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ISA 8172: Second, hour, minute hands do not advance


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Hello,

My father has a watch which has the ISA 8172 Quartz Movement inside. Its battery was dead, so I have bought a brand new battery as a replacement.

To my surprise, the new battery did not seem to work; the second hand did not advance, which also prevented the minute and hour hands from moving. Most of the time, the second hand would be completely idle, whereas sometimes it will periodically shake in its place like the second hand of a clock with a near-dead battery. At very rare occasions, the second hand works for a few minutes at most. As a side note, the second hand on this watch is in a subdial.

To prove to myself that it's not a battery problem, I tried the chronograph function which worked flawlessly. The central second hand of the chronograph works just fine and the chronograph's minutes subdial has no problems. I have tested the same battery on other watches too.

My last resort was to think of any clear obstacle which could prevent the second hand from moving. I decided to disassemble the watch so as to remove the dial which may be an obstacle. Basically, I left the watch movement bare, putting back on only the watch's second hand and the hour hand. Leaving it for a few days, I did not notice any sign of functionality.

Is there anything I can do to fix this problem or should I just toss it away for a replacement movement?

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troubleshooting quartz watches requires more than just visually examining things. You need electrical test equipment to verify that the coil is good and the circuit is working. Chronographs become more complicated considerably more circuitry more coils just more things to go wrong. This is where having a really good tech sheet for servicing is nice unfortunately totally lacking for this watch. the lack of proper servicing information indicates that they don't expect anyone to service their watch. Replacing the movement would be the best option.

http://www.isaswiss.com/public/ftp/mouvements_docs/technique/8172-220.pdf

 

https://mspf.azylis.net:50002/GED/SITEWEB-technical datasheet/DATASHEET 8172/8172_USER-MANUAL.pdf

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A half decent quartz watch tester should have a Line Free function. This spins up the movement with a magnet and will often free up the mechanism from sticky lube or light corrosion. This may be all you need. About 30GBP on eBay

Cheers, Neil


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