What to do with old watches

Mizmo

Mizmo

Well-known Member
Location
Ontario, Canada
Do you still wear a wrist watch?

I have several watches which have been in my jewellery box for years.
Seiko, Bulova, Loris, Jones of New York and other less well known. Batteries of course all dead .

Used to be we could get new battery put in for a few dollars in booths in the local malls but they all seem to have disappeared.
Jewellers want to charge me too much as they all want to clean them etc., so today I bought one again from our local Shoppers Drug Mart for $10.99, similar to one I got there three years ago for $9.99 and just now has given up the ghost. Just a plain little silver colour with black strap. I don't need fancy chain bracelets any more.

It seems mobile phones are the clue to the time now but I really don't use mine much. Just for calls and texting and it sits in my purse when I go out so I really like to wear a watch. Now, what to do with all these old ones. Some not so cheap in their day.
 

Yes I wear a wrist watch, and have many of all styles and brands.. I never use my Iphone to tell the time.. I like watches..

My husbands' passionate hobby was watchmaking, so whenever anything went wrong with my watches, he would repair them like new. I can buy a whole pack of watch batteries in the discount shop for £1..-or £2.. all different sizes, and can change the batteries myself..

On the ones where it's more difficult, I take it to the market where there's a watch stall, and the guy there will sell me and fit a new battery for £4...
 
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I have several but don't wear them any more and all their batteries are dead. I do have an old Timex my grandmother gave me for my tenth birthday. I can wind it up and it will still run. I guess their motto was true, it will take a "lickin" and keep on tickin. It would be 60 years old now and has never had a thing done to it.
 
I have one with a battery which I only use for appointments, and when not in use, I pull out the stem which disconnects the battery so it doesn't drain when not in use. Another is a Bulova self-wind which was a high school graduation present and it still works.
 
Nathan said:
If they are battery powered, and not worth replacing the battery- send them to e-waste. If they are mechanical(wind up) sell them on ebay.
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The Seiko and Bulova were expensive in their day and quite lovely so would bother me to just dump them.
I have seen my Seiko on Etsy.com and it is priced at $382.00
I would rather give them away to someone who could work with and appreciate them.
Local jewellers are not interested and did advise me to advertise them but I live alone and just don't like the idea of strangers coming to my door . The local charity shops may be interested so been thinking about paying them a visit.
 
When I worked, I always wore watches. I still have four functioning timepieces: 1 self wind mechanical, 1 stem wind mechanical and 2 quartz.

Some years ago I bought an inexpensive watch repair kit from Amazon. It has tools to open cases to replace batteries , pins for changing bands, and even a tool for replacing the crystal.

Now, however, I never wear a watch so my handy dandy tool kit sits unused in a desk drawer.
 
I have tons of watches. Most need new batteries and will never get them. I did buy a couple of Citizen Eco-Drive watches a few years ago. They run on solar power, so if I ever want to wear one I put it in sunlight for a while and I'm good to go for days.

With that said, I no longer wear a watch. I use my phone for the time.
 
Mizmo said:
Do you still wear a wrist watch?

I have several watches which have been in my jewellery box for years.
Seiko, Bulova, Loris, Jones of New York and other less well known. Batteries of course all dead .

Used to be we could get new battery put in for a few dollars in booths in the local malls but they all seem to have disappeared.
Jewellers want to charge me too much as they all want to clean them etc., so today I bought one again from our local Shoppers Drug Mart for $10.99, similar to one I got there three years ago for $9.99 and just now has given up the ghost. Just a plain little silver colour with black strap. I don't need fancy chain bracelets any more.

It seems mobile phones are the clue to the time now but I really don't use mine much. Just for calls and texting and it sits in my purse when I go out so I really like to wear a watch. Now, what to do with all these old ones. Some not so cheap in their day.
Click to expand...
I have a beautiful necklace made of glued together watch innards! I paid a great deal for it, too. Also, I've emptied the case to a watch and inserted a photograph under the glass. I enjoy the idea of repurposing!
 
I’m neurotic and obsessive-compulsive, so I always have to know what time it is. I even wear a watch with a backlight to bed! My avatar is happily holding a stopwatch…

When stores lost interest in replacing watch batteries but only wanted to sell you a new watch, I also acquired the necessary tools to do the task myself. That way when the apocalypse comes, I’ll know the time of the event… ⏰ ⏱ 🙀
 
I wear my Apple Watch daily. It had been years before that since I’d worn a watch. No. I take that back. I bough the most inexpensive Watch I could find when my son was in jail and I was allowed to visit him for an hour a week. There was no clock in the visiting room and I wanted to be able to monitor how much of the hour we had left.

This was 10 years ago now I think…wow time flies!! This was when my addict son first embraced recovery and he’d voluntarily turned himself in for an earlier probation violation, as one of many steps he took to face his past misdeeds.

I have a small watch repair kit that I use on client watches. Some of them have expensive timepieces and I’ve become their go-to person for replacing the batteries in them.
 
Mizmo said:
The Seiko and Bulova were expensive in their day and quite lovely so would bother me to just dump them.
I have seen my Seiko on Etsy.com and it is priced at $382.00
I would rather give them away to someone who could work with and appreciate them.
Local jewellers are not interested and did advise me to advertise them but I live alone and just don't like the idea of strangers coming to my door . The local charity shops may be interested so been thinking about paying them a visit.
Click to expand...
Value Village or Salvation Army stores in Ontario will gladly accept them as donations. Take the watches in and ask to speak to the manager, to be sure the watches go into the "valuable item " display case. JImB.
 
jimintoronto said:
Value Village or Salvation Army stores in Ontario will gladly accept them as donations. Take the watches in and ask to speak to the manager, to be sure the watches go into the "valuable item " display case. JImB.
Click to expand...
Value Village will only accept if "in working order".....
I will try the local Salvation Army first and we do have a few other Thrift shops who just possibly will have a person
who can get them in 'working order'
 
I had a collection of them, all needing batteries. I gave them to my sister Lucy.

I don't l8ke wearing watches and bracelets because I am constantly washing my hands. Hate when water gets under them.
 

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