Repairing digital watches

[andya700]

My OH has a seven year old Seiko watch which suddenly stopped working. I took it to have the battery changed when I discovere it was a 317 and I didn't have any and couldn't find any in the local shops. The local watchmaker said the battery was fine, so I left it at that and went home with the diabled watch. I have looked online and this seems to be a common problem with some models. I also found a place which sells watch spares and they do have a complete movement for this model at £12.50, which is far cheaper than buying another new watch at near £200.
Has anyone on here changed a movement in their watch, and if so, how difficult/easy was it?

 

[Tori_T]

Depending on the watch, it can vary from very easy to a PITA.
Take an old plastic Timex; pop the back with a fingernail, lift out the self-contained movement by the battery clip, work on it, and put it back.
Others require jewellers screwdrivers (or sometimes a custom jig) to remove the back, or remove the movement, or the battery. Some have the button assemblies that pop out into the watch body when the movement is removed, and require four spare hands to hold them all in place while you drop the movement back...

It you don't have the tools (or experience) to get into it, it might be easier and cheaper to take the new movement to your local watchmaker and ask "Can you swap the guts?"

 

[David_H]

My OH has a seven year old Seiko watch which suddenly stopped working. I took it to have the battery changed when I discovere it was a 317 and I didn't have any and couldn't find any in the local shops. The local watchmaker said the battery was fine, so I left it at that and went home with the diabled watch. I have looked online and this seems to be a common problem with some models. I also found a place which sells watch spares and they do have a complete movement for this model at £12.50, which is far cheaper than buying another new watch at near £200.
Has anyone on here changed a movement in their watch, and if so, how difficult/easy was it?

On the case back of the watch, you will find a set of numbers in this format xxxx - xxxx. Let me know what that is and I will ask around for you as I am a member of a number of watch forums.