I took an elderly relative to get a watch battery changed the other day. Went to the watch kiosk in Macarthur Square. The person looked for a long time at the face of the watch to see the brand before quickly turning it over to the back and announcing the price - $25!. It was a good watch, one that is on the expensive side to purchase and he was clearly deciding the price he would charge by the brand (he even needed his magnifying glasses to see it so it was really obvious). Clearly the battery change wasn't too difficult since he only looked quickly at the back of the watch before announcing the price. I'm wondering if others have a similar problem with the cost of getting a battery change for good brands of watches (eg Longines etc). Has anyone found a reliable cheaper place to get their batteries changed in the Liverpool - Campbelltown area? I really don't want to take her to the key cutting places and none of the jewellery shops had a jeweller on the premises.
Cheap Watch Battery Changes
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I would give that a try if it were a cheap watch, but it's quite an expensive one, and I've never done a watch battery change before so don't want to risk it. Thanks for the idea, I might try that on one of my cheap Aldi ones when the battery gives up the ghost.
$25 is quite a normal price in a watch and jewellery shop or even more.
If it is a good watch, my preference is to take to a good jeweller if the price is not too much. The jeweller knows what they do and make sure the watch does not scratch. The battery is new with new date and a proper brand. They measure the voltage and make sure the watch looks good.
Flemington market will be cheaper around $10-$15. I will take it there if the watch is not expensive.
I will always do two things:
Check and confirm if there are any major scratches on the watch before I give it to the repairer.
Ask them what battery they will use and show it to you.There are big difference on battery life between a proper brand new battery (eg made in Japan) and a no brand from old storage, Also, they may not have the exact size and fit a smaller battery in.
If it is a cheap watch, I buy the battery from $2 shops or Daiso and changed it myself with the tools I have.
Guess I was equating the kiosk to about the same as a market. $25 seems exorbitant to me, especially when I know they do it much cheaper for the other stores who use their services when a battery has run out on a stock item. I'm going to have to learn how to do it myself, except if its a waterproof watch which needs pressure testing. Then its back to the expensive kiosk I suppose.
china town or little vietnam
He was probably checking the opening method and battery type required to gauge the price, as opposed to checking the brand.
As above, I got tired of paying $15 per battery swap, bought a jaxa wrench, friction ball and some batteries off ebay, and change them myself now.
Depending on how the watch back is attached, a friction ball is a good way to open it without any risk of scratching the watch.
Never heard of a friction ball before so I googled it…
One of the top results was a Yellow ball with what looked like a hole and it was called a screwing ball….
Yeah it looks like a stress ball, but very grippy. Just press it to the back and twist it, if it's not really really tight it will undo it. Worth the $2 on ebay just to have one around, they're quite handy
Thank you for the idea. We have a lot of watches in our family so it may be worth looking into these tools. Prices have gone up considerably it would appear. Just hope I don't mess it up and damage any watches. I suppose each opens differently and has a different battery so it will be trial and error.
What if I just want to remove 1 or 2 components to make the watch tighter on my wrist? Is it difficult to do it yourself or would you recommend taking it to watch specialist?
It is straight forward to do it but you do need the right tools so that you don't damage your watch. You can buy a cheap kit to do it.
can get one of this for the watches need https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/153754.
or just this for wrist band adjustment https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/147624.
make life so much easier.
A card of watch batteries (about 20 batteries) can be bought from The Reject Shop for $2.50 - I've never had any problems with these batteries myself.
They are probably ok. I think that a lot of watches probably use similar batteries to those in hearing aids, and even then a name brand only costs about $10 a packet so its worth looking into. I was thinking that there is probably a market for a course (Udemy anyone?) in how to change these batteries. Thank you for the idea.
i usually get the battery off ebay and do it myself… costs about 2 bucks :)