petee_c

Anyone know of a jeweller in the KW area who can pressure test a watch onsite for a reasonable fee.

My TAGHeuer watch has a dying battery, it's doing the 5 sec sweep thing. My wife got her watch battery changed at Raffi in Conestoga Mall, we picked it up with a $250 bill.

My TAG is close to 20yrs old, and I'm *NOT* paying that much.

Thanks,
Peter

ronnie993tt

I have a 20 year old TAG and get the battery changed and watch pressure tested every 4 or 5 years at La Suisse in TO for around $50.

Zookie

20 Year Old Tag, i would send it in for a Refurb.
My 96 Links did the same few years ago, sent it in for Factory Refurb... its like new now.
I dealt with Birks in Sherway Mall, a friend works there

ronnie993tt

As with my Porsche, I prefer indies to "stealers". Both my Rolex and my TAG go to Y Phung @ 2453 Yonge.

petee_c

Thanks guys,

I'm buying a watch wrench and going to attempt it myself. I've got silicon grease for the gasket, and I'm going to macGyver a pressure tester with a nalgene bottle. I don't need 200m WR, 20' will do. Should make an interesting project.

(Yeah, what irked me about my wife's watch is I got it for her for a present (? Mother's day a few yrs back) at the same jeweller, and the original battery didn't last 2 yrs.) I can't see the seals and gaskets needing replaced. She got fleeced.)

petee_c

Nalgene - Chang Pressure Tester beta 1
Pressure testing/ Battery Change around here involves going to a jeweller and having them send your TAG off to get serviced at the factory. The last time I did that was with my wife's less than 2yr old TAG. We got hit with a $250 bill for a simple battery change.

This is what a professional pressure tester looks like.
This is what I came up with for under $22 cdn. Version beta 1.




1. Nalgene bottle $11 (BPA free) - we could have done this for free, but we threw out all our old Nalgene bottles during the BPA scare 8 yrs ago.
2. Hose Clamp $2 - to reinforce the screw lid of the bottle to avoid blowing out
3. Tire Valve $2.50 - to put air in. The ones I bought go in a 0.453" rim hole, so I drilled a 7/16th inch hole in the center of the lid.

Next version will involve cannabalizing an inner tube and rubber cementing it to the lid to get a better seal. With the pliable lid, I can only get 16psi pressure before it begins to deform the lid enough to cause a leak.

I elastic banded my TAG to a shish kabob skewer to hold it out of the water for 3 minutes at pressure, then invert the bottle enough to have the watch submerged but with the valve still out of the water, to let out the pressure, then watch for bubbles.

At 16psi, that is about 36' of fresh water, as 10' of water exerts 4.4PSI at sea level. I only dive down to about 10' before my ears ache, so I should be good for now. I am going to try to get a good seal around the lid/valve assembly to get to about 32psi which would be plenty for my purposes.

Imo000

Careful with that contraption. Keep the air volume to a minimum. Air had a lot of stored energy. You don't want to loose your front teeth if it blows up (happened to a 928 owner years ago). I would have used a small graden sprayer and a $7 pressure gauge......aka home made power bleeder. The garden sprayers are built to hold pressure, that water bottle you have there probably doesn't. To make the grden sprayer pressure rig is around $22.

petee_c

Yeah, I'm going to not pump it up too much. Worried about the lid. Lexan is plenty strong. Thx for the warning.