I have a FOSSIL mens wristwatch model # AM3423. I recently had a watch repair person replace the battery. Battery type and charge confirmed. I received the watch used as a gift from a relative who w
Quartz watches stop working most often for one of three reasons: (1) dead battery; (2) dirt in the gears blocking the train; and (3) a bad crystal. This is the order in which I typically troubleshoot watches.If the watch isn't working after you change the battery, first check to see that the stem is fully pushed in. A watch movement can shift just enough inside the case that a stem sometimes looks pushed in, but isn't quite in far enough to re-engage the movement. Pull out and push in the stem a few times to see if that changes anything.Next, assuming that the battery is indeed fine, look closely at the second hand. Is it moving at all, even a tiny bit? Hold the watch up to your ear. Is there any kind of "chunk" sound about once every second? If you can answer "yes" to either of these questions, a speck of dirt has gotten into the movement and is preventing the gears from moving freely. It doesn't take more than a a big spec of dust to cause this. Sometimes, advancing the time will move the gears enough to cause the dirt to fall out. Some watch repair places also have a special machine that spins the hands rapidly to blow out or compact any dirt in the train. It's usually not economically rational to have the movement professionally cleaned beyond this point.Finally, if you don't hear anything coming from your watch, the battery is good, and the setting stem is pushed firmly and completely into the watch movement, you may have a bad quartz timing crystal. It does happen, and when it does, the only repair is to replace the entire watch movement. Sometimes, that's affordable; sometimes, it just doesn't make sense.Good luck!
