Bulova watch losing time?

[Saxmoore]

Hi all,
I received a nice Bulova watch as a gift 2 or 3 years ago. I'm noticing that it has been losing several minutes a day recently. I replaced the battery less than a year ago.

On my daily-wear Swiss Army watch, when the battery is dying the seconds hand will tick backward every 5 seconds or so as a warning. Does a Bulova do something similar? I'm trying to determine if it is a battery problem or if it needs to be serviced.

Thanks! Jerry

 

[Alphonse]

HA, I own a Bulova that looks pretty sweet but the battery dies too often! I don't think I'd buy another Bulova. I thought it was supposed to be closer to a premium watch but I question the internals.

 

[Larry C in Texas]

Are you sure the battery that was put in it less than a year ago was fresh? At some of these budget watch repair places, they buy batteries by the ton and some of them may sit around for years before they are used. Just a thought. This is why I bought some watch tools and replace all my batteries myself. That way, I know it was a fresh replacement.

 

[Saxmoore]

Thanks for your replies Larry C, I'm not sure, but had similar thoughts. I definitely avoided the mall kiosk watch places, thinking that I would get better service. I do have a 5 year warranty on the battery, in writing.

I had read here on B&B some time in the past that a watch that wears down batteries quickly needs service, but I was hoping that that wouldn't be the case with a watch that is only 3 years old. So, I guess I'll wait awhile and see if the battery completely dies.

 

[QuasPrimas]

Here's my $0.02, as a watchmaker. Have a new battery put in, which shouldn't cost that much, and if it's still losing time, you'll know it's in need of a service. (This is most likely, but a battery is cheaper than a service so it's worth trying.) Quartz watches don't lose time, per se, when the battery gets low, because the timekeeping circuit requires very little power to operate. The battery drain comes from the motion of the hands. Usually when a quartz watch loses time, either the wearer is exposing the watch to magnetic fields, which can cause the watch to stop or the hands to move unpredictably, depending on how strong the field is (do you work around big speakers, for example?) or there's some dirt or debris in the gear train (probably from the last battery change -take it to a good watchmaker at a jewelry store, who will do the job right, not to Wal-Mart) causing the watch to stop periodically. Sometimes if you've given the watch a really big shock and it's caused the hands or the date wheel mechanism to bind up, this can also cause periodic stoppage (for example, when the date changes around midnight) which will make it look like the watch is steadily losing time.

 

[Saxmoore]

QuasPrimas, you seemed to have nailed it. I hadn't noticed that my valet box (where the watch sits) had been pushed back on my desk, and it was just a few inches away from the cable modem. I waited a couple of weeks to be sure, but since moving it away, my watch hasn't lost any time. Thanks for your post!

 

[global_dev]

Wow! Was surprised to see that! Nice...