Seiko chronograph watch battery

sebastianj

Dear experts,
I have had this Seiko chronograph watch for the past eight years and now it is playing up. I am told it has a rechargeable battery, do these go wrong? Ideas on how do I go about fixing it, most appreciated.
seb

kwikbreaks

Rechargeable batteries (in general) don't last forever and 8 years sounds a reasonable lifetime. Seiko are a well known brand so if you don't feel competent to source and replace the battery yourself I imagine most high street jewellers would be delighted to rip you off.

Alias_Omega

I have a Seiko Kenetic Auto-Relay watch, which is rechargeable.

If its not kinetic, it wont recharge as there is no movement inside to do so.

Alias

roddydogs

How on earth do you Re-Charge a watch battery?

dug123

Hi, I have a Seiko which is about 15 years old and needed a repair (due to not holding the charge), I was quoted about £150 at my local jewellers who were going to send it back to Seiko and they were not sure if it could be fixed at all due to its age.
I found the following company in Cheshire who repaired it for about £40 and everything was done by recorded post and I paid by Paypal for a bit extra peace of mind. It was back within a week and has been working perfectly ever since.
You should try them.
http://www.kinetic-repairs.co.uk/

dug123

roddydogs wrote: »

How on earth do you Re-Charge a watch battery?

http://www.seiko.co.uk/technology/kinetic

[Deleted User]

sebastianj wrote: »

I have had this Seiko chronograph watch for the past eight years and now it is playing up. I am told it has a rechargeable battery, do these go wrong?

A kinetic watch charges with your hand movements and it stores energy in a capacitor instead of a spring i.e. a mechanical watch. There are no batteries in a kinetic watch. Capacitor's have a limited lifespan and it may be this part that needs replacing.

sebastianj wrote: »

Ideas on how do I go about fixing it, most appreciated.

http://www.seiko.co.uk/faqs/repairs

dug123

Most Seiko watches made before the year 2000 had capacitors in the ESU (Electricity Storage Unit). Newer models have a new titanium lithium ion rechargeable cell. This cell, sometimes called a secondary battery, enables the ESU to store more energy for a longer period of time. the result is reserve power for up to six months. An older Kinetic (pre 2000) only runs for two weeks on its reserve power.
Neither the capacitors nor the rechargeable cells have an indefinite life and will eventually require replacement, although titanium lithium ion rechargeable cells have been shown to retain 80% of their capacity even after 20 years. The titanium lithium ion rechargeable cells (made by Maxell) can be retrofitted to eariler watches in place of the original capacitor.
Primary batteries, such as silver oxide cells, must NOT be used and it is important that repair technicians are familiar with the Kinetic movement to avoid this mistake