TAG-Heuer running fast....

[blil]

Hello, all.

I have a 17-year old TAG-Heuer 1000 series quartz that's giving me fits. It had been running fine up until the battery died about 2 years ago. Instead of paying a fortune to send it in to TAG, I had a guy at a local jewler replace the battery. It was running quite fast; picking up a few minutes per hour. When I took it back to him he absolved himself of any guilt and said I would need to send it in to TAG if it wasn't running correctly.

Not wanting to spend the money, I set it in a nightstand for a year. I got another jeweler to put a battery in it today and it's still running fast.

Couple of questions:

1) Is there any way to verify that the proper battery is in the watch? Aren't there dozens of watch batteries of virtually the same size/shape? What would happen if, say, the first jeweler put the wrong voltage battery in the watch?

2) Do I have any option(s) besides sending it off to TAG? Bottom line is this watch cost me $400 17 years ago and I just can't justify a $200 repair/cleaning bill for it.

Any advice would be appreciated,

Bill

[Sam]

Welcome to the forum Bill!

I wouldn't think the battery would cause a watch to run fast or slow. I bet you can google and find out the correct battery for the watch.

Usually with a quartz movement, if it craps out it's cheaper to replace the movement than it is to service it. My wife's quartz Omega Constellation's movement corroded from a leaky battery. If I replaced the individual parts it would cost as much or more than the entire movement. My local jeweler charged something like $100-150 to replace the movement with a new Omega movement. You shouldn't have to send the watch to Tag....an independent local jeweler should be able to fix it.

[ktm8m]

I had the same problem with mine - a 9 year old tag bought in 1991.
Changed the battery twice too - once on holiday and soon after I cam back to UK. I had it also serviced by Watches of Switzerland in Bond Street.
Result!? : - still "crap".
Eventually I took it to my watchmaker.
He pointed out to me a number of serious faults with the watch (not the battery) and I decided to get a quotation from LVMH UK.
Price for "repair" £190.
Sold it on eBay for £205 (paid £225 in 1991 in Singapore).
Never bought a Tag since - Well over rated watches.

[blil]

ktm8m said:

I had the same problem with mine - a 9 year old tag bought in 1991.
Changed the battery twice too - once on holiday and soon after I cam back to UK. I had it also serviced by Watches of Switzerland in Bond Street.
Result!? : - still "crap".
Eventually I took it to my watchmaker.
He pointed out to me a number of serious faults with the watch (not the battery) and I decided to get a quotation from LVMH UK.
Price for "repair" £190.
Sold it on eBay for £205 (paid £225 in 1991 in Singapore).
Never bought a Tag since - Well over rated watches.

Very interesting info. Thanks. I found a place online that will look at it for free and give me an estimate. I'll see what they say.

I already sold my other TAG (a 2000 series automatic chronograph) because it, too, was very unreliable and I didn't want to shell out the bucks to get it overhauled by TAG.

I'll never buy another one of their watches, either. I've learned my lesson.