Battery lifetime when crown pulled out?

[Khan]

Hi

Does it prolong the lifetime of the battery, if I pull out the crown and dont use it? 

And do I have to be aware of acids coming out of the battery in such case?

[AndyGSi]

Pulling the crown does prolong the battery life but some watches do still take a small current even with the crown pulled.

If you're using Silver Oxide Batteries then these are less prone to leaking.

[JohnR725]

usually on quartz watches pulling out the crown stops the stepping motors but still maintains the quartz oscillator. Which is drawing an extremely low amount of power. but pulling the crown out does not give you it infinite life the battery will eventually fail as it consumes its internal components. Then if it's silver oxide it's not an acid is an alkaline. But it's equivalent to drain cleaner which is not good to have floating around inside the watch. Usually the low drain batteries are less likely to leak the high drain batteries more likely. so basically if you aren't going to use electric watch it's best to remove the battery to avoid problems.

[Khan]

Its a Bulova accutron watch and i use Renata batteries

[AndyGSi]

9 minutes ago, Khan said:

Its a Bulova accutron watch and i use Renata batteries

It depends on what movement (and variation of the movement) as most
I believe will continue to draw power even with the crown pulled. 

[Nucejoe]

 There is a plastic U ring, keeping the stem in pulled out position,  on most brand new quartz watches, so I gather it must do some  good.

 Why should the circuit be kept  ON , when watch is not running?   

 

[Khan]

Its a tuning fork movement (esa something i think). I was asking because I changed battery for a friend and he hasnt received it yet and it has been a couple of weeks so thought it was an idea to save the battery?

[AndyGSi]

3 minutes ago, Nucejoe said:

 There is a plastic U ring, keeping the stem in pulled out position,  on most brand new quartz watches, so I gather it must do some  good.

 Why should the circuit be kept  ON , when watch is not running?   

Because the stem is not an electrical switch so hasn't anything to do with the circuit.

Therefore the circuit is still powered with the stem pulled it just takes less power as there's no load on the rotor.

[Nucejoe]

Just now, AndyGSi said:

Because the stem is not an electrical switch so hasn't anything to do with the circuit.

Therefore the circuit is still powered with the stem pulled it just takes less power as there's no load on the rotor.

Oh I see.

What happened to energy conservation idea ?     lol 

I know it ain't your fault, Andy. Thanks.

 

[JohnR725]

5 hours ago, Khan said:

Bulova accutron watch

we need a picture or a clarification of what you have. This is because at one time this would refer to a tuning fork watch. Now it refers to a brand of watch which includes quartz. Although they are supposed to be releasing a new tuning fork watch some time in the future. Conveniently designed so it does not fit the old cases where they would I had a instantaneous market of upgrading past generation watches

then if it is a tuning fork watch pulling of the crown out is not going to save any power at all. Because you're just disengaging the drive mechanism and not changing anything electrical at all that I'm aware of as the tuning fork still vibrates.

4 hours ago, Nucejoe said:

What happened to energy conservation idea ? 

this was the days of where we didn't care about conserving energy at all.

[AndyGSi]

31 minutes ago, JohnR725 said:

then if it is a tuning fork watch pulling of the crown out is not going to save any power at all. Because you're just disengaging the drive mechanism and not changing anything electrical at all that I'm aware of as the tuning fork still vibrates.

I was under the impression on everything but the 218F & 218G the only thing disconnected is the tuning fork when you pull the crown.

[Khan]

Its this one. Im pretty sure that the forks aren't vibrating when crown pulled out. 

Edited September 12, 2024 by Khan

[AndyGSi]

I think this answers the question.

[JohnR725]

3 minutes ago, AndyGSi said:

think this answers the question.

notice something interesting your quote above? The peculiar partnership between citizen and Bulova with citizen basically making the later generation tuning fork watches were at least quite a few of them. Plus citizen has their own separate tuning fork watch kinda like 219 version but it looks different than the 219 that were normally used to.

Then as you can't actually tell which movement you have without taking the back off you should probably assume that on a tuning fork watch putting it in the setting isn't going to really save you a lot of power at all. With the unfortunate reality of sooner or later the battery conceivably will leak. Fortunately unlike the old days when they leaked and there are actually quite aggressive ad what happened when they leaked out of being a very bad when the modern batteries leak there so slow yes end up with white alkaline powder but still you shouldn't have that floating around inside your watch.