Jump to content

Solar Watches - Any Downsides?

WillFly
 Share

Recommended Posts

WillFly Distinguished Member

WillFly

Posted
Posted

I'm intrigued by the idea of solar watches - they're not exactly new these days - and bought a Seiko Solar before Christmas. It's a simple, military-style face, with day and date functions and a hacking second hand.

 

I'm attracted to them because I like the idea of a watch without a disposable battery and, so far, it's keeping excellent time. I experimented with a Seiko Kinetic some time ago - an "Arctura" model - but it was very heavy and I get bored with an automatic watch that I don't wear all the time. One of the problems with the kinetic is that, although there's no battery, the capacitor can deteriorate over time - and I believe the shelf life before that component requires replacing is around 5 years. Which is why you see quite a few going cheap on eBay...

 

Is there a similar downside to solar-powered watches?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Mark Distinguished Member

Mark

Posted
Posted

I have had a citizen pro-master eco-drive for about 15 years and it has never let me down. I use it mainly when I go on holidays and it quite often stops completely because I keep it in a draw for months on end.

 

I leave it on the window ledge for a couple of days with the stem pulled out. Then I push the crown in and it just carries on. A great watch.

 

These capacitors do not last forever unfortunately but can be replaced reasonably cheaply when they do. 

 

To be fair - many watches with standard lithium batteries (Seiko Perpetual Cal., Casio, Timex Indiglo) can last for many years also - so I'm not really sure about a clear advantage capacitor based watches have over lithium battery based watches. But Solar does have a clear advantage over the Kinetic's as there are less moving parts to wear out.

 

Rechargeable lithium ion would be better I suppose - some Kinetic's have those.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 2 years later...
mcass WRT Addict

mcass

Posted
Posted
I have had a citizen pro-master eco-drive for about 15 years and it has never let me down. I use it mainly when I go on holidays and it quite often stops completely because I keep it in a draw for months on end.

 

I leave it on the window ledge for a couple of days with the stem pulled out. Then I push the crown in and it just carries on. A great watch.

 

These capacitors do not last forever unfortunately but can be replaced reasonably cheaply when they do. 

 

To be fair - many watches with standard lithium batteries (Seiko Perpetual Cal., Casio, Timex Indiglo) can last for many years also - so I'm not really sure about a clear advantage capacitor based watches have over lithium battery based watches. But Solar does have a clear advantage over the Kinetic's as there are less moving parts to wear out.

 

Rechargeable lithium ion would be better I suppose - some Kinetic's have those.


I just came across a Citizen Eco-Drive SkyHawk Blue Angel at a thrift store and picked it up for $13.00. It does not appear to be working but at that price I thought well worth taking a chance on. What steps would I take to troubleshoot this thing?

07fd486c2606c77fd6b6ef305e5b888d.jpg7eb33a638defc0d5c02db6337a11046a.jpg


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Link to comment
Share on other sites
MilTimeCan WRT Addict

MilTimeCan

Posted
Posted
50 minutes ago, mcass said:


I just came across a Citizen Eco-Drive SkyHawk Blue Angel at a thrift store and picked it up for $13.00. It does not appear to be working but at that price I thought well worth taking a chance on. What steps would I take to troubleshoot this thing?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My understanding is the capacitor is usually the cause, just like the battery in regular quartz watches.

You will need the caliber size on the back of the case to find out which capacitor to use (I wrote into Citizen to find out which capacitor mine use as a pro-active measure) I am having trouble reading yours, it is most likely a caliber C650 and the capacitor in that case would be a 295-56

There's a large listing on Otto Frei, by caliber:

http://www.ofrei.com/page954.html 

It could be the contacts as well, here's a video on that subject: 

 

I have, 3 solar charging watches:  2 Citizen eco drives and a Casio MTGM900DA-8.

So far, all three are very efficient in charging and keeping their charge for prolonged periods. I find the digital display on the Casio to be the most efficient so far. The interesting thing about the Casio is that it will hibernate if you don't use it to save power.

Hope that helps.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
WillFly Distinguished Member

WillFly

Posted
  • Author
Posted

The Citizen Eco-Drives are great watches. Mine was low on battery because it was kept in a room with curtains quite often closed to stop sunlight fading some prints. After a few hours in direct sunlight, it was fully charged.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
wls1971 Distinguished Member

wls1971

Posted
Posted
6 hours ago, mcass said:

What do you know! I stuck it under a light for a couple of hours and the display lit up and the hands began to tick! Now to figure out how to set the darn thing!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Just go to this page and enter your calibre number you can download a pdf file for any citizen quartz watch,

http://www.citizenwatch.com/en-uk/support/setting-instructions/

Casio, Citizen and seiko all have excellent sites for downloading manuals even for models from the 80's

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing


  • Recently Browsing

    • No registered users viewing this page.

  • Topics

  • Posts

    • Gilles
      Help identifying GP calibre : Girard Perregaux 17 jewels

      By Gilles · Posted

      25.9mm Thank you, it looks like a match !
    • Neverenoughwatches
      Setting lever spring

      By Neverenoughwatches · Posted

      I'm not with you there Rich .
    • Disgrace
      Seiko 6309 intermittent stopping of the seconds hand at the same positions

      By Disgrace · Posted

      Hello everybody, sorry for the late reply. Thank you all so much for your help and your tips. I got lucky and found a replacement wheel bridge for cheap which actually ended up being in decent condition. I decided not to do anything about the mainspring barrel pivot since I didn't have the right tools and the barrel didn't have much endshake anyhow. I am happy to report that the watch now runs great, I have regulated it to about +-10/s day which is fine by my standards. The timegrapher result looks decent as well, although beat error is around 0.6ms which could be better I suppose. Amplitude reaches over 230 quite consistently which I'm happy with also. My lighter fluid has also been replaced by balance spring cleaning solution and now the springs don't stick to themselves anymore - who would have thought. I'm super happy with this watch, it might not be worth a whole lot but it's awesome that I could restore it and it makes me wear it with pride. To me it's a genuinely good lucking watch, it'll be my daily driver for a while. Thanks again to everybody for their input! I couldn't have done the repair without your help.   Here are some images for those interested, the bracelet isn't original but I don't really mind:    
    • nevenbekriev
      Is this a 'hack' ?

      By nevenbekriev · Posted

      Balance-hairspring system is oscillator with big Q-factor. When all in the movement is OK, the rate (frequency) is verry close to the own resonant frequency of the balance-hairspring. But in some cases, the movement (with foult) will force the resonator to work on pritty different frequency, sometimes faster, and sometimes slower. When this happens, the amplitude is always weak. So, the first thing to ask is what is the amplitude. If it is more than 180 and the hairspring doesn't touch itself and anything else, then for sure it is 'short'. If the amplitude is weak, then the first thing to do is to understand why and rectify the problem. At this time no point to check timekeeping. But, if one doubts that the hairspring is not correct, then He needs to calcullate the rate of the movement, then to 'vibrate' the balance-hairspring out of the movement and to measure the free oscillations frequency (period) with timer in order to ensure that they comply with the rate. If we have pictures, then it will be easier to tell something about that wheel.
    • Klassiker
      Landeron 248 setting eccentric studs

      By Klassiker · Posted

      So much work has gone into this! Thanks again @Jon. I will go back and check my adjustments from last weekend. A few questions for you, if you don't mind. In the reset position, I can understand the problem if the gap between the hammer and the minute counter heart is too big (slide 77) but what is bad about both hammers being in contact with the cams (slide 76)? I read somewhere that Landeron recommended grease on the runner cam, but the minute counter heart should be dry. Is that so, and why? How many tads in a ligne?
×
×
  • Create New...