When it comes time to replace a wrist watch battery, there are a few things you need to know.
There are four different types of batteries you can choose from and depending upon your watch style, one or more batteries may or may not be the right choice for your needs.
By understanding what different wrist watch battery selections are made of and how they work, you can begin to understand what battery will work inside your specific watch. The four watch batteries you can choose from include:
- Button Cell Batteries
- Coin Cell Batteries
- Alkaline Batteries
- Silver Oxide Batteries
Button Cell Batteries
Choosing a Wrist Watch Battery Does Not Need to be Confusing...
Button cell batteries are tiny batteries consisting of a single cell. These types of batteries host a squat cylinder shape and they range in size from 1 to 6 millimeters high and 5 to 12 millimeters in diameter.
These batteries look like a very tiny button you would find on clothing. These types of wrist watch battery selections can also be used for powering hearing aids and pocket calculators too.
The average button cell battery can last a year or more. These batteries have a self discharge rate that is considerably low meaning that they last even longer when they are not in use. Button cell batteries may contain things like lithium or they may contain zinc.
They may also contain things like cupric oxide, carbon monofluoride, silver oxide, and manganese dioxide. These batteries were at one time offered with mercury oxide, but since mercury has been found to be highly toxic, modern button cell batteries do not contain this ingredient any longer.
Coin Cell Batteries
Coin Cell Batteries are bigger than button cell batteries. These batteries are shaped like a coin and are made of lithium ion. Sometimes these batteries are referred to as lithium cells.
These batteries look very much like their button battery counterparts, but they prove bigger in terms of their diameter and thickness.
Whether a watch has a button or coin cell, the cell with have a bottom body part made of metal as well as a top cap that is round and insulated. The uppermost part of the battery is the positive charge and the bottommost part of the battery sports the terminal for a negative charge.
The wrist watch battery containing lithium are rated with 3.0 volts. These batteries come with a number of benefits.
First, they are not made with any chemicals that prove harmful in the environment. Secondly, the voltage of these batteries remains consistent.
What’s more, these batteries can last up to ten years’ time on a shelf. You will find these types of batteries in wrist watches offering quartz movement; the lithium battery in a quartz watch generally has a five year life span.
Alkaline Watch Batteries
Some watches sport alkaline batteries. This type of wrist watch battery is offered as the same shape and size as a button cell. Bear in mind however, that this type of wrist watch battery has a voltage that is not as stable as other battery offerings. It also has a reduced capacity.
This kind of battery proves more expensive than batteries made with lithium or silver oxide too. Commonly, this kind of battery is offered in very inexpensive wrist watches.
Alkaline batteries or L batteries containing manganese dioxide and zinc, S type Silver Oxide batteries containing zinc, and C type lithium ion batteries with manganese dioxide are commonly found in wrist watches using quartz movement.
Alkaline batteries are rated with 1.5 volts and are built much like lithium ion batteries. These batteries are not expensive to manufacture and they are environmentally friendly.
The downside to these batteries is that they only have about fifty percent of the capacity of a battery made of silver oxide.
The voltage on these batteries is also somewhat unstable and their shelf life is very short. These types of batteries should never be used in Accutron watches, and they are only suitable in situations where one cannot find a battery of better quality.
Silver Oxide Batteries
Batteries made with silver oxide were first created to replace the toxic mercury batteries once offered in watches.
These batteries proved to have a better capacity than their mercury counterparts. They have a voltage rating of 1.55 volts in all. These batteries are designed much like the mercury batteries of old with the main difference being found in the cathode material included inside the batteries container.
Silver oxide cells are environmentally friendly and they offer a long life span too. Unfortunately, they only offer 50 percent of the shelf life once offered by mercury batteries. This is an ideal battery for Accutron watches, wrist watches of all kinds, and an array of electronics.
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