CAF7013.FT8011
There comes a point when you collect watches that you realise you really can't keep on paying £50-85 to change a battery, especially when you can have two or three go in one month. So over the last couple of years I've learned to change batteries and have done so successfully in a variety of screw back models. A while back my Microtimer needed a battery and I didn't fancy the small screws holding the caseback down, so I sent that one back - but then not long after my wife's Alter Ego needed a battery and those screws were even smaller and I managed that, so maybe next time...
(Quick tip, when changing the battery in a watch with screws holding the back on, put the watch in a Tupperware box first to prevent any screws flying away and getting lost and also loop some Sellotape on itself and use the sticky side to 'store' the screws.)
My 500M Aquaracer WAJ1111 also went back last year because I couldn't shift the backplate, I guess perhaps it is fitted tighter for the extreme water rating? And then a week or so back there was my Calibre S Aquaracer.
I bought this in March 2018 from Watchfinder (my first purchase from them) and three years down the line I knew it was only a matter of time until the battery needed replacing. I had seen videos showing the inside of the watch and knew that it had one of the larger kinds of batteries, but I wasn't sure which one. So of course, about a week ago I saw that it had stopped and thus began the struggle to remove the back, which wasn't happening at all and eventually I resigned myself to having to send it back. But then one more go and a few minutes with the back plate pressed against an ice cube did the trick and voila it came free.
Once I had the back off I could see which battery the watch needed and duly ordered a Swiss 'Renata CR2320' from an eBay seller and then set the watch aside while I waited for it to arrive. I find that watch batteries usually arrive from eBay super quick, but this one took a week... still for £2.39 and no postage how much can you really complain?
So I fitted the battery and screwed the case back on and err.... was it working or not? At first it seemed dead, but then when I pushed the crown in* it starting ticking, so it seems like it defaulted to chrono mode, which was stopped. Once that was established I started trying to set up the time, date, month, year etc... and found the second hand was not going where I expected it to**.
*When I say I pushed the crown in... that doesn't mean the crown was pulled out - the Calibre S crown has three positions 0) Depressed 1) Normal and 2) Pulled Out.
**The second hand is the key to setting up the Calibre S movement, as I shall explain later.
So I realised that the watch needed a total reset and quickly called up a video I had found previously. For future reference (for me as much as anyone else, though I hope this will prove useful for others too of course) here are the instructions for setting up a Calibre S post battery change.
FACTORY RESET
Once you have changed the battery, most likely the hands will be pointing all over the place. To restore the hands to their 'base' position (with the crown in its normal position) press and hold both pushers together. The watch now believes all its hour, minute and second hands are all pointing to '12' and the subdial hands are pointing to '0' but they may not be. Don't panic!
First press the top pusher until the hour hand reaches the '12' position and then press the bottom pusher once. Now use the top pusher to move the minute hand to the '12' position and finally press the bottom pusher again to select the second hand and again use to the top pusher to locate that to the '12' position. Once this is completed, press the bottom pusher again and use the top pusher to reset the subdials to zero one at a time (pressing the bottom pusher to move on when the first is successfully set to 0).
Now that the watch is 'reset' you can begin to set the watch up.
GENERAL SETTINGS
Pull the crown out and the seconds hand will either move to the 45m position or the 15m position, this tells you that the time shown is PM (45) or AM (15). Use the top pusher to set the hour hand - if you go past the '12' position the second hand moves to indicate the change between AM/PM/AM... so you may need to jump round the dial until you get it right.
NB: YOU CANNOT USE THE CROWN TO ACCESS AM/PM IT WILL ONLY ACCESS THE TIME OF DAY THE WATCH IS CURRENTLY SET TO!
Once you are satisfied with that, press the bottom pusher - the seconds hand will move to the 30m position which indicates 'minute setting'. Again use the top pusher to locate the minute hand - you might wish to set the minute hand slightly in advance, as you need to finish setting up the rest of the watch before you can push the crown in and restart the watch.
Press the bottom pusher again and next comes the year (seconds hand at 55m), which you set using the top pusher and which is read on the left and right subdials. For example, for the year 2021, the left subdial will show '2' and the right subdial will show '1'. You never actually see this in normal use but the watch needs to know so that it can adjust for months with less than 31 days and allow for leap years. This setting is done in one go setting both subdials at the same time, as you press the top pusher and the right subdial gets to the top of its range the left subdial advances one position. Admittedly this is a bit of a faff, but you should only need to do it once.
Press the bottom pusher again and the second hand will move to the '12' or '00' position, this indicates you are setting the month and again this is done using the top pusher and both subdials. You will see that again once the right subdial reaches the top and descends to zero the left hand will advance to '1'. Obviously you can only then set the right subdial to 1 or 2 as there are only 12 months in a year and beyond that both subdials will fall back to zero.
Finally, press the bottom pusher one more time and the seconds hand will advance to the 5m position, this indicates that you are now setting the 'date'. Again this is done using the top pusher and shows across the two subdials. Similar to the month, the left subdial will only advance to '3' and then will reset to zero as there can only be 31 days in any given month.
Now (when you are ready) you can press the crown back in and the watch should start to function normally. If you need to reset the minute hand, pull the crown out again and push the bottom pusher twice (or cycle through until the seconds hand is pointing at 30m) then set the minute hand to the required position and press in the crown. The seconds hand will revert to 0 when you push the crown in so for accurate time keeping you should set the minute hand to the upcoming minute and press the crown in when your source time reaches that minute. The second hand will sweep back to towards the top of the dial and start ticking from 1 second to allow for the time taken to move positions.
In case you are wondering how on Earth you are supposed to remember all that (and I sympathise completely...) TAG Heuer helpfully printed some instructions on the back case of the watch which are all you really need for general resetting. It does seem mind boggling at first, but once you get used to it it's actually not that bad, and the good thing is because the watch is a perpetual calendar (until 2099) it shouldn't need attention very often at all - actually only when daylight saving comes into effect and when you change the battery.
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