Mondaine Quartz failed to proceed

[HenPecked]

Wife gave me her Mondaine to change the battery, bought a new pack of Renatas off Amazon, tried two and neither are bringing it back to life.

Anything obvious to check? Can't see anything amiss, nothing fell out when I opened the case back.

It's 8 years old. Repairable? It needs a new strap (red leather) as well as whatever's wrong with it. New ones are £99 today on Amazon...

[walkerwek1958]

Watch stops, you assume the battery’s faulty. Fit new battery, watch doesn’t work?

Maybe the watch has a fault and needs attention? When a quartz watch stops the assumption is that the battery’s died, sometimes thst’s not the case. Happens to the best of us, wife’s 8 yr old Omega did this on me and I wnded up having to strip the movement and clean it.

The alternative is that you’ve managed to get dirt in the movement or you’ve touched the coil with a tool and damaged it......very easy to do on ETA movements.

Chances of the batteries being faulty are remote.

Paul

[RustyBin5]

£99 new. It's Xmas. You know what to do


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[Tokyo Tokei]

If the replacement battery is even fractionally too thick, sometimes this pushes the hands into contact with the crystal, and it stops. Happened to me on a very thin Skaagen once. If the battery is correct, and fitted the right way around (!), it could be just dust. It doesnt take much to stop a quartz as they are very low torque. Try a gentle blower brush. If that doesn't work, it likely needs surgery or replacement.

[ordo]

1. try cleaning the contacts.
2. you might have to short start the movement when a new battery is installed.

[HenPecked]

If the replacement battery is even fractionally too thick, sometimes this pushes the hands into contact with the crystal, and it stops. Happened to me on a very thin Skaagen once. If the battery is correct, and fitted the right way around (!), it could be just dust. It doesnt take much to stop a quartz as they are very low torque. Try a gentle blower brush. If that doesn't work, it likely needs surgery or replacement.

Definitely the same one that came out of it - which I replaced myself about 3 years ago.

I'll give it a blast out with some compressed air. There's a local watchmaker I can take it to, but it's a great watch to go with Christmas outfits, and he's not open until the New Year now.

- - - Updated - - -

1. try cleaning the contacts.
2. you might have to short start the movement when a new battery is installed.

I've given them a little scrape with a very fine emery board, can't see any corrosion.

What's a "short start"? I've tried banging it a bit!

[Webwatchmaker]

With quartz watches I buy at car boot sales, I often put a tiny drop of oil on all the visible pivots. Then gently tease the wheels round with a very fine piece of pointed pegwood. This works in 99% of cases. Oh, and also pull the winder in and out a few times to clean the connections on it.

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[walkerwek1958]

With quartz watches I buy at car boot sales, I often put a tiny drop of oil on all the visible pivots. Then gently tease the wheels round with a very fine piece of pointed pegwood. This works in 99% of cases. Oh, and also pull the winder in and out a few times to clean the connections on it.

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Tricks of the trade, Brendan! I find talking to them in a firm tone of voice helps too.

Paul

[Webwatchmaker]

Haha !! I've done that a few times too Paul. With all the expletives known to humanity !

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[HenPecked]

Well I bought I tiny screwdriver and took it apart as far as I could. The crown engagement seems OK, nothing seems corroded. Gave it a blast of compressed air, but I don't have any suitable oil to put in, and I wouldn't know where it goes.

Worth buying some oil, or should I just hand it over to the professionals?

[walkerwek1958]

Well I bought I tiny screwdriver and took it apart as far as I could. The crown engagement seems OK, nothing seems corroded. Gave it a blast of compressed air, but I don't have any suitable oil to put in, and I wouldn't know where it goes.

Worth buying some oil, or should I just hand it over to the professionals?

Definitely wouldn’t advocate applying oil if you don’t know what you’re doing. What movement does it use? It might be cost-effective to have a new movement fitted if it’s poorly.

Paul

[HenPecked]

Going through my drawer of unfixed watches, I pulled this Mondaine out last night.

Put another new battery in it - just a cheap one from the pound shop, rather than a Renata - and it now seems to work perfectly. Wife is wearing it today, not lost a second.

Maybe it just needed a rest...

[Wyvern971]

That's quite some time between updates.

Glad it's working in any case, was the battery you put in the same size physically?

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