[Mr. Knowitall]

So I've got myself a bit of an Accutron collection. It's come together quickly over the last few months. Nothing too expensive, but all watches I enjoy. Does an accutron 'last' longer with the battery in or battery out? I have enough Accutron's that's they won't all be worn regularly. I hate to have them all crap out or need servicing in a couple of years. Thanks for any advice.

Jason

 

[skypilot]

I'm not qualified to answer your question, all I can tell you is what I do. I'm up to about 70 Accutrons and it is too much hassle to keep batteries in all of them so, at the beginning of each moth, I select about 6 to use that month and I put batteries in them and take the batteries out of the ones I used the last month. When I get a new one, I get it serviced so I know that all of them have lubricant in them. This seems to work very well.

 

[oliverb]

Skypilot has a great solution to the "problem". I have not as yet done that but am about to. One good thing about Accutrons is that after they are competently serviced and with modern lubricants they should be good-to-go for a long time baring a component failure. For the Accutrons, Bulova did not recommend periodic service as they did for their mechanicals. Bulova recommended service when the watch could no longer be regulated for accurate time keeping or when it stopped functioning.

 

[cuad]

What about just pulling the crown to preserve the battery?

 

[RalphDjr]

What about just pulling the crown to preserve the battery?

Only on the late 76/77 218 or 219 "MK5's" that have the 3 position crown is this feature
available... With the crown in, the day quick-set works, halfway out is the "hack"
position and all the way out is "power-saver", IE power off (no hum) for storage, etc.

I have several 219's with this but don't think any 218's are here so I'm not at all sure
it was actually available with them. :confused1:

If you pull the crown and the watch is still humming, the load on the battery is very
slightly reduced however the watch is, for all practical purposes, still functioning...

I think the current Bulova line products have the 3 position crown, at least my
Claremont Precisioneist, 96B129 was shipped with a spacer inserted in between the
case and the backside of the crown to enable the battery to be placed in the watch
and shipped without having to open the watch and performing that task at the point
of sale like the early Accutrons...

 

[Samantha]

I think that skypilot has a very good solution for this. If a watch isn't going to be worn for some time, removing the power cell removes any chance of it going bad, leaking, and damaging the movement.
Samantha