Do quartz movements go bad?

[007Sub]

Hi all,

A few months ago, I purchased a vintage tag F1 for my girlfriend. I have since replaced the battery twice and it is indicating that it needs another. Is it possible that I've just been given several bad batteries or is it possible that the movement is consuming more energy than it should? Thoughts?

Are these movements serviceable?

Thanks!

[007Sub]

No one knows? ;)

[kanikune]

They are serviceable.
In my opinion there are two types of quartz movements:
Cheaper ones have plastic wheels and even plates, they get bad over time and are just replaced. It's not economical to service them.
More expensive ones have pretty much all metal, like in mechanical movements, they are worth servicing. Valuable watch usually have (I would guess :D ) better quartz.

$300 watch can still have cheaper quartz in it.

[Frosty]

I had an older Citizen Corvette Watch that had a nice face on it. I ended up replacing the movement, or I should say I was lucky and the gentleman working on the watch used to work for citizen, and he had an extra movement. Never had another problem.

As for batteries, I store Lithium Ion Batteries that I use at the house. They have a ten year life span and I have not had any problems when I use them.

[007Sub]

Thanks so much for your input!

[Rikki]

The problem with serving quartz movements is that say I clean your movement it runs great for 3 weeks months or day then the circuitry goes bad you'll not be happy with me and my service because a new movement is now needed. So if you're having consumption problems it could be bad circuit or dirty movement so in my opinion just replace the movement with a new one and save the hassle. A new movement installed in your tag would be about 125.00 dollars with a one year warranty. To clean would be about the same but no one will warranty old circuitry. Rikki

[007Sub]

Originally Posted by Rikki

The problem with serving quartz movements is that say I clean your movement it runs great for 3 weeks months or day then the circuitry goes bad you'll not be happy with me and my service because a new movement is now needed. So if you're having consumption problems it could be bad circuit or dirty movement so in my opinion just replace the movement with a new one and save the hassle. A new movement installed in your tag would be about 125.00 dollars with a one year warranty. To clean would be about the same but no one will warranty old circuitry. Rikki

Thanks Rikki! I'm going to send you the watch... i got a rip off quote from a local AD to swap out the movement.

[rmfnla]

Quartz movements don't go bad, they start out bad! (sort of...)

[Eulogy]

I have a Fossil watch that the battery would last about 6 months before dying so I just quit wearing it.

I went to a local jewelry store and figured I'd ask the guy what the problem was. He said that the movement could be bad enough that it drained batteries quickly.

He put in a new battery and said if it went bad in a short amount of time he'd be able to replace the movement.

That was over a year ago and its still going strong.

[caj]

The movements do go bad and are not cheap to replace. I purchased an 18K/Stainless (17013) from a gentleman on Ebay last year. Nice guy and very honest. This was a present to myself after finally winning my VA compensation case. He had a receipt from the RSC in the amount of just a little over $1500 (which I verified with the RSC) showing a motor replacement and full service. Because of the age of these watches, personally, I would not buy a used oysterquartz unless it had a recent motor/movement change from the RSC. Only saying this because with my luck I could see myself shelliing out $2500-$3000 for a used oysterquartz only to have it go bad soon after. Then shelling out another $1500 on top of that to get a motor replacement from the RSC would not make me a happy camper. BTW, I paid $2750 for my 17013 and hopefully it should be bascally trouble free....knock on wood.

[11618]

buy quality battries and see how long its lasts cheap battries are poor and dont last

[RolexPete]

Originally Posted by caj

The movements do go bad and are not cheap to replace. I purchased an 18K/Stainless (17013) from a gentleman on Ebay last year. Nice guy and very honest. This was a present to myself after finally winning my VA compensation case. He had a receipt from the RSC in the amount of just a little over $1500 (which I verified with the RSC) showing a motor replacement and full service. Because of the age of these watches, personally, I would not buy a used oysterquartz unless it had a recent motor/movement change from the RSC. Only saying this because with my luck I could see myself shelliing out $2500-$3000 for a used oysterquartz only to have it go bad soon after. Then shelling out another $1500 on top of that to get a motor replacement from the RSC would not make me a happy camper. BTW, I paid $2750 for my 17013 and hopefully it should be bascally trouble free....knock on wood.

Considering you have a basically new watch, that is a decent price. I have a 17013 that I also got on eBay and when I called Rolex NY I learned it had been serviced by them in 2001 and it had the hands replaced with the new luminova hands. I paid quite a bit less than you, and will wait for my next battery change at Rolex NY to decide whether to service it. Right now it is running 0 seconds a week. Cannot complain about that.

[kanikune]

I have much better trust on these "all-metal" quartz movements, than in "mostly plastic" ones. The circuit board does not have any moving parts and is well supported.
To my understanding there is much smaller torques hitting the quartz train wheels, than in mechanical watch wheel. That is, because the gearing is opposite.
In mech. watch small rotational movement of barrel causes many revs in escape wheel.
In quartz half a rev. of rotor causes usually second wheel to progress 6 degrees.

My honest guess is, that mostly good quality quartz movement go bad because of aging of oil (service need) or the servicer.

Static discharge can ruin the chip running the coil and the coil is really fragile, not much touching is needed to "open" the coil.

Of course the debris entering the case during battery replacement is big possible cause of failure.

[Chewbacca]

can't comment on your tags issues but if its a really old watch the battery could have leaked into the case at some point. best to remove batteries if one retires a quartz or replace the movement alltogether. i 'serviced' and old faithful tag 1000 4 years ago on advisement and it went through batteries like a hummer goes through gas afterwards. prior to the 'service' i was told to do when all i wanted was a battery, it was perfect. i can't explain what the tech did to it but its never been the same. i'm planning on swapping the entire mech next year. lesson learned, question old german/czech watchmakers even though you may not feel right doing so. lol...