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A look inside your watch case...or how I spent my Saturday afternoon
A couple weeks ago I asked for some input concerning battery changes. As a result of your input I bought some tools and decided to give it a try. I had 5 watches that had stopped working, presumably due to dead batteries, and I had a very old screw in back Accutron to experiment with. First of all the Accutron was very interesting and I basically found that much like my old Canon F1 35mm film camera replacement batteries of the mercury cell variety are not readily available.
On to the watches. If you have never seen an open caseback on a quartz watch you may be a bit surprised. I was.
First up is the Golana Swiss Aero Pro model AE100-2.
Where's the movement? Under that black plastic spacer.
In this case the movement is an ETA 805.112 0-jewel quartz that requires a #377 battery. This movement leaves a lot of empty space in a modern size watch case.
Next up was a Swiss Legend Throttle. This watch has the famous or infamous, depending on your point of view, ETA G10.211 quartz chronograph movement and there just isn't much to see. I put in a fresh #394 battery and closed in up.
Needless to say, at this point I was not real impressed with the overall look of quartz movements, but I guess that's why they come in such attractive packages. And of course they are very accurate and dependable.
I moved on to my next candidate...the Android Swiss Quartz Multifunction. This watch has multiple complications and I suggest changing the battery at the first sign of low power. It took me over a half hour to reset the moonphase, week of the year, day, and date. This watch has a Ronda 706.B movement, uses a #371 cell, and has a look that was a little more appealing to my eye. At least it looks like a motor of some sort.
My next two watches were a little more involved. In addition to changing the battery cells I decided to clean the haze off the inside of the crystals.
The Swiss Legend GMT is a very substantial watch and was my first watch with bracelet screws. The movement is a Ronda 505.24H.
If you look carefully at the top right area of the movement in the picture above you'll see an arrow pointing to a hole. This is where you can stick a pin to release the crown and stem. After the crown was removed the dial and movement were easily removed, they fall out so be prepared, which allowed complete access to the inside of the crystal. I used q-tips and a micro fiber cloth to clean and then a quick shot of canned air to make sure no lint was left behind.
Last up was my Invicta Pro Diver Sub Seconds Model 5626. This case was a bear to open.
The movement is a Miyota 1L45 0-jewel quartz that uses a #364 replacement battery cell.
I like this picture because you can see all the little holes in the dial for the correct placement of the numbers, markers, and other features.
I also removed the stem and crown from this movement and gave the inside of the crystal a quick clean up.
And that is how I spent my Saturday afternoon.
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Originally Posted by ivan1998
