08 May 2008 10:18:04

Paul Hovnanian P.E.

OT: Watch Repair

I have an old Seiko watch which used to have a nice chime for its alarm function. Lately, it has gone silent. When its battery went dead and I opened it to replace it, I noticed that the piezo transducer, a small disk glued to the inside of the watch back, appears to be cracked. Is it possible to obtain 'bare' piezo transducer disks? Who caries these? How easy are these to work with? The transducer is connected to the 'works' by a pair of gold-plated spring contacts, so no soldered connection will be required. Watch repair outfits want an outlandish price just to pop the back off this thing to look. It is actually 3 watch movements in one and (they claim) far too complex to risk poking around in. I think they just want to sell me a new watch. -- Paul Hovnanian paul@hovnanian.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Procrastinators: The leaders for tomorrow.

08 May 2008 13:06:17

Michael A. Terrell

Re: OT: Watch Repair

"Paul Hovnanian P.E." wrote: > > I have an old Seiko watch which used to have a nice chime for its alarm > function. Lately, it has gone silent. When its battery went dead and I > opened it to replace it, I noticed that the piezo transducer, a small > disk glued to the inside of the watch back, appears to be cracked. > > Is it possible to obtain 'bare' piezo transducer disks? Who caries > these? How easy are these to work with? The transducer is connected to > the 'works' by a pair of gold-plated spring contacts, so no soldered > connection will be required. Why not take one out of a pizeo alert, or junk DVM? Or even ask on the right newsgroup? news:alt.horology -- http://improve-usenet.org/index.html Use any search engine other than Google till they stop polluting USENET with porn and junk commercial SPAM If you have broadband, your ISP may have a NNTP news server included in your account: http://www.usenettools.net/ISP.htm

09 May 2008 10:25:31

Ross Herbert

Re: OT: Watch Repair

On Thu, 08 May 2008 10:18:04 -0700, "Paul Hovnanian P.E." <paulh@seanet.com > wrote: :I have an old Seiko watch which used to have a nice chime for its alarm :function. Lately, it has gone silent. When its battery went dead and I :opened it to replace it, I noticed that the piezo transducer, a small :disk glued to the inside of the watch back, appears to be cracked. : :Is it possible to obtain 'bare' piezo transducer disks? Who caries :these? How easy are these to work with? The transducer is connected to :the 'works' by a pair of gold-plated spring contacts, so no soldered :connection will be required. : :Watch repair outfits want an outlandish price just to pop the back off :this thing to look. It is actually 3 watch movements in one and (they :claim) far too complex to risk poking around in. I think they just want :to sell me a new watch. : You are probably right in your assumption. Watch repairers, like trained mechanics or electronics appliance repairers, will always use parts intended for the job. That means that if the watch is a Seiko they will only use Seiko replacement parts. Since Seiko and most other electronic watch manufacturers won't keep spares for more than 10 years the likelihood of finding a spare transducer for your Seiko is poor. Naturally, the repairer doesn't want to go to a whole heap of trouble to try to find someone who does carry a spare, particularly when the owner isn't prepared to pay for his time and trouble in doing so. I'm afraid that if you can't locate a genuine replacement transducer yourself then you have had it.

10 May 2008 11:55:59

Paul Hovnanian P.E.

Re: OT: Watch Repair

"Michael A. Terrell" wrote: > > "Paul Hovnanian P.E." wrote: > > > > I have an old Seiko watch which used to have a nice chime for its alarm > > function. Lately, it has gone silent. When its battery went dead and I > > opened it to replace it, I noticed that the piezo transducer, a small > > disk glued to the inside of the watch back, appears to be cracked. > > > > Is it possible to obtain 'bare' piezo transducer disks? Who caries > > these? How easy are these to work with? The transducer is connected to > > the 'works' by a pair of gold-plated spring contacts, so no soldered > > connection will be required. > > Why not take one out of a pizeo alert, or junk DVM? Maybe as a last resort. I am willing to spend a few bucks on a new part, if available. > Or even ask on the right newsgroup? news:alt.horology Because locating electronic parts not marketed as replacement parts for timepieces would seem to be a better fit to this group. -- Paul Hovnanian paul@hovnanian.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Procrastinators: The leaders for tomorrow.