Question from me that is. I'm currently working on a Seiko digital chronograph that my neighbour, who was given the watch at a garage sale, gave me. It wasn't working so I replaced the dead battery (that hadn't leaked) and it's ticking along nicely. My question is, can I put the caseback with the integral piezoelectric buzzer in the ultrasonic cleaner? 1. - Yep, no problems. 2. - No, only an idiot would do that. 3. - Maybe, tell us how it goes. I've cleaned it with peg wood and IPA so it's sparkling, but I realised I didn't know if it was sensible/safe to do so. As any post is rubbish without pitchers, here's what it is.
3... I'd guess the heat plus US action may not be too great for the glue holding the piezo thingy to the caseback. I've always done them by hand personally but I will also ask a mate who specialises in electronic watches and report back.
My guy has come back to me and said it's a big no from him. He concurred about the glue being compromised and also said it is quite likely to crack the piezo in his experience. Hand jobs are the way forward!
Confirmed my uneducated gut instinct. Thanks for the follow up. BTW, watch is now up and running after a basic case clean/dust out. Functions wouldn't work because the outer part of the pushers were jammed with years of fibres/gunk/sweat etc. I took some pics, will post later if I remember.
Take the movement out and put the case into the ultrasonic cleaner. Hopefully, it will un-gunk the pushers
Can't, the crystal has a crack so I don't want to remove it to remove the mask plate which would be destroyed in the US, and a new crystal/gasket would cost more than the watch is worth. I'll fill the crack with UV glue and it'll be a beater for when I'm gardening etc. I removed the pushers and cleaned the case with IPA and peg wood sticks, put the pushers through the US, lubed the pusher tubes with silicone grease and all back together and working. This is why the pushers wouldn't work, and this is one of the cleaner ones .
I got me one of these as part of a job lot. Stem is snapped off. Crystal is pretty well trashed. It really messes up the camera auto focus, although reality is not much better. I just checked to see if I did remove the battery when I got it. I did and see that it looks like it also have an alarm piezo disk. I keep debating If I want to see about cleaning this up. Most crystals seem to come from Asia. So the shipping delay does not do much for the impulse satisfaction. In actual practice this is probably a parts watch as these tend to show up from time to time. The other possibility is to see if I can talk to the LCD display with one of the microcontrollers I have. Could also try putting the mechanism into an apple watch case, which might be fun. Would be interesting to see the front of your watch.
I've just packed all of my watches away in the safe as we're going down to the coast for a break. If I remember when I get back I'll post some pics.