[Jewelry making - Article 00279] - Re: [Orchid] Citizen watches black metal surfaces

[silvermason]

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>     The Citizen Ecos and the Seiko Kinetics both have a rechargable
>     storage cell in them, which does wear out, and currently they are
>     on the expensive side to replace, and also not as easily available
>     as a normal watch battery. I've seen some last as short as only 2
>     years, and some >l ast as long as 7-8 years, but >eventually all of
>     them go dead, requiring service. 

    Thanks to "Ed in Kokomo" for raising a question I should have asked
    in the first place about these Eco-Drive movements. A little freaked
    out by this, I called my dealer, bluedial.com, to check it out. They
    also quoted 7-8 years. So my perfect eternal watch would only save my
    customers a couple of battery changes before they'd have to do the
    same thing. 

    I was on the verge of cancelling my order when the sales rep
    suggested I talk directly to Citizen first. I talked to a very
    helpful person who explained that they figure a minimum of 15 years
    lifespan for the rechargeable cell, and possibly much longer (the
    dealer should have known this!). They have watches with their
    previous solar technology that are still running after 35 years! 80%
    of the repair issues they deal with are the result of either someone
    opening the watch or not making sure the cell is charged. The cell is
    NOT replaceable by anyone other than Citizen, so the watch would
    eventually have to be sent to them. 

    In the space of an hour I went from loving them to hating them and
    back to loving. By the way, it is officially pronounced "ecco" rather
    than "eeco". I also asked about changing the gaskets and seals.
    Unless the watch is used in harsh environments regularly, this is not
    an issue, and nobody should be opening them up in the first place. 

>     Do you buy the whole watch and jettison the bands? 

    Yep. I've tossed lots of watchbands. Nobody seemed to want them, but
    I still felt a little guilty. Maybe I'll save a bunch and try to sell
    them on ebay someday. 

Allan Mason
www.silvermason.com


 
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