Re: Wittnauer litium longlife battery?

I'm sorta surprised that Wittnauer has a relatively reasonably priced kit to replace defunct battery in the Longlife. Most watch companies would just as soon have you throw your old watches in the trash. The Longlife doesn't do much for me, looks too much like a Hag Tauer. But I've wanted a reasonably priced Xemex for a while . . .

R "so thanks for the link" TF

Jack Denver wrote:
I don't know how long it's been since Wittnauer discontinued these but they are available on closeout for $59 delivered:

http://thewatchfactoryoutlet.com/shop.php

At that price they strike me as a pretty good deal even if the battery goes dead and you must trash the watch after 10 years or so (or spend another $80 on a kit). $6/ yr to own a pretty nice looking dive watch. Yes I suspect these are NOS from around 1996.

I'm not sure that I understand your wife's attitude - for $80 she could have a nice watch going forward - now she has nothing. This is called "cutting off your nose to spite your face." I assume that this is not even Wittnauer's fault - I'm guessing the original battery (which they did not make) is no longer made. It's nice of them to make the adapter kit - they ARE supporting the watch as best as they can under the circumstances.



"salmonella" <salmonella10@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:c787acd1-5fec-4266-9d56-3df0b9121337@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Jan 13, 12:06 pm, what-does-your-watch-...@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
I was shopping eBay for a new watch to give as a gift and I noticed
Wittnauer's longlife battery--20 year life--and was looking for some
input on these batteries.

I found this link:

http://tinyurl.com/3cu8nn

Which stated:

Q. How long does a battery last in my watch?

A. In a Wittnauer Longlife the lithium cell will last 20 years;
however in the average watch, a silver oxide battery will last from 2
to 5 years and a lithium battery will last up to 10 years.

And this link which states that these watches have been around since
the mid-nineties:

Maybe things are different in Canada, but here's my tale in the USA.

In the mid-90s, my wife conceived a great liking for one of these.
It really looked nice with a black leather strap, grey titanium case,
and plain dial, and she was intrigued by the 20-yr battery as well. I
bought one for her, and another matching on for me.

Last year, her watch stopped. Local (expert, professional, not a
hack) watchmaker looked at it, said he thought the battery was dead,
showed us how the battery was integrated with the case back, said he
couldn't get the battery, and suggested we contact Wittnauer for
services.

As of then, the only Wittnauer factory service in the USA was handled
by Bulova in New York or possibly New Jersey, and the long-life
watches had not been sold for at least a decade. When we sent them
the watch, they advised us that originally the battery had been used
and developed for implanted heart pacemakers,It was no longer
available, and Wittnauer had developed a kit to replaced the so-called
20-year battery with a more conventional one lasting 2-5 years, which
left the watch "cosmetiacally the same as before." This meant that
the appearance, weight, etc. of the cased watch was the same as
before. I advised my wife to accept this, as it seemed reasonable to
me, considering the cost of the kit installed was maybe $80 US. Hell,
there are some high-end watches where walking in the door of the
factory service center for a common battery replacement will cost
that.

My wife refused this. She said this was a disfigurement of the watch
and its design, even if it looked the same as before, and she thought
that Wittnauer ought to have arranged to have replacements available
for longer than twelve years--if Leica serviced cameras for seventy
years, and other watches could be repaired a hundred years after
purchase, she thought that twelve years was ridiculous for a $500
Wittnauer watch. So the watch is sitting in a drawer here, even as we
speak.

I would be quite interested to know if there really is services for
these things in Canada, and reportedly they are still for sale there,
or the if the advice quoted is old, out of date, or misinformed.

Salmonella Scripsit


.

Relevant Pages

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