[Valksing]

Hi folks,

I've got a ladies Edox quartz watch on the workbench currently with a non-running movement. I've resorted to repairing ladies watches now so I don't have the temptation to keep them after repairing it.

The movement itself, the gears and date complication, all seem to work fine. The crown engagement feels solid, date and time setting works very well. I'm fairly confident in saying that there's nothing wrong with the gears, but that the fault lies somewhere in the circuit board. Arguably a cheaper one, "Thailand Movement" instead of the ETA board, but this is what the watch came with when I received it so I'm fairly certain that it belongs to this watch (unless someone knows it's not and should have the ETA branded circuitry).

Now replacing the entire movement seems a bit wasteful and unnecessarily costly - a new ETA 956.112 movement costs around $50 (incl. shipping), whereas the circuit board sold separately sells for between $5 and $15 (even for an ETA branded one). But in order to avoid wasting money and time, I have a question to which I think I should know the answer, but as a novice is probably best to ask the more experienced folk here on the forum.

Can I just replace the circuit board in its entirety? This would save a lot of hassle, too. I wouldn't have to remove the movement from the case, remove the hands or dial, all extra points of potential damage or breakage. Cheaper too.
I have already removed the movement on this one, relatively easy, only three screws and loose she comes.

I would love to hear your thoughts on replacing just the circuit board instead of the entire movement!

Attached below are some pictures of the watch with exposed movement and circuit board.

Cheers,
TJ

 

[Acidstain]

Hi folks,

I've got a ladies Edox quartz watch on the workbench currently with a non-running movement. I've resorted to repairing ladies watches now so I don't have the temptation to keep them after repairing it.

The movement itself, the gears and date complication, all seem to work fine. The crown engagement feels solid, date and time setting works very well. I'm fairly confident in saying that there's nothing wrong with the gears, but that the fault lies somewhere in the circuit board. Arguably a cheaper one, "Thailand Movement" instead of the ETA board, but this is what the watch came with when I received it so I'm fairly certain that it belongs to this watch (unless someone knows it's not and should have the ETA branded circuitry).

Now replacing the entire movement seems a bit wasteful and unnecessarily costly - a new ETA 956.112 movement costs around $50 (incl. shipping), whereas the circuit board sold separately sells for between $5 and $15 (even for an ETA branded one). But in order to avoid wasting money and time, I have a question to which I think I should know the answer, but as a novice is probably best to ask the more experienced folk here on the forum.

Can I just replace the circuit board in its entirety? This would save a lot of hassle, too. I wouldn't have to remove the movement from the case, remove the hands or dial, all extra points of potential damage or breakage. Cheaper too.
I have already removed the movement on this one, relatively easy, only three screws and loose she comes.

I would love to hear your thoughts on replacing just the circuit board instead of the entire movement!

Attached below are some pictures of the watch with exposed movement and circuit board.

Cheers,
TJ

View attachment 14756045 View attachment 14756047

Yes you can

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ccwatchmaker]

This watch is more than 20 years old; even quartz watches need an occasional service. Even though all the mechanical part looks good, trying to run through old dried oil will stop a quartz movement.

How certain are you that you have a bad circuit? Yes, it is easily changed, but what if it doesn't solve the problem? Have you made any electrical checks? Except for the occasional coil failure, usually at the hands of an unskillful cell changer, these circuits are pretty much bulletproof. If you have an ohmmeter, check the two coil leads. It should be between 1.7 and 2.1 K ohms. With the circuit in the watch and a good cell, check the voltage from the negative contact on the board to any plus surface--a screw head, make certain you have at least 1.50 volts. Put the meter probes on the two coil leads and see if the meter needle flickers at one-second intervals. Check that the screws securing the board are tight. Just be certain you know that you have a bad circuit and not a blocked train.

James Sadilek -- ccwatchmaker

 

[Valksing]

This watch is more than 20 years old; even quartz watches need an occasional service. Even though all the mechanical part looks good, trying to run through old dried oil will stop a quartz movement.

How certain are you that you have a bad circuit? Yes, it is easily changed, but what if it doesn't solve the problem? Have you made any electrical checks? Except for the occasional coil failure, usually at the hands of an unskillful cell changer, these circuits are pretty much bulletproof. If you have an ohmmeter, check the two coil leads. It should be between 1.7 and 2.1 K ohms. With the circuit in the watch and a good cell, check the voltage from the negative contact on the board to any plus surface--a screw head, make certain you have at least 1.50 volts. Put the meter probes on the two coil leads and see if the meter needle flickers at one-second intervals. Check that the screws securing the board are tight. Just be certain you know that you have a bad circuit and not a blocked train.

James Sadilek -- ccwatchmaker

Great, thanks for the suggestion! I'll bust out the multimeter and check it out.

If the circuits are fine, how do I best go about servicing a quartz movement? I'll try to look up some online sources but if you have suggestions that would be helpful

Cheers,

 

[NviGate_Systems]

Servicing a quartz is pretty much the same as a mechanical watch, with the exception of the types of oil to use. Needs to be a light oil, quartz don't have the torque that mechanical watches do.

Also, to clean the circuit board, you use a special solution, I can't recommend one as I've never done a watch pcb, only regular circuit board from computers, so the compounds I use to clean these might not be the best.

 

[tomchicago]

Just whatever you do...do not disassemble the gear train unless you know how to replace the stator rotor. It is practically impossible! That tiny magnet is shockingly strong and can send it flying across a large room!

This spray has yet to fail to bring a dead quartz back to life for me fwiw: https://www.esslinger.com/quartz-quick-clean-watch-movement-cleaner-spray/

 

[Joe Horner]

Not entirely sure the word "Professional" belongs on that can 😄

(Doesn't mean it doesn't work, but no-one should be charging money to use it on other people's watches!)

 

[BenchGuy]

Just whatever you do...do not disassemble the gear train unless you know how to replace the stator rotor. It is practically impossible! That tiny magnet is shockingly strong and can send it flying across a large room!

This spray has yet to fail to bring a dead quartz back to life for me fwiw: https://www.esslinger.com/quartz-quick-clean-watch-movement-cleaner-spray/

For whom? Without removing the rotor and using Rodico (or equivalent) to remove contaminants, train may still malfunction.
Also agree with Joe regarding spray.
On the other hand, Witschi sells the somewhat pricey Cyclonic, which is not a substitute for servicing the movement either!
Anything which moves contaminants but does not REMOVE them, is not "cleaning".

Regards, BG

 

[ccwatchmaker]

Just whatever you do...do not disassemble the gear train unless you know how to replace the stator rotor. It is practically impossible! That tiny magnet is shockingly strong and can send it flying across a large room!

This spray has yet to fail to bring a dead quartz back to life for me fwiw: https://www.esslinger.com/quartz-quick-clean-watch-movement-cleaner-spray/

This simply is not true. I have disassembled dozens of quartz movements of all kinds, never failed to get one back together. Yes, your first time could be trying, but reassembly is possible with patience. There is no magic involved. You do need non-magnetic tweezers. Regular screw drivers work just fine. I've never seen a rotor go flying. More likely it will be sticking to anything magnetic.

There is no need to clean the circuit board, all the connections are soldered.

Use a very small amount of light oil on the train. Just enough to wet the pivots. The setting parts do need lubrication similar to a mechanical watch. After cleaning the rotor, using Rodico to remove any magnetic particles is a good plan.

The spray part? I'd pass on that. One needs to have pride in one's work.

James Sadilek -- ccwatchmaker

 

[NviGate_Systems]

Cleaning the circuit board is mostly in the event you had a battery leak and you need to be sure all corrosive elements are removed.

I personally use FluxOff Aqueous from Chemtronics, because I bought a gallon of it back when I did computer repair. It will ensure the board is cleaned and any flux and other corrosive elements are removed. I think I paid $30 CDN three years ago and I still have lots left. You mix it with distilled water and put in ultrasonic cleaner.

 

[ccwatchmaker]

Cleaning the circuit board is mostly in the event you had a battery leak and you need to be sure all corrosive elements are removed.

I personally use FluxOff Aqueous from Chemtronics, because I bought a gallon of it back when I did computer repair. It will ensure the board is cleaned and any flux and other corrosive elements are removed. I think I paid $30 CDN three years ago and I still have lots left. You mix it with distilled water and put in ultrasonic cleaner.

Put the circuit in the ultrasonic cleaner with an aqueous solution?? This sounds like an excellent means of destroying the coil. These circuits were cleaned before they left the factory. The watch obviously ran for many years with no circuit problems. We've seen a photo of the circuit, (#1), there is no evidence of corrosion. This is a solution looking for a non-existent problem.

There are methods of cleaning corrosion from watch circuits; they do not involve ultrasonics.

James Sadilek -- ccwatchmaker

 

[ExpiredWatchdog]

You are in luck as the movement is old enough that the tech sheet describes full disassembly and reassembly. The tech sheet is available on the ETA website at https://shopb2b.eta.ch/technical_documents/index/pdf/id/1938/. Clean the same as a mechanical except don't ultrasonic the rotor or circuit board. As described above, use Rodico on the rotor and then pith the pivots. Don't clean the board unless it is contaminated and then only manually. Standard oils except for the train which takes 9014, a mixture of 9010 and 9030 to make it thinner than 9010. Just enough to fill the annulus between the pivot and the bushing; if you see oil collected in the bushing well, you put on too much.

The Tech sheet also has a page for electrical tests. I'd start with that to see if your board is good. Note that you need an analog meter (or a digital with a fast response indicator, fluke 78 has one) to see the pulses as they are too short for a digital meter to register. I use an old 20k/V meter I got for Christmas as a kid (long before digital meters), at the lowest voltage setting, the needle barely flicks. But it flicks once a second, positive one second and then negative the next.

Note: I'm surprised the tech sheet doesn't forbid cleaning the rotor. I've worked on a 902.002 and that tech sheet had specific notes not to clean it. I got clarification here that the issue is demagnetizing the rotor in an ultrasonic.