# Postie Called To-day



## mel (Dec 6, 2006)

Picked up off flebby for not much - minty-ish condition but will it work? Must try to find a battery (cell) that will fit - maybe an LR44 or similar. :yes:

*Astral Quartz*










and inside it looks like this :-










Not too much my scene, but at the price I made an offer and incoming it was! Need an Astral for the collection anyway! :yes:


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## JoT (Aug 12, 2003)

The dial looks as if it could be interesting Mel; hard to tell under the magnifying glass though


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## dazaa (Feb 28, 2009)

mel said:


> Picked up off flebby for not much - minty-ish condition but will it work? Must try to find a battery (cell) that will fit - maybe an LR44 or similar. :yes:
> 
> *Astral Quartz*
> 
> ...


Nice looking watch. Ofcourse it will work. Simply way to test if you don't have the correct size battery is to simply hold a smaller battery to the contact and see if it goes. If not then try some bigger batterys, aslong as they are touching the contact there is no reason why it shouldn't go.

dazaa


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## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

dazaa said:


> aslong as they are touching the contact there is no reason why it shouldn't go.


If only that was true. :lol:


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## watchnutz (Jan 18, 2008)

> Nice looking watch. Ofcourse it will work. Simply way to test if you don't have the correct size battery is to simply hold a smaller battery to the contact and see if it goes. If not then try some bigger batterys, aslong as they are touching the contact there is no reason why it shouldn't go.


Ah, optimism! :blink: reasons? Maybe bad component on circuit board, bad stepper motor, gummed up mechanicals and on and on. Hard to believe you have never encountered a quartz movement watch that did not work! You should play the lottery. :lol: BTW batteries have two poles and each have to touch their respective contacts to complete a circuit and for the watch to run.

I have full confidence that Mel, with his years of electronics experience, will handle the battery side of it.


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## pg tips (May 16, 2003)

Any clues as to what it actually is Mel?


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## Chascomm (Sep 9, 2005)

mel said:


> Picked up off flebby for not much - minty-ish condition but will it work? Must try to find a battery (cell) that will fit - maybe an LR44 or similar. :yes:


LR43 maybe ...or it might just be a small watch.

So who built this one, and when? Was 'Astral' brand still owned by Smiths Industries by the time this kind of quartz watch was on the market?


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## mel (Dec 6, 2006)

Well, I've had a look under the loupe and the movement is signed "SWISS SEVEN 7 JEWELS" and "Y2" on the gold coloured "bridge" part in the photo. Down in the corner beside the green cell compartment is "9183" on one side, and then "ESA" in a trefoil symbol on the other. Obviously then, this is an ESA movement, cal 9183. I'm guessing the 7 jewels must be in the train to the hands, and that this makes it a fairly high end quartz movement for it's day. :yes:

The dial has a "correct" Astral font and three point crown logo, so again, I would suppose it was Smiths in some way - Smiths distanced "Astral" as a sub brand trying to move up market as the market declined - this looks like made under contract in some way with the "Swiss" signatures on the case and movement. It's a bit thick for a Quartz - maybe it's some kind of hybrid with regards to the 7 jewels and whatever might be in the power/hands train. 

Next, although it looks mint, and unworn, there's an issue with the cell contacts, the centre one is loose and wouldn't be making an efficient transfer onto the PCB, and the outer contact has been "sprung" behind the cell compartment and looks likeit's not going to make nay kind of contact at all. The outer contact is a :hammer: job, bend it back into the right position -

but the centre looks like there could be a stripped thread, and that might take a bit of poke around to fix









Anyhow, can't do much more today, none of the cells I have in stock would look at it







Memo to self, find an LR44 and give it a try!


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