# Watch Stopped Working Out Of The Blue?



## horz (Aug 24, 2008)

My boccia quartz stopped working back in march, about 2 years after i bought it. I presumed that it was a dead battery as it'd been sitting on my desk for the 2/3 months before that as my automatics got a bit more wrist time. Took it to the jewellers last week and a new battery did nothing so they just said the watch was dead. I'm a little confused as to how this happened, it had been barely touched so i dont see how anything could have made it stop.

I've cot a case back opener in the post just now so i'll be cracking it open to have a wee look soon hopefully, but until then, has anyone had this happen before?

I find it a bit odd that it would stop working seemingly without any kind of 'stimuli' to stop it. Or maybe i'm just being a little short sighted :huh:

cheers


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## Robert (Jul 26, 2006)

horz said:


> I find it a bit odd that it would stop working seemingly without any kind of 'stimuli' to stop it. Or maybe i'm just being a little short sighted :huh:


I guess it could just break down like anything else. Wear and tear of the movement?


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## James (Jul 17, 2006)

Letting a watch sit that has any mechanics in it meaning hands, date etc is actually worse than using it on a semi-regular basis, things seize up get that dead spot. But then again it may be simply done.

I went through this on a Luxor diver I just had serviced, the hand winding was so tight from lack of use I was afraid it was gonna bust a gear but expect that on anything that is close to NOS and over 35yr old


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## rdwiow (Aug 15, 2008)

Just a thought, I have known watch motor coils be damaged by a careless caseback opening, or a screwdriver slipping whilst changing the battery and scraping the motor coil and rendering it U/S.

When you get the back off, use a loupe to look carefully at the motor coil, inspect it for damage.


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## horz (Aug 24, 2008)

sorry guys, i completely forgot about this thread. Thanks for all your replies

I've had the back off, tried a new battery myself and the movement does appear to be dead. I did notice a wee 'nick' on the coil (the coil's about 1cm long, not sure if it's the motor coil, but it's the only coil i could see). I've identified the movement as a ronda 507, and i've found them online for ~Â£5.

I'm up for having a go at replacing the movement, but i've got a few questions.

1) how is the movement usually attatched to the back of the face?

2) assuming i manage to replace it, how to i reset the hands? so they all line up correctly at the right times

apart from those, it all seems pretty straightforward to my untrained mind. Just remove the stem, then hands, then remove movement from face. Tape/glue/whatever new movement on, mount/align hands, place it all back in the case and put the stem back in. I've got some of hong kong's finest watch tools on the way so it could be a while before i actually get round to doing this if it's possible.

Thanks again


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## horz (Aug 24, 2008)

Hi guys, finally got round to actually replacing the movement today and i'm glad to say it went swimmingly 

I ordered the movement from Cousins along with some other stuff (hand remover + setter, movement holder) for a total cost of ~Â£20, and i was quoted Â£24 for JUST the movement by the boccia distributor, before labour/postage etc.

It was a pretty simple operation imo, the worst bit was setting the second hand right, that took ~5 mins of the 15 or so it took.

If anyone's interested i'll post up a little runthrough.

Have a good weekend :lol:


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