Mack Hall, HSG
Time Change,
Battery Change, Spare Change
“Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.”
-Thoreau
One of my better ideas - well, okay, one of my few good
ideas - was to learn from the InterGossip how to pop the back of a wristwatch
and change the battery.
Most watches are electrical now, which saves the wearer the
unspeakable agony of winding a watch once a day. Whew! Thank goodness for
labor-saving gadgets. Now there’s time (so to speak) to write that book you’ve
been planning.
Batteries fail, though, and jewelers charge an hour hand
and a second hand to change them. If you can do it yourself, you can save lots
of pocket change for that time change.
For watches with pop-off backs I use a jewelers’
screwdriver as a pry.
For a threaded back, you will need a watch wrench. A pipe
wrench won’t do.
When my Swiss Army Watch (maybe or maybe not made in Switzerland;
the band was labeled “Made in China”) battery failed I bought via the
Intergossip an adjustable three-point wrench for opening watches with threaded backs.
The first time I opened my shiny, heavy, sturdy, manly Swiss
Army Watch I was surprised to see that the functional gut of the thing was a tiny
motor housed in tiny little plastic sleeve. And it didn’t last long. After my
second disposable Swiss Army Watch I went back to cheap Timex watches, which
have lasted much longer.
When you remove the back from a watch you should do so in
a clean, dry atmosphere so that the watch’s innards don’t get dirty or damp.
Before you remove the old battery take a picture of it so you can place the new
battery correctly. Note the make and numbers on the battery, and then access a
battery chart on the InterGossip – different makers of the same battery number
it differently, and if you don’t have the same brand in your tool box or if it’s
not available at the store, you will know what other brand will serve.
From the InterGossip I bought a big card of all sorts of
different off-brand watch batteries / button batteries, and I can usually find
what I need. If not, I then drive to the store and buy one that will do,
although it will be pricier.
If I owned an expensive watch I would be reluctant to
take off the back at all, but since I have only a couple of Wal-Mart Timex
watches (one with a brown band, one with a black band), I don’t worry about it.
And I haven’t botched a job yet. You’ve got an old Timex reposing peacefully in
the back of a drawer; practice with that.
Young people don’t wear watches anymore; they check the
time on their little Orwellian telescreens, but for a high school student a
cheap watch is a nice beginning-of-term gift. During their junior and senior
years students have to take so many STUPID tests for college admissions and
scholarships, and pulling out a MePhone even to check the time is an instant turn-in-your-test-and-go-home-now
thing; a watch for telling time (unless it’s got a little calculator in it) is
safe.
Beside, the other students will be fascinated: “Is that a
wristwatch? I’ve seen them in old movies!”
CAUTION: WATCH BATTERIES / BUTTON BATTERIES ARE DANGEROUS
TO CHILDREN AND ANIMALS. Little batteries are tiny and shiny, attractive to
little children, animals, and some sophomores. If swallowed there is enough electrical
kick in a button battery to burn through the wall of the esophagus or stomach
(Swallowed Button Batteries Must be Removed: Study
(webmd.com)).
When I change the batteries in a watch or toy I do so
over the open drawer of my desk so that if I drop a battery or one of those tiny
little screws it’s safe.
Watches, like pocket notebooks and fountain pens and
pocketknives, are out of fashion now, but they’re useful and even fun.
-30-
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