Watch not working (literally, about a watch)

[Orchidflower]

Has anyone had a watch that they did not wear for awhile (like 3 years for me), and it was a Titanium style?
I sent this watch for a new battery to Seiko ($100 for a new battery alone!), and then did not wear it for 3 years.
Well, I have had it on for 2 days now...and it is, again, keeping very slow time. At 9:50 am it will read 9:23 am.
This is not an expensive watch, really, but a Seiko Titanium with a calendar and second hand. The big feature is that it glows in the dark. Gosh, wearing it I feel like I have on my Capt. Marvel decoder ring.
Anyway, I love this watch even tho I have much, much more expensive ones at home.
So, does it take wearing it a month or something to get it going? Has anyone experienced this type of thing? It surely can't need fixed as the factory did a thorough checkup 3 years ago. I wonder what the problem is? Just not wearing it for 3 years, does that ruin it? Or does it just need more wrist time to start working right? Or do I...dread...have to just throw it away now?

 

[CCdaCE]

Dead battery?

Put a new battery in it?

-CC

 

[kumquat]

RE now, then you won't need a watch and will have saved the cost of repair.

 

[Orchidflower]

Yeah, it seems to me the receipt from the Seiko factory said something to the effect of "replace battery?" Regardless, for $100 it was supposedly fixed. Not.
I just wondered if anyone here had more experience with watches than I do...which could be any of you, since I have none.

 

[W2R]

Watch batteries often run down in much less time than three years. I would suggest taking it to a local jeweler to have the battery replaced, and see if that fixes the problem.

Saturday I did that with my watch, which slowed and then stopped less than two years after I bought it. It cost $9.97 to have my jeweler replace the battery but it works fine now, and I feel like I got my money's worth.

 

[CuppaJoe]

I, too, love my (simple) Seiko watch. It also did a strange thing. I was in the hospital for two days and it went into storage for safe keeping. When I left the hospital, the watch had stopped which made me think what, am I on borrowed time. A couple of days later I headed for my favorite jeweler to have a new battery put in--he was closed for re-modeling. Before I could find another jeweler, the watch started up again and has been keeping accurate time now for four more years!

 

[Orchidflower]

Titanium, I think, doesn't run on a battery? Anyway, that is why you cannot go to a watch dealer and just have a battery put in I was told. Titanium must be run on something Superman flew on.
By the way, a guy with the biggest watch dealership in Chicago (and his shop was humongous) told me that if you want to impress get a Longines (but don't throw it in the wash and not take it out of your pants' pocket like I did), but if you want reliability and a great watch get Seiko. This was 30 years ago, but it may still stand.

 

[Arif]

I've got a Seiko and it did the same thing. I took it to a repairman to fix as the battery kept dying rather quickly. He said something was wrong with a part on the inside and it costs more to fix than buying a new watch. Luckily I didn't listen to him and when we got to Panama my wife took it in to get fixed. The repairman said the connectors were very corroded and that is why it would not keep time and stop working. Total cost, $5. If your Titanium takes a battery I would check to see if there is corrosion around the battery area.

 

[Orchidflower]

There has to be something wrong inside it. I am going to wear it a few more days and see if I can move my wrist enough that the darn thing winds itself and heals itself. I can guarantee I would never spend another $100 to fix one. Heck, for that I would apply it to a new one. I think this watch cost something like $350 or so at a discounter. Luckily, I sold advertising then and it was a trade out for an ad...ahhhhhh, how I miss those old days of trading....