Grand Seiko Battery Service + Lesson Learned 

That sounds like a really good approach!

I wish I could have filmed the service counter because it was super busy and that is the other part of this story. Still, a one watch guy might very likely walk out the door. Thanks for the comment.

@@manning8 You'd think they might like to have more customers milling around, looking at other sales displays and products to buy. 🤔

@@JM.TheComposer That certainly works for car dealers

The alternative for a luxury watch dealer is to not offer service while you wait. I wouldn’t pay the $50 unless travel arrangements are a challenge but it’s nice to have the option.

Admittedly I was hasty in making that comment. I viewed "$50 to wait" as "you are required to leave the store unless you pay a $50 cover charge". Clearly that's not the intention.

GS has many types of movements including manual wind, auto, quartz, and Spring Drive (mechanical with a quartz oscillator). Even Rolex made a quartz watch at one time. Don’t confuse all quartz watches with cheap, low-quality watches.

Grand Seiko's 9F quartz movement are extremely well finished, and boast unrivalled high techs in accuracy, longevity, etc. As a collector of a few dozens low-mid market mechanical watches(from Miyota to ETA 2824 to many in-house movements), I am confident to say that 9F's finish and quality is at least one league above 2824/2892/7751 etc. It's even better than GS' own mechanical 9S65 series.

When it comes to watches it seems nothing is cheap.

I think for a battery only, the answer is yes. This was a more comprehensive service so I’m not sure. I can say I definitely was not ready to add another $50 to the bill!

Servicing the SBGW231 will be far more expensive, especially if the Zaratsu-polished surfaces need work.

No need to imagine. I have 7 GS 9f quartz and it takes 5 minutes and costs 10 quid to change the battery. Also gives the opportunity to adjust the accuracy using the trimmer to make the watch even more accurate. They are fantastic watches.

TY for your comment

What do you recommend?? I noticed over the weekend the battery was probably too limited.

@@manning8 what I mean is look straight into the camera lens when you record video 🙂

@@DzejWiJV I can work on that. So much to learn with RU-vid, haha.

True. I used to bring my G-Shock's to some watch shop to get battery replacement once in a while over the years. Until I didn't care and had accumulated 6 of them requiring replacement. I've noticed that the guy at the shop seemed a bit annoyed when I brought them to him. When I went back to pick them up later that day the guy told me that 3 of them were just dead. Since they were "dead", I thought, why not try to open them up and get some batteries and see by myself. 1 was working just fine after fiddling with the push buttons/contacts, and the other 2, they were just too "complicated" to disassemble to access the battery... The guy just took me for a fool. (also I was charged like $10/watch when a battery costs $1.5 where I live)

Hello, thank you for watching and for the comment. You can go the $20 route *if* you don't care much about the watch. I would like for everyone to realize that water resistance can be compromised when you open up a watch case, especially in the DIY context. I depend on the water resistance so I had a watchmaker perform a water pressure test for my watch.