Gary's Watch Battery Lessons Learned the Hard Way

Gary writes:

My Seiko World Timer watch, which I bought in 1994, had been sitting in a drawer for some time because it had a dead battery. Today I took it to a local watch repair guy that a friend of mine always uses. This guy, who runs a one-man shop, has been repairing watches for many years and
really seems to know his stuff. He told me that the battery had leaked, and he couldn't get the watch running with a new battery, due to some corrosion inside the watch. He suggested sending it to Seiko to have it repaired, which I will probably do, since this watch has sentimental value for me. It has a jewel-like quality to it, and it was actually made in Japan. I suspect many new Seiko watches may be built in China, even if the movements are still made in Japan.

The watch repair guy pointed out two important things:

1) Replace watch batteries as soon as the watch stops running. Sometimes they will leak when exhausted and sometimes they won't, but don't take a chance.
2) Use good quality batteries. He recommends Maxell batteries. The one that leaked was Ray-O-Vac, which he considers to be a low-quality watch battery. He also dislikes Energizer watch batteries for the same reason.

My $40 Casio altimeter watch had been sitting for many years with dead batteries (it takes two), and they didn't leak. These were the Sony batteries originally installed by Casio. Naturally, the battery in my prized $200 Seiko leaked instead. This was the cheap Ray-O-Vac replacement battery. Sometimes you really do get what you pay for.

This was a very unpleasant lesson learned the hard way. I thought I should pass this information along in case it can be of use to the watch enthusiast readers of your blog.

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Comments

[Paul]

Avoid Ray-O-Vac batteries like the plague! It's not just their watch batteries that leak; I've had regular C and D sized Ray-O-Vac batteries leak too.

[Gary]

Unfortunately, I don't think the repair shop that used the Ray-O-Vac batteries said what kind they were using. I'll keep a closer eye on this in the future.

[Angelo]

I don't think I've ever seen a watch battery leak. I didn't know it was possible. Wow. I have some older watches and some newer ones too----sitting around with dead batteries in them. I'd better take a closer look.

[Ulysses]

I always get recommended Renata batteries. Apparently they're Swiss and used in most Swiss-made quartz watches. Still, I prefer Seiko batteries for a Seiko watch.

[Gary]

Today I shipped the watch to the Seiko service center in New Jersey. They offer a free written estimate of the needed repairs.

[Angelo]

Gary:
Whatever happened with the repair?

[Gary]

Angelo,

They repaired it, but there were problems that required a subsequent repair. During this process they caused some cosmetic damage to the watch dial, which is a shame.

[Angelo]

Wow, the damage is a bummer. They should have done something to compensate you for that---reducing the cost of the repairs for example.

[Gary]

Yes, they should have. I'll think twice before sending watches to Seiko for repair in the future.