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How do you know when a Miyota OS battery is dead?


jj69

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Quck question for the quartz experts out there. I have a rep with a Miyota OS20 quartz chrono movement. It mysteriously lost about 9 minutes of time over about a 3-4 day period when I left it on my bureau. In my experience, OS20 movements are normally very accurate.

I also remember that about a week ago, I was running the chrono and when I reset it, the chrono had would only reset to the 20 second mark, rather tan zero. It was really weird. I had to use the manual resest procedure to advance the chrono hand back to the correct 0 position.

I have limited experience with quartz models. Just wondering if this indicates a serious problem with the movement, or does it just need a new battery?

In general, do quartz watches just stop dead as soon as the battery is low, or will they continue to run erratically with a low battery?

Just curious.

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All quartz are accurate, far more so than any mechanical movement, when they start doing funny things change the battery.

If it still acts up after changing the battery put it in the bin where it belongs.

Ok....just joking. B)

But yes it the battery.

Ken

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Every quartz watch I have owned has some sort of 'tell' that the battery is about dead. Most common I have seen is irractic 'ticking' like once every two seconds or three seconds. Haven't had a chrono though, but I would guess if it's not resetting properly that could be a 'tell' to get the battery changed.

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It would probably have needed to stop & restart, to eat up 9 minutes.

My early guess would be a battery.

However test the battery, and if it has good life/power, the next one is a binding of the gears from the stepping motor.

See a lot of this, especially in humid climates.

Quick cure, is to put the watch on a demagnetiser, and run for about 10 seconds.

Not to demag it, (you need to draw the watch away to do that - and it is a no-no with quartz watches.) but the demag will spin the stepping motor very quickly, (hands will race around the dial)

This literally knocks any corrosion/gunk/verdigris, off the driving wheels. A quick blast of air after (hopefully) blows the gunk away.

If not as above, an aerosol blast of circuit cleaner may do the trick, and if not any of these, then a "heart transplant, is on the cards. (Cheaper than trying to tear down, diagnose fault, and repair)

(don't forget to short AC and Battery, after any battery remove- effectively reboots the system)

Offshore

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