Complain for change: don’t be embarrassed to say ‘no’

Yes I was quoted £20 to replace a battery in a casio watch in the Oracle, Reading. Complete ripoff – you can buy the batteries AND a complete set of tools for less than £6 on amazon.

As a watch repairer with many, many years experience, that is the attitude of somebody who will:

– Scratch a coil
– Lose a battery clamp
– Not AC it
– Fit the wrong battery
– Strip a screw head
– Not be able to get the back off/on
– Lose the alarm spring
– Lose/squash/cut the back gasket
– Snap the neg contact
– Drop dirt in the watch clogging the movement
– Lose the module surround
– Lift the movement contacts above the pushers
– Break the dial feet
– Knock the hands off
– Snap a rigid strap
– Not be able to set the watch up correctly

… the list goes on.

The idea that all you need are the tools is pretty ignorant. While £20 sounds a bit steep to fit a battery in some Casio watches, a large number of them are very complicated, particularly WaveCeptor or dual display models. It’s more work by a distance than fitting a battery in a Breitling and resealing it. The world is full of people who think things are a rip off. Normally it’s because they don’t understand the process.

Hi Danny,

That sounds like a service price with the manufacturer. Capacitors are quite a lot more expensive than batteries but should cost you no more than £50 including a seal test. This is as long as the movement is OK. There’s a small chance that it could be a movement fault. You’ll need somebody experienced though as Kinetic watches can be a little awkward to do.

Correction to above -found the watch it doesn’t contain an inductance coil.

Easy is relative. With a Kinetic (as opposed to an Eco-Drive capacitor for example), you need to:

1- Remove the back
2- Remove the rotor
3- Remove the battery clamp and insulator
4- Remove the capacitor
5- Refit the new capacitor in the correct orientation (important or it won’t work)
6- Refit the insulator and the clamp. Do this incorrectly and the rotor won’t rotate
7- Refit the rotor
8- Do any sealing jiggery-pokery

You also need to ensure that you get the right capacitor. Some have the same designation but aren’t actually the same capacitor. Obviously all the usual battery fitting considerations also need to be taken into account in order to do this properly so as not to damage the movement. If you have a steady hand and a little knowledge it’s relatively easy but then fitting a simple battery is even easier and I see that done badly all the time.

I am not arguing with your post Wotcher it just backs up the fact that not all human beings are technically minded nor have the co-ordination of mind+body to work on engineering of any sort. But I am sad that in my era this country was filled with people having the ability to do engineering work themselves . Changing this country from an industrialised nation to a service industry nation is to my mind an act of gross vandalism and short-sighted political dogma.