Citizen E168 Movement

[smada505]

I own a Citizen Eco-Drive E168-S070830.  I dropped it several years ago and it quit working.  I finally sent it to Citizen for repair and was given an estimate of ~$453.  They reported the movement needed to be replaced.  This was an extremely expensive quote so, I figured I attempt the repair myself.  I found a couple of places (EBay and a part supply house) that I could get a new movement.  Right after I ordered from Ebay they ran out of stock, then tried the supply house and they would not sell it to me because I don't have a jewelry or watch business.  My search continues so I have a spare.

I did buy some tools and decided to open up the watch and have a look.  I attempted to remove the stem so I could get the movement out after finding some repair instruction for similar movements on Nomad1001's post.  I had some difficulty and while trying to figure out if I had the stem in the right position for removal I turned the watch face up and noticed the second hand moving.  There was no battery in the watch and when I removed it out of light the second hand stopped.  I never got the stem out but something must have slipped back into place. I put the battery back in, put the back on and put it under a lamp.  It's still ticking.

I must be lucky today.  I wish Citizen would have at least attempt to do what I did instead of assuming the movement was bad and needing to be replaced.

I am also more and more of the belief that I should be able to attempt these type of repairs at my own risk and that the parts to do so should be readily available.

Does anyone have a good parts supplier that will sell to DIY'ers?

[VWatchie]

2 hours ago, smada505 said:

Does anyone have a good parts supplier that will sell to DIY'ers?

Parts are oftentimes difficult to get by, and that goes both for DIY'ers and independent watchmakers (the industry generally don't want DIY:ers and independents). Anyway, there are several good parts suppliers, but it very much depends on in which part of the world you live. I live in one of the many EU vassal states (Sweden) so I do most of my shopping on CousinsUK.com. Anyway, start by taking a look at the "Resources" section here on WRT.

https://www.watchfix.com/2019/11/08/watch-parts-tools-suppliers/

[HectorLooi]

Some photos of your watch with the back open would help.

If the hand moves when exposed to light, it might be due to a dead rechargeable battery. You can try replacing the battery and see how that goes.

[jdm]

15 hours ago, smada505 said:

 I wish Citizen would have at least attempt to do what I did instead of assuming the movement was bad and needing to be replaced.

That is not surprising. The technicians at service centers of Seiko, Citizen and others alike are not trained and instructed to do anything but complete mov.t replacement. Which makes sense, because to the manufacturer that cost little, surely less than qualified labor time. One needs to buy up one segment or two to find "service centers" that actually go in depth on mov.t watch.

 

15 hours ago, smada505 said:

Does anyone have a good parts supplier that will sell to DIY'ers?

Have a read of our pinned topic below

 

[HectorLooi]

I had free time and checked Cousins website. They have a whole brand new movement.

https://www.cousinsuk.com/product/citizen-watch-movements?code=E168M

But unfortunately, Cousins can't ship the rechargeable batteries anymore due to some restriction on shipping lithium batteries ( Really? ).

[watchweasol]

HI   givn the price of the replacement movement it makes more sense to replace it should the need arise.  I have found no data on the E168 but I have attached the E100 tech sheet to give you an idea of its complexity.  

E100.pdf

[jdm]

9 hours ago, HectorLooi said:

But unfortunately, Cousins can't ship the rechargeable batteries anymore due to some restriction on shipping lithium batteries ( Really? ).

Yes. Cousins will tell you that this is their post / carrier regulation, no lose Li-ion battery shipments, it's permitted only if contained in the device and up to a certain size. If the UK regulation makes exception for minuscole sizes, I don't know. However, recently they added the option to ship ground to Europe, which helps with these as well cleaning fluids.

All that being said, fortunately there is abundance of other sellers for the same items which are happy to ship anywhere.

[Nomad1001]

Hi Cousins will ship lithium batteries in uk but not sure about other countries but has to be by carrier so charged slightly more as i have just had a couple delivered. also ebay is good source.

in united states jules borel supplies parts not sure about lithium . i even got crown for a citizen that is not available to customers from citizen jules borel ordered from Hong kong and then shipped to U.K took a long time but got parts.

Hope this helps.

Edited January 16, 2022 by Nomad1001