Timex Electric Won't Run With New Battery

[eyebidder]

My Timex Electric stopped so I put in a new battery #357(LR44) but I can't get it to start up. I pulled out the crown and then set the time but it still won't start. Do these need some sort of 'jump start' electrically?

 

Thanks for any assistance!

 

eyebidder

[Geo]

Try giving it a bit of a rotary shake for want of better description. There is an electrical contact that energises the coil on the balance and if you shake it as described it should rotate the balance wheel and make contact allowing the watch to start............unless the fine contact wire is broken or bent.

[clockboy]

Apart from testing the coil with a meter it,s difficult to determine what the fault is. Normally I would suggest changing the movement but being a Timex that I would have thought not a possibility. I don,t know how easy the Timex is to strip & clean or if it,s possible.

I don,t know what caliber you have but this PDF,s might help 

 

 

 

Timex SB101.pdf

 

 

Timex Electric_Manual.pdf

 

Edited February 14, 2015 by clockboy

[Geo]

It's not too bad to strip down, I had one in bits about six months ago. Unfortunately the contact that gets triggered by the balance was broken and I couldn't get another. :(

[DrRock]

There IS a way to "reboot" a lot of quartz movement watches, though - similar to the old Ctrl-Alt-Del on a PC. (Wouldn't it be great if we had one of those for real life?)

 

On the back of the movement, usually somewhere close to where the battery sits, have a look for a tiny contact labelled 'RC'. If you find it, put one point of your metal tweezers on that, and put the other end on the positive side of the battery, to short them across.

 

That performs a reset of the ECB.

 

I can't remember where I first saw that, but I got an old Timex quartz watch going again (and an old Casio) by doing that.

 

But not all quartz watches have that function, so look carefully.

 

--
Pete, Brisbane
============
 

Edited February 14, 2015 by DrRock

[Geo]

This is not a quartz watch Pete, it's a basic electric watch with an electric coil on the balance wheel. The coil is energised by a simple switch system by the balance staff.

[DrRock]

Ahh - thanks for that. My misunderstanding.

 

In that case, ignore my suggestion! ;)

 

--
Pete, Brisbane
============
 

[eyebidder]

I went ahead a gave it a good rotary shake and sure enough the thing came alive!   Thanks to all!

[clockboy]

Part of the PDF I downloaded on my original post

"To start the watch, depress the crown to the

"running" position: The watch will start running immediately. If not, slight

finger agittion of the watch may be necessary to start the mechanism."

 

 

​So there you go just give it a little wiggle (is that a song??)

No No the wrong song should it be "twist & shout"

Edited February 15, 2015 by clockboy

[bobm12]

Excellent hints! The shake and the RC for other watches! Keep it up guys!

[Geo]

"Finger agitation" now there's a technical term I must remember! :)

[bobm12]

We use that technical term often here when driving! ...maybe it helps the watch we wear too. :)

Edited February 15, 2015 by bobm12

[clockwatcher]

On the subject of Timex electrics, does anyone have a service sheet for the Dynabeat 255? I bought a runner recently but I want to service it before I start wearing it. It's such a pain to set the day and date that if I put it on I want to leave it on and wear it daily until the battery dies.

[Marc]

255.pdf

 

Does this help?

[clockwatcher]

You bet your bippy it does! Cheers Marc!

[Marc]

Glad to be of service  :thumbsu:

[oldhippy]

Here is my suggestion this applies to any Timex watch. Take one very large hammer and hit very hard, find pieces and put into a dustbin.

[clockwatcher]

Are you sure you're on the right forum Old Hippy? Some of us might take offence at the suggestion that our watches are not only not worth the effort but are just so much junk!

[oldhippy]

Sorry I didn't mean to offend anyone. The shop that I served my apprenticeship and as an improver at used to stock Timex watches. Customers would come in and ask if we could repair them we always said no because the old windups were always riveted together and you couldn't take them apart. They were of such poor quality I'm surprised they worked at all. Every now and then we would take the old Timex watches and hit them with a hammer and put them in the bin. It was a good way of getting rid of frustration.   

[clockwatcher]

I know Timex pretty much symbolises the lower end of the market and the mechanicals don't lend themselves to servicing but when all's said and done many more people will have owned and enjoyed a Timex than will have owned a high end watch.

I came to this forum as a complete novice and I remain a complete novice, as I've never serviced a watch in my life. Having said that, I'm a helluva lot more capable of servicing a watch now than I was before I joined simply because of the enthusiasm of all the members on here and their help and encouragement. A group of complete strangers who have become familiar, and even friends, simply by exchanging info and support for the shared passion that is watch collecting and repair.

A watch is a watch is a watch! Rolex, Timex, Artex, Lurex! When a mechanism is ailing, my instinct is to try and fix it. The Bergeon Basher should be an absolute last resort, otherwise what are we?

(I highly recommend the cheap Cotes Du Rhone from Carrefour - it focuses the mind wonderfully!)

'Night all!

[Marc]

I make no secret of my admiration for Timex mechanicals, not because of their Rolls Royce build quality, nor their "no expense spared" choice of materials, but because of their design.

 

That's right, their remarkably successful design.

 

No, they're not easy to service in the "Swiss tradition", but if they are serviced the way that they were designed to be serviced then they are a cinch. What's more, because they were so cheap in the first place, and because watchmakers, who insisted on trying to fully strip the movement to service it and therefore needed to charge twice the price of a new watch to do so, nobody bothered, and yet they still turn up at car boot sales, 50+ years old and beaten up, and still run (just about), and run properly after a half hours service (the way Timex intended).

 

They were never intended to perform to COSC chronometer levels of accuracy, they were designed as a cheap utilitarian time keeper for the "every day man on the street", requiring the minimum of maintenance to keep going. And they do. The "V-conic" balance staff had no shock protection and yet I've never come across a Timex with a broken balance staff, despite some of them looking like they'd been through a cement mixer. Timex even strapped one of their watches to the prop on an outboard motor and ran it under water for one of their ads with no apparent ill effect.

 

A lot of people deride Timex watches and yet they sold in their millions, and as for achieving their design objectives, they out did many other brands costing 10x as much.

 

As for the Cotes Du Rhône, I have to be careful not to focus the mind too sharply on a school night but may well give it a go at the weekend.

[clockboy]

I don,t like Timex watches because the ones I have worked on I could not find a way to clean correctly i.e. separate the plates.

They were never made to be serviced but were remarkably reliable watches but when they stopped that was it you just bought another.

I have worked on similar alarm clocks where the plates are riveted together the work round is to wash the whole movement with paraffin dry as best a possible & oil. It works but I don,t like it.

[oldhippy]

If you sent a Timex watch back to them they would replace the movement or replace the whole watch. I think they were based in Edinburgh. Even the buttons never screwed onto the stem they were just pushed on.

[Geo]

I think they were based in Edinburgh.

I used to work very near to the factory in Dundee. There biggest outlets back in the day were Dundee pubs! ;)

[oldhippy]

I used to work very near to the factory in Dundee. There biggest outlets back in the day were Dundee pubs! ;)

At least I got the right country. :D