Did your battery finally run out of juice? It can be frustrating, trying to replace a watch battery when you don’t know how. Luckily, this simple guide will walk you through it, step-by-step. If you follow these instructions, you should have nothing to worry about.
Step 1: Place the watch, face down, on a soft surface such as a towel. Inspect the rear of the casing, and find a tab-like indentation near the rear-edge of the cover. Use a tool with a wedge-head, something dull, like a butter knife or screwdriver. Shimmy the wedge into the back of the indentation. Youre trying to pry it open. NOTE: If there is no tab-like indentation, then hold the watch with a vise and stick the tool into a point where the rear cover meets the watch casing, then wedge it in, tapping it with a rubber mallet.
Step 2: Once you can see the battery, try to see if it is being held in place by a bracket. If this is so, unscrew the bracket using a miniature screwdriver from an eyeglass repair kit.
Step 3: Once there is nothing holding the battery in, flip the watch over and tap it carefully. The battery should fall out. Don’t pry it out, however, as you can damage the watches internals by tinkering.
Step 4: Add the new battery to the old batterys position. Make sure to place it carefully into the watch and to replace anything that was originally holding it there. Realign the back cover and slide the cover opposite the tab-like indentation back into the casing, then press the whole back shell until it snaps into position. Now give yourself a pat on the back. Youre done!
When all is said and done, this process is an easy one, but please realize that certain watches should never be operated on at home and must be taken to a professional jeweler. Waterproof watches need special care as tampering with them can damage the vacuum sealing, and expensive watches must be taken to a fine jeweler so as to not ruin them.
Joe Larson writes articles that teach people how to replace watch batteries and also helps them find the right watch for them.
