Watches and batteries

[Gary W. Graley]

Well, my fav watch to date, an Invicta, finally had it's battery start going. I was happy to see this as I had plans on taking it apart and cleaning the crystal on the inside as it seemed dirty and cloudy, but didn't want to touch it until I had good reason to open the back.

SO, I cracked open the back, have one of those three pin tools that fit the screw on backs just so, which was good as this was on VERY tight. Got the back off, looked up a couple youtube vid's on how to remove the crown and stem, which I was no where near right on my guess!

SO...I had the stem removed and tried to lift the movement out, it didn't budge, so I gently pried on either side and the movement gave way, NICE until I realized the dial didn't come with it !!!!

SO......SLOWLY I TURNED....the watch over, and saw the three hands laying there on the inside of the crystal as if shot, I panic'd (even though I've read Hitch Hiker's Guide) but I calmed down and the dial did come out finally. Carefully laid the hands down and checked youtube vid's for HOW to get the hands back on, turned out it wasn't too hard, just put the stem back in, pull it out and start turning it like setting the time, until the date clicked over, indicating you reached midnight. Then I carefully put the hands back on, they are a press fit, which I didn't know but actually never thought about. All went well until I got to the very delicate second hand, the silly leather hole punch that I used to press the other hands on was too large for the second hand and bent the one side down...back to panic mode...again! But I carefully bent it back straight and doesn't look none the worse, thankfully !

I didn't have a battery to put back in until today, the hands were level/even and cleared the dial and each other, so I figured it should work and it does.

One positive thing about all this, the date window was a round hole at the 6 o'clock position, it was too small and cut off part of the numbers, so I took my trusty SAK Pioneer awl and went around and around and carved the hole a bit wider, just enough to make it more readable.

AND the inside of the crystal was quite cloudy/smudgy and some small fingerprints, so a good cleaning makes it look FAR nicer than it ever was to begin with.

Now I did all this since the watch was only about $45 so I felt that I could take the risk, being some what clever but albeit somewhat stupid...my wife's term and if something went terribly wrong, I would order another watch just like it as I really love the easily read face of this, daytime or night and it has the best lumen of ANY watch I've ever owned.

Here's a shot taken a while back, I'll get a new shot some time but wanted to share my adventure in watch craft

G2

 

[Piso Mojado]

Good job, and congratulations on your first watch mod!

The haze was excess silicone grease. The fingerprint shows it was manually applied during Invicta's assembly, which is very hit or miss.

Best to wipe the inside of the case with 91% denatured alcohol, Everclear or rectified spirit to remove all the excess grease. Having just degreased, it is good to replace the O ring rubber gasket. Good luck on buying just one. Wipe the gasket with very light coat (not Invicta style) of silicone grease. Suitable grease is sold in dive shops, for example Trident Silicone Lube LP21 which is also sold online.

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Thanks and it was an interesting time right there! This particular model doesn't have an O'ring not really a dive watch, looks great and time is being kept spot on!
G2

 

[Piso Mojado]

This particular model doesn't have an O'ring not really a dive watch

They skipped it in assembly, which could be why they used extra grease. Maybe they were out of the right size. When I bought my wife's Casio AMW340, it had a ¼" loop of rubber gasket sticking out from under the case back. Apparently they ran out of gaskets for AMW340 (watch on right), so they used a gasket for AMW320 (watch on left) and cranked the case back down real hard.

Doesn't that snow look good? It won't be long now . . .

This is a rubber O ring gasket

and this is where it usually goes.

When you open the case it should be obvious. Of course if they assembled it with a gasket, you wouldn't need to guess.

Fastidious watchmaker's instructions for replacing a gasket:

http://blog.esslinger.com/how-to-replace-an-rubber-o-ring-watch-back-gasket/

I am not so fastidious. My watches are cheap beaters and they use the thinnest gaskets. The gaskets stretch and you can use one that is too small. Just don't use one that is too large!

Any metal watch should have a gasket, even a Seiko 5 with "30 meters" (3 atmospheres) water resistance. Some really old vintage watches were dust proof but not water proof. If you left one in the bathroom while you showered, the crystal would fog!

 

[Gary W. Graley]

I stand corrected sir! I unscrewed the back and took a look again, this time I noticed that the cover has a seal along the outside of the threads, so that was a relief to see that there!

Thanks,
Nice watches there too btw
G2

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Hehe, I'll say this, a very good macro lens can just ruin your day, especially when you view ALL the 'stuff' still inside and a few scuff's made on the face, took her apart again, this time the face and mech came out together and wiped down the dial and cleaned the inside glass again, it still has some micro dust bunnies and a few faint marks but ONLY when viewed directly and when staring at it...so, I'll not stare at it any more lol and be happy with how nice and clean it does look verses how it did before. I have way less than a clean room here in the house so I'm pretty happy with it's looks now and won't fret over the little stuff.
G2