Never let it be said I’m extravagant or careless with money. Having said that I do sometimes have a tendency to throw money at problems. And then there is the 65p watch repair….
I should have known it, my recent comments about my cheap Timex watch would have been jinxed. I had said to Rachel how pleased I was that my watch was over 10 years old and still on the original battery. It keeps perfect time and cost under £20. At the press of a button it will even light up at night, not bad for such a cheap watch.
And then other day I checked the time and realised the watch had stopped, almost certainly a flat battery. As I saw it my choices were:
- Pay someone in town to replace the battery
- Buy another cheap watch
- Treat myself to one of those snazzy GPS watches that do everything and monitor my runs, heart rate and behave like my iPhone
- Treat myself to an Apple Watch
- Replace the battery myself
I decided to have a go at the latter option, thinking of our frugal living quest and through living on a fixed income. While I can always dip into savings if I need to, it would be hard to justify this. Savings are for necessities, not gizmos. As an aside, it is looking like we might need to replace Rachel’s Toyota soon.
The first challenge was getting the back of the watch off. I tried a variety of little screwdrivers, knives and so on. Surprisingly I only once stabbed myself and didn’t bleed for long.
Eventually the back flew off and the battery wasn’t held in by anything at all. It was the biggest watch battery I’d ever seen, about the size of a 1 pence coin and amazingly we had one in stock, amongst our collection of odd batteries.
I was thinking this was almost too good to be true. I’d managed to get the back off plus we even had a spare battery! How amazing was that?
Then the next challenge was trying to get the back refitted. I tried pressing it with my hand, thumb, even giving it a motivational thump. It still wasn’t on. So out to the garage and finding a piece of wood to go against the back, I used a rubber mallet to tap it into place. No joy. Tried it a little harder and still it wasn’t on, even though I had it lined up perfectly.
I therefore decided to tap harder and harder until eventually I whacked it so hard, the back clicked itself back into place. I really was whacking it harder and harder and was almost certain I would have smashed the glass but no, it was perfect. Perfect.
Since then my watch has been running exquisitely as before. It keeps perfect time and looks set to continue for another 10 years. Rachel duly ordered a spare battery to keep in stock, a pair for just £1.30. I have no idea why we keep this size, there must be some gadget in the house which uses this besides my watch.
So now I am feeling all nice and smug about getting my watch re-powered for the next 10 years. No snazzy GPS or Apple Watch needed. Suits me fine and only 65p and a only a little blood, all good stuff.