Most pocket watches did originally not take any glued crystals and if you accept the right size so you will not need whatever glue either. If possible measure the size of the one-time crystal with calipers and then buy a few crystals effectually that size. Look for somebody who is selling them in 0.1mm steps. Former crystals might not have been measured in millimeters and conversion tables are available. The procedure to deterimine the right size is as follows. Find the crystal size that you can nonetheless press-in with your hands and so have next bigger ane. Example: 38.0mm can be pressed into the metal ring belongings the crystal (bezel) with a slight poping audio. That ways y'all use the 38.1mm crystal. Place the metal bezel onto a 40W light bulb for 15min. This volition oestrus the bezel. Please the crystal that was merely as well big into the refrigerator. Don't put it into the freezer. Too big temperature differences cause chips on the crystal when you lot bring bezel and crystal together. The heat of the light bulb causes the bezel to expand and the crystal will compress a chip in the refrigerator. Put a material onto your table (thermal insulation), go the crystal and the bezel and you will discover that the crystal fits easily. Await a few minutes until everything comes back to room temperature. The crystal is now held thight, no glue needed.

Some people just glue-in a smaller crystal merely that is not "authentic" for most pocket watches. The right method of plumbing fixtures a sligthly also big crystal is more expensive and requires ususally that you buy a few (e.g 37.9mm, 38mm, 38.1mm, 38.2mm) and and then test to run into which one is the correct one. If you absolutely need to glue the crystal then stay abroad from superglue. Superglue can produce some fumes which crusade white deposits. Use a glue called "G-S Hypo Cement".

ESA 944.111 motility

This is a movement fabricated by the swiss motility manufacturer ETA. It has 7 jewels but unfortunately also a lot of plastic. I had a cute watch with a movement that had an electrical defect and I constitute an quondam and ugly but working lookout on ebay with the same motility.

The task was therefore to swap the movements between the two watches. To do this one has to accept out the dial.

The pitfall with this move is that information technology has no cannon pinion (like about quartz movements). The dial is not mounted with posts that are clamped by screws. The posts are merely kept in place by friction.

This makes it very likely that you pull a bit on the gear-wheel that holds the minutes manus when you lot have out the punch.

My trouble was: how to go it dorsum in?

The movement has a razor bract sparse gear-wheel that snaps onto the lesser of the cycle holding the minutes hand. 2 tiny metal bridges going beyond that gear snap into grooves on the axis of the gear-wheel holding the minutes paw.

Friction plumbing fixtures on a 644.111 quartz movement

The friction fitting allows y'all to set up the lookout hands. This chip of friction allows yous to manually plow the minutes hand while information technology is otherwise attached to the "gear-box" and the motor.

The trouble is you can't just press the cog wheel for the minutes hand back in. The razor bract thin cog bicycle volition non snap onto it.

The fashion to fix information technology is to have it all out and place the razor blade thin cog bicycle onto a piece of leather. It should be a firm leather patch. Take now the cog cycle for the minutes paw and press it between the bridges that go across that razor blade sparse wheel. The leather is a bit rubberband and information technology will push it onto the cog wheel for the minutes hand.

Now put everything back in.

The dial side of a 644.111 movement. Y'all see the cog wheel for the minutes hand in the centre.

Charles Hubert stainless steel quartz pocket sentry

I bought recently (Oct 2013) from pocketwatchsite.com i of those Charles Hubert open up confront stainless steel quartz pocket watches. Information technology was dead on arrival. I contacted therefore the seller to encounter how this tin can be resolved. He offered me an RMA but it turns out that equally per his policy I would need to assume the toll of the return postage and any transaction fees. Plus it turns out that this was his terminal scout. In other words I would take had at the finish of all this simply problem and fees but no working picket. Then be very conscientious with www.pocketwatchsite.com. I told him that I would not concord to his RMA so he decided that the item was damaged in transit and the aircraft company should assume the toll.

In whatever case I had the feeling that it is likely a small problem and decided to open the watch and investigate myself what was wrong with information technology. I was suspecting an empty or loose battery.

The battery was nevertheless not the problem. Some metal grit had fabricated information technology into the movement. It says on the movement "swiss parts, people's republic of china assembling".

At first I was non sure where that metallic dust was coming from merely then I took a lint free tissue, put a drop of fine oil on it and went along the within of the case. The paper came back completely grayness, nearly black!

It looks similar the cases are non properly cleaned later production and at that place are pocket-size metal particles everywhere inside the spotter. It'due south really Charles Hubert's fault. They should take recalled all those watches.

I spent a couple of hours cleaning the whole spotter and the movement. Later on that the watch was running once again.

It's actually non a bad watch. Sloppy assembly just the materials and the design is very good. It has rubber seals on the stem and on the back cover. I would non trust it to be really water tight only it's notwithstanding very good to have and information technology protects the watch against grit and lint from your pocket. The crystal is a mineral glass not just plastic and the movement is good also.

The movement is a swiss Ronda 513 movement with one precious stone. The expected battery life of the v371 battery is 45month. (Ronda 513 datasheet, i.8Mb, from http://www.ronda.ch).

The merely "blueprint flaw" that I noticed was related to the seconds hand. If yous only take a quick glance at the watch then y'all volition easily read the wrong time considering the seconds mitt is black just as the other hands and they are all the same width. I solved that problem past painting the seconds manus white.

It's a good watch but yous need some watchmaker skills to get it to piece of work.

Links

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartz_watch
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartz_crisis

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© Guido Socher,

adamsmese1971.blogspot.com

Source: http://linuxfocus.org/~guido/quartz-watch/

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