# Seiko Kinetic 5m42 Low On Power!



## GuyJ (Jan 3, 2007)

Hi,

My wife's Seiko kinetic no longer seems to have much of a store of power. It works during the day when it's in motion, but disuse at night always results in it being dead when we wake up. Resetting the time and a little motion gets it back working again.

I presume this is because the capacitor is shot?

Does anyone know if this is the problem and if it is fixable? (No technical expertise at home so if it's a shop job will it be expensive?)

Many thanks,

Guy


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## Running_man (Dec 2, 2005)

I was quoted about Â£100 but I hear that if you send it away to Seiko, they'll service it which includes a new new rechargeable power cell. (They've replaced the capacitors). This is the more expensive option.

Andrew.


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## Boxbrownie (Aug 11, 2005)

Hi guy,

Out of interest how old is your wifes watch?

best regards David


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## grey (Apr 29, 2006)

Hi Guy,

Welcome to the forum. Like the other respondents have implied, it might depend on the age of the watch. Over five years apparently, capacitors fail quite often and even if the power indicator shows full, it can drop off quite rapidly.

We are not supposed to advertise other businesses on the forum, but if you search in *bay in Watches & Jewellery for 'kinetic capacitors' or similar you will come up with a company based in Lancashire who will replace the capacitor with a rechargeable battery for a reasonable cost.

I've just had my Seiko Kinetic done by him, and he is quick and easy to communicate with.

You haven't enough posts to send me a PM, but if you contact me at girons(AT)ossur(DOT)com, I can give you the details.

Best regards

Grey


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## GuyJ (Jan 3, 2007)

Thanks all. I'm not entirely sure how old it is unfortunately as in fact it was her mother's originally. I'd guess it may be over 5 years then.


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## grey (Apr 29, 2006)

Guy,

Missed your original comments re price.

A 5M42 kit is Â£15 or so, fitting them yourself is possible but not for the faint hearted (one of our moderators did one a year or so ago and his description of the fiddliness scared me off), letting them fit it is about Â£30 and doing an overhaul at the same time costs about Â£45 in total.

This is not bad when you think that one of the High St shoe repairers recently quoted Â£90 to service a watch (as if!), and a Harrogate jeweller took six months and Â£106 to clean an old hand-wind watch belonging to my wife. All of which contributed to me looking in on, and then joining Roy's excellent forum.

Incidentally I may be wrong but I don't think our host does this sort of work as he toils most hours that God sends striving to satisfy the ever more exotic horological demands of the wealthy playboys who make up the nucleus of this site.

Best regards

G


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## Griff (Feb 23, 2003)

5 years!!!!
















They should last at least 18 years


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## Boxbrownie (Aug 11, 2005)

grey said:


> to satisfy the ever more exotic horological demands of the wealthy playboys who make up the nucleus of this site.


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## grey (Apr 29, 2006)

Griff said:


> 5 years!!!!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I think it was another member of the forum who said that Seiko ought to admit they'd got it wrong and do a recall to exchange the componentry. I sent my current (1999) Kinetic back to Seiko in Slough in 2003 and they fixed it free of charge - though they didn't admit to changing anything. And it started to do the same again end of 2006 - just had a rechaergeable battery fitted by the man in Warrington.

Just before I joined the forum I 'won' an Auto Relay Seiko on fleabay and sold it on immediately as it wasn't my style; am grateful I did as I would have been very peeved to have had to shell out on that.

Wonder if their current Kinetics/Auto Relays are subject to the same problems? Even as late as December I was looking at s/hand Sports 200 Divers - again would have been pissed-off to have 'won' one only to spend a similar amount having it upgraded by Seiko.

As for 18 years. I just wish Viagra would last 18 minutes


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## GuyJ (Jan 3, 2007)

Thanks for the help all - Grey in particular.

I don't think I'll be doing the work myself. I struggle with intricacies of my shoelaces.


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## Griff (Feb 23, 2003)

Seiko has been using a different type of capacitor for a number of years.

The original, troublesome, capacitors were replaced by long life li-ion ESUs which are similar in design to the ones that Citizen use in their Eco-Drive watches.

These cells are designed to last for 40 years without replacement, and, even after 20 years, they will still be able to hold 80% of their charging capacity.


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## Roger (May 17, 2003)

Things may not be quite asthey seem....

One of my Kinetics I suspected of low capacity so, for various reasons, I bought one of Seikos electronic chargers (item YT02A) and charged the watch for the recommended time and the capacity turned out to be several weeks above the rated time.

Dont assume that it has a fault.

Roger


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