£18.50 to fit a watch battery!

JohnSwift10

My watch needs a new battery so while my wife was shopping in Tesco I popped into the Timpson instore and asked the price to replace the battery in my watch.

£18.50 I was told or if you want a lifetime battery £24.50.

I think I will buy a new watch.

cx6

Or buy a battery from eBay and fit it yourself.

elsien

Or try an alternative cheaper local trader. There's one on my market whose much more reasonably priced. 

theoretica

Changing a watch battery 'properly' includes messing around with checking the waterproof seals and more than just popping a new battery in.  Personally, I just go for the popping a battery in.

JohnSwift10

cx6 said:

Or buy a battery from eBay and fit it yourself.

Last time I tried that I broke the watch glass and had to buy a new watch.
It might be OK for some people to do that but not with 76 year old arthritic fingers. 

Sandtree

JohnSwift10 said:

£18.50 I was told or if you want a lifetime battery £24.50.

I think I will buy a new watch.

Depends on how disposable you consider your watches to be... I've a couple of watches and the oldest must be coming up to 10 battery changes, at £2.45 per change I don't think that's bad value at all given they are clearly on risk if they break/damage it etc and clearly when I bought its "lifetime battery" it was a lot less than £24.50

cx6

JohnSwift10 said:

cx6 said:

Or buy a battery from eBay and fit it yourself.

Last time I tried that I broke the watch glass and had to buy a new watch.
It might be OK for some people to do that but not with 76 year old arthritic fingers. 

The secret is that you remove the back to replace the battery, not the glass 🙂

JohnSwift10

cx6 said:

JohnSwift10 said:

cx6 said:

Or buy a battery from eBay and fit it yourself.

Last time I tried that I broke the watch glass and had to buy a new watch.
It might be OK for some people to do that but not with 76 year old arthritic fingers. 

The secret is that you remove the back to replace the battery, not the glass 🙂

OH! that's where I went wrong.

soolin

One of the lines I often sell is old watches , some are still new enough to need batteries and I have a simple tool , paid about £1.50 that easily removes the back to get at the battery. I don’t go anywhere near the front or the glass. I buy batteries for around 10p a go. Occasionally I get a very stubborn back, nothing gets it off , but that’s rare- and then I just sell them in batches, usually on Facebook, as not working and let someone else worry about it. 

pattycake

There is a stall holder on the twice weekly market in my town who will  put in a new watch battery for £2.50.  Never had an issue with the longevity of the battery supplied.

Murphybear

I used Timpson to replace my watch battery about 3 years ago and got one of their “lifetime battery” options which cost £16.

The battery gave up working recently but I couldn’t find the receipt (2 house moves didn’t help)

I got someone in a local market to replace it, cost £6.