Quartz movement battery life

[nowsthetime]

Hi everyone,

I have a question relating to quartz movements (not specific to replicas). How long should you expect a battery to last on a quartz movement watch in general ? Its a chronograph, though I never use that function. I put one in myself and it lasted 3 months then died. I was surprised at this and went back to the hardware store to ask if they had any other people reporting the same problem - they had not and they kindly offered to replace the battery themselves, stating that if it was not in place correctly this might lead to abnormally short battery life. The same thing happened again.

Any thoughts ? Is there anything that would cause the battery to die so quickly ?

This is my first post, so I hope I put it in the right forum

 

[PecMan]

batterys life for some watches that are not expensive can be for 10 years
i have a 400 $ rado and the battery is good after 6 years
even a 20 $ watch battery should be good for 1 year
maybe u bought a watch that was working for long time
it was in the store for 5 years and then u when and got it
and the battery is only good for 5 years and 3 months

 

[nowsthetime]

Good suggestion Pecman, but thats not it unfortunately. The original batter ran out after 4 years (which I was happy with). Then I didnt use the watch for a couple of years. Put a new battery in it and replaced it twice after 3 months each time.

 

[trailboss99]

Hmmm. It may not be the battery. It could be dirt in the MVT. Try taking it to a watch smith and asking him to put it on a quartz driver and give it a spin. This should remove the crap from the gear train. If not it may need the MVT removing and a splash and dip clean. What watch is it? The MVTs for most quartz are only a few dollars.

Col.

 

[nowsthetime]

Hi Col, thanks for the reply - damn ! The guy at the hardware store said he thought it might be dirt in there. I am embarrassed to say I dont even know what make it is - its one I liked the look of on an auction TV website. BUT I will redeem my embarrassment tomorrow morning (its in the car, I am in bed and its raining, so no chance of going out there now !) and post details of what it is and also a pic if I can sort out a free web site for the pics It only cost me £50 but its nice enough to keep it going if it doesnt cost much to sort.

 

[trailboss99]

Shouldn't be too bad mate. If it's a relitive cheap watch it's prob either an ETA or Miota MVT. If you get the MVT number I can get you one. May be worth trying another battery from a different source if the store you got the batts from don't sell a lot of them. It may simply be an old batch of batteries. Even if you only have a few quartz watches it's worth picking up a $10 battery tester off the bay. Find someone who has a pulse tester and see if there is a heart beat even tho it ain't moving. If there is, it's dirt and a spin on a quartz driver should fix the problem for a while at least. The pulse test and a spin should take the guy about three minutes so it should not be expensive. No joy? MVT swap time.


Col.