On May 7, 3:00*pm, rangerssuck wrote:
My wife's watch stopped working. It's a quartz/analog Armitron
movement. I changed the battery, and it worked for a while then
stopped again. I remembered watching a show about the debunking of Uri
Geller (http://site.uri-geller.com/) and how you could "psychicly"
start most stopped watches simply by warming them in your hands. I
tried that, and it worked. Then, after it stopped again, I warmed it
in my hands and it started again.

So, either I have great psychic powers or the works in this watch are
gummed up. I'm guessing the latter.

How best to clean and relube this watch?

Thanks.

Unless it's got great sentimental value, haul off to wally world and
select another. Not jesting here, these things aren't made to be
fixed. You can soak it in whatever and all you'll have is wasted time
and soggy junk. The watch face probably won't like the immersion and
if you use a solvent, the paint may disappear along with the crystal
going opaque. Chance of that approach getting it going again is about
nil. The analog style ones have a ratchet type of mechanism that
usually wears out anyway, some faster than others. I rate them these
days as a one-battery or a two-battery watch, depending. Sometimes
they'll last long enough to go through two batteries, at which time
the battery cost will have exceeded the cost of the watch originally.
The digital types don't have anything to wear out, usually they just
get scratched up. You CAN get decent watches that will last years
like the old mechanical ones, they'll run about what the old high-end
mechanicals did, though. Generally fixing those involves replacing
the movement, the companies make enough extra for spares. Mail it in,
get another for $20 "service charge", is the way that works. Just
depends if you just want to tell the time or want jewelry, if you
spend more than $10 for a watch, you're buying jewelry. Like a watch
enough, buy two and take the battery out of the backup.

Stan