Some quartz watch battery trivia...

[automatico]

I changed out fifty (50) #377 batteries (aka cells) in identical watches made between January 1997 and July 2001 this weekend (they all had mfg date stamps inside the case backs).  Not one of them had leaked one bit so if anyone wonders how long you can leave a watch with a dead battery in it, the answer is around 20 years, maybe more...IF it is a Sony battery.  Do not know for sure about other brands.

 

These were cheapo watches with plastic heat welded $5 Hattori (Seiko) PC21 analog movements and every movement still ran when a new battery was installed.  I have changed thousands of batteries (no kidding) over the years and have not found a lot of leaks in the past 20 years or so.  Before that, quite a few leaks.  Seiko and their sister brand Seizaiken hardly ever leak along with Energizer but a few other brands have not been as good (in my experience), one being Maxell, especially the first few runs of 'no mercury' batteries.  I bought 200 Maxell 'no mercs' and about 50 of them were already leaking a powdery residue when I removed them from their blister packs...this was about 6 years ago.  We used to buy the regular Maxell batts in packs of 500 and we never had very much trouble with them.  My guess is they have fixed the 'no merc' battery leaks because Maxell is a quality brand.  Had bad luck with quite a few Ray-O-Vacs, have not seen any in a while though.  Had a few Renata leaks too.  Panasonic is very good.

 

I still have a few thousand nos watches that have been stored 12 or 15 years that have Seizaiken batteries and I am hoping they are all Ok too.  They were made by SII (Seiko) and they all came with Seizaiken #377 batts.  The 50 watches mentioned above were made by/for the 'Majestron' brand and the assembly factory used Sony batts.  Disney etc character watches that were made by SII a few years ago all came with Seizaiken batts.  Each battery in the 'Majestron' watches had a foam pad stuck to the battery to keep the batt in place although the PC21 is not prone to have a batt fall out.

 

FYI...

We used to pay 13 cents each for #377 Seizaiken batteries by the thousand and now they are 18 cents each by the thousand or 15 cents each if you buy 5000.  Inflation.  Maxell batts were about 4 or 5 cents more each.  We used these two brands most of all. 

The biggest Seizaiken #377 battery order we ever made was 25,000 in 2012 and they were 12 cents each, free delivery.  The batteries that were removed from approximately 25,000 watches brought over $600 from a battery recycler...forgot how much they weighed.

When I changed the 50 batts out this weekend, I got down to r/r a batt in about 70 seconds.  Remove the watch from the box, pry the back off, remove the old batt, stick the new batt in, press the back on with a bench press, set the time.

Q...How long did it take to change all 50?

A...About two and a half hours.  Some were stubborn and I dropped some stuff.  

 

 

[kernow]

That’s an interesting read and a lot of batteries. From how I read your post batteries seem to be getting less prone to leaks? 

[lorenzo1910]

Nice reading... Thank you!