Replacing a Watch Battery

My inexpensive watch was no longer working. Sometimes when something hasn't cost much the tendency is to throw it away and get another. This seems like flamboyant decadence, so I decided to have a crack at replacing the battery.

Turns out not only was it possible, but it was also easy to do.

SR626W Watch Battery

Cheap Watch

Pocket knife

Looking at the back of the watch I could see it wasn't screwed on, so it probably was a clip on back. I tried prying it off with a small screwdriver but couldn't get into any gap. Then I tried to carefully pry the back off with the small blade of a pocketknife. This worked.

With the back cover off, I saw there was a backing plate over battery. This came off without a problem.

The dead battery was removed after taking note of which way was up. Using my phone's camera, I zoomed into the writing on the back of the battery and saw it was a SR626W. I happened to have some small batteries on hand and 'lucked in' with a match.

The new battery was put into the watch and then the backing plate. The back cover was then clipped on. The watch started again. The old battery will be carefully disposed of. Don't leave small batteries lying around in case a small child swallow one resulting in major harm.