# Introduction



## Astronaut (Jan 27, 2008)

I have an F300 Seamaster Chronometer, the helmet like one , currently no pictures, but how long do the batteries last in these babies?, and also if i leave the crown pulled out how much longer will the battery last for ?










This is one of my Trons 214 Accutron Astronaut from the beggining. 

Regards


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## mel (Dec 6, 2006)

Most quartz and 'tronic movements seem to have the "pull out" the crown and stop the watch feature. I'm not sure if you could or should really call it a "hacking" feature, as it seems to disconnect the power source in battery powered units, and that's technically different from stopping or hacking a mechanical watch by "sticking a spoke in the wheel" in some way to stop the mechanical power train.









So to answer your question, pulling out the crown on a 'tronic or quartz should extend the life of the cell out towards it's shelf life, but in the case of some of the quartz watches, the two lives maybe are often *not* too much different. The shelf life of the cell fitted by the maker and the "under power" life may be fairly similar. Why the makers (and retailers) like the feature is that it allows them to store watches and then present them as supplied with a new battery - well it's unused except for testing and if a client gets his year or so from the cell, he's happy enough to have it replaced - or toss the watch in the bin as the case may be, depending on the price of the watch in the first place









Does this help? If not I'm sure Silver Hawk or some of the othere guys will come along shortly with a better explanation!

BTW, Welcome to the forum







a great place to be!


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## foztex (Nov 6, 2005)

Welcome,

have you got many 214s then? would be good to see the collection.

On the pulled crown battery consumption issue, it depends..

Certainly the 9162/4 movements of f300s disconnect the battery when the crown is pulled. So you could use that to save battery life. Personally I leave all mine running as they are very accurate, so even if not worn for a month they will still be within 30 seconds or so of the exact time.

F300 battery life, like Accutrons, is at least a year.

Not sure if your crown question was aimed at accutrons too, but just in case and to inform others. only the 218F & G models had a switch that disconnected the battery. In the majority of 218s and all the 214s the battery is permanently connected and if they do hack it is only by mechanical means. As far as the other Accy movements are concerned I'm afraid I do not know off the top of my head.

Andy


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