Bought a used citizen.. with a broken chronograph

[Marcelh]

Hello dear people.

 

Thank you for having me. I have recently bought my first citizen watch. It is a used CA0255-01e eco drive chronograph watch. I've had it for about a week now.

When I first got it, I noticed the chronograph function didn't work. The buttons clicked, but there is zero movement. The rest of the watch is functioning perfectly as far as I can tell. There is also no low-power indication in the form of the small second hand skipping to two second jumps.

So I thought it needed charging for the chronograph to start working again. I left it in my window sill for about a week, but there is no change.

I removed the rear lid, and I can see the mechanic move to a different position if I press the a and b buttons, but nothing is running.

 

In the video I added you can see what happens.

 

 

Sadly, any videos I found online did not help me out.

 

I did however found a hole in the movement with the word "push" next to it. I would like to know if it is something to reset or if it is used when taking the movement apart. Anyone familiar with this? It is the b612m movement.

 

Is there anyone who has experience with this problem? Do I need an expensive repair or is there something I can try for myself? I have no experience with repairing watches yet. But I would like to try as much as I can myself.

 

Help is appreciated.

[jdm]

1 hour ago, Marcelh said:

So I thought it needed charging for the chronograph to start working again. I left it in my window sill for about a week, but there is no change

That no surprise because the power cell is the same for both time and chrono motors.

1 hour ago, Marcelh said:

I removed the rear lid

That is, the case back.

1 hour ago, Marcelh said:

Do I need an expensive repair or is there something I can try for myself? I have no experience with repairing watches yet. But I would like to try as much as I can myself.

Sorry to be blunt but I really think that with your current level of knowledge, dexterity and tooling you can't really hope to get the chrono fixed, or even the time still working after manipulation. If you really want to learn watch repair better to go with steps working on mechanical watches, have a look at the high quality training offered by our Host Mark Lovick at watchfix.com.

[Marcelh]

Thanks for your feedback. 

True, I'm by far not experienced enough to just dive in. Was kind of wondering if this was a common problem, with someone being able to tell me if it is repairable.

Still hoping to find someone who did tho.

[jdm]

1 hour ago, Marcelh said:

Still hoping to find someone who did tho.

It is right that you want your watch repaired, but also look at the objective facts. Your is a mass produced older quartz watch, apparently still sold for about EUR 140 new. The module is a B612M, which very few suppliers had carried and now appears out of stock everywhere. I much doubt that Citizen had ever supplied spare parts for it. Even if the watch could be repaired with no parts, the cost of an honest repairer would start at like EUR 40 an hour, problem is that because of all the reasons above, repairers normally don't work on quartz watches at all. Even if you could find a similar watch on Ebay for little, you would be left anyway with one not fully working. So one can understand why when it comes to repairing watches, especially economical and/or quartz watches, expectations cannot be high. Better maybe to appreciate your watch having only the good old time-only functionality.

[Marcelh]

That is true. The watch isn't that valuable. Did not know it being used in so few other watches. That probably explains why it is so hard to find anything about it online.

I will see what I will do with it then. I still enjoy it for being a good looking watch. 

Thank you for the replies guys.

 

[JohnR725]

On 2/13/2022 at 1:58 AM, Marcelh said:

The watch isn't that valuable.

In watch repair it's not always the value of the watch that makes it valuable? If you had some sentimental attachment or some other reason where monies no object then it becomes valuable. Of course that doesn't change the situation at all as to whether you can get it fixed find a replacement movement or spare parts.

On 2/8/2022 at 10:34 AM, Marcelh said:

I did however found a hole in the movement with the word "push" next to it. I would like to know if it is something to reset or if it is used when taking the movement apart.

Usually they just telling you were to push if you want to remove the stem which isn't going to fix your problem.

Any information I can find on this watch indicates it was made about 10 years ago. Which means you could change the battery yes it has a rechargeable battery it doesn't last forever. But no guarantee that that will fix the problem. Plus changing batteries even rechargeable battery has consequences especially on a chronograph where there is usually an elaborate reset procedure to get everything where it's supposed to be.

This basically narrows the choice down to You'll have to reach out the citizen watch company and see if they'll fix it. I would make sure you understand what the price is first testing case it's going to be expensive.

 

[jdm]

41 minutes ago, JohnR725 said:

Which means you could change the battery yes it has a rechargeable battery it doesn't last forever. But no guarantee that that will fix the problem.

More than no guarantee I would say no chance, because I had mentioned above, the power cell is the same for both time and chrono could and motors.

 

41 minutes ago, JohnR725 said:

Plus changing batteries even rechargeable battery has consequences especially on a chronograph where there is usually an elaborate reset procedure to get everything where it's supposed to be.

Same as for any quartz chrono, is the battery is replaced with the chrono at zero time, there there is no need to reset anything. Otherwise the procedure is typical one of simply pressing a button with stem in 2nd position, attached manual.

e.pdf

 

41 minutes ago, JohnR725 said:

You'll have to reach out the citizen watch company and see if they'll fix it. 

I can promise you there is no chance that even Citizen would fix it at no price. By now they have no more spare modules, end of story.