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The reference section of www.TheDigitalWatch.com
Service and Battery Change
For Ragen Synchronar.
(Note from Guy: We asked Phil to share his technique with replacing the Synchronar batteries on his watches. He has been successful in doing so. However, due to the inherent dangers in this process -- both from cutting into the watch module and in dealing with the battery -- we can not take any responsibility if you try to take this task on. Phil is extremely experienced with this sort of work and was willing to take the chance of potential damage to his watches. This technique is included solely for your reading enjoyment.)
Here are the instructions to enable you to repair your Synchronar. Please acknowledge that I take no responsibility for the work that you carry out and if you cannot solder or work on electronic components reliably then you should take it to someone who can. I have used this method three times on Mark 1 Synchronars and it has worked very well each time. But I have a lot of experience with this sort of thing.
It amazes me that they had the technology to produce these wonderful timepieces years ago, and yet they didn't know one of the simplest things in electronics - that NiCad cells only have a life of 1000 recharge cycles. There would be some time in the future that the batteries still would need to be replaced - sealed in a resin-filled watch case or not.
1. To start off, remove the band from the watch by taking off the spring clips. You can then remove the entire module. (You may want to take digital photos of all the steps prior to removing or opening something up. This will allow you to easily remember how certain pieces connect and go back together.)
2. Like a Pulsar, the Synchronar has internal magnetic reed switches which are activated by magnets, these slide back and forward on springs and if you carefully remove these and note which side they came from you will be able to replace them easily later.
Note: do not take the sliders off in a cluttered environment, if they ping off, you will lose the springs or cylindrical magnets.
3. Once you have the module with magnets removed, use a small hobby disk cutter to work two lever points in the seam at the edge. The place to do this is shown on the photo below. Once you have made two small cuts along the seam, you can put in a 3 or 4mm screwdriver and gently lever apart the two case sides. See the following picture.
4. As you can see, things can get very horrible in these after the cells degrade!! Now gently start taking out the dead cells which sit in a jelly substance. This "jelly" also needs to come out too. Take note of the battery placement ( + and - ) and the connection of the wires from the watch. When the cells are out, snip the wires off where they join the batteries. Strip back some of the wire insulation for testing.
5. Its very important that you check which wire is positive and which is negative. The simplest way to check this is to put a voltmeter on the wires and hold the solar panels in sunny daylight, the positive wire will now show itself. This must be connected to positive on the new cells.
6. When you know which is positive, you can use any 3 volt source such as two AA batteries in series - or in a battery holder, to test the module as shown below. Note that a magnet is used to activate the reed switches and see the time.
This test will determine if your watch module is even functioning properly.
7. If the test is successful then you can go ahead and replace the batteries. Continue to remove all of the jelly inside until all is cleaned out.
8. Find a supplier in your country by internet surfing for "NiCad button cells with solder tag." They're often available from specialist battery suppliers. Do NOT use the more modern lithium iron rechargeables because the solar cells will not charge them properly. The exact spec is ''50millamp/hour'', but don't worry too much either way as long as they are the same size or smaller. If you cannot find any then send me $12 (includes world shipping) by PayPal and I will post you two out.
9. After soldering the new cells to the two wires and adding the link in between from one to the other, seal them in their locations with a little bath sealant that you buy from a hardware store.
10. Check with everything still works and then you can reassemble the two plastic halves. Rather than make the case watertight, I just put a couple of blobs of superglue on the plastic, this means that the watch can be serviced again in another ten years. Of course the watch won't be waterproof. If you feel you need to have a waterproof watch then try sealing it back up with resin. However, you will have to go through this procedure again many years from now for another change of battery cells.
I hope you find this information useful, please don't try it if you aren't very good at this sort of thing.
The dilemma is that without this work a large number of these wonderful and historic timepieces will be damaged beyond repair by decaying batteries leaking into the electronics of the watch.
With new cells every now and again they might well see the hundred years that they were originally programmed for. Shame since I won't be around to show mine off !!!
Very kind regards
Phil Bowler
Visit Phil's website at www.ledwatch.net for more tips and to see his watches for sale.
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