Keeping things honest about solar watches
As winter is upon us, the sun is a little bit shy on the horizon. And as natural light is not as prominent in this time of the year, so is the attention to capacitors on my solar watches.
Solar watches are a great sell. Good environmentally, cheap, and available in the shiny glass display in your local department store.
But what I have learned is that having a solar watch also demands a bit more attention, especially when the sun isn’t shining as much. Plus, fall and winter neutral colors tend to bring a more mechanical field watch in my wrist more often.
So here is the conundrum of the “me” first world problem that really isn’t a problem. You have to make sure your solar watches are happy! I had 2 Citizen radio controlled(LOVE THEM❣) watches, a Citizen titanium diver, and an Orient watch act up. Both radio controlled just plainly stopped. And the other two were double clicking on the second hand. So I thought, screw it! Just sun bath all of them! This task can be really annoying. Direct sunlight really helped. But I had to start early in the morning to get all of them going.
So if you have been on a tear copping solar watches, please understand that servicing your solar watch is to keep them honest by regularly having it hit light or use them. Unlike your automatic and mechanical watches, you can’t leave them alone. It may just go to sleep and wake up when you’re ready to go to the beach. But good luck waking it up out of hibernation.
Hello all! I’m just a simple collector with no real experience. I plan on opening a YouTube channel soon! But for now, I’m trying to be a WatchCrunch badge hoarder🙊🙉🙈
The two solar watches that I own are a new G-Shock GW-M5610U and the old ProTrek PRG-510GB.
The PRG is really old, dinged and scratched but the solar movement is like new. Once every couple of months I get it out to recharge and top up its sunshine reservoir and that's pretty much the only thing I've been doing with it during the last 5-8 years.
I also used to own a Citizen titanium eco-drive but it stopped to recharge 2 years ago and I threw it away after deciding it was not worth it to have the movement replaced.
I don’t own solar watches, but some time ago was interested in how it works. Article seemed to say sunlight is not a must and watches will charge just fine from artificial light (e.g. inside building)…based on your post seems it’s incorrect
I use a grow lamp for mine, a couple of hours a week keeps them topped up.
I really love the idea of solar watches.
I now own 6 watches with that mechanism, the best way I found is to make them sunbathing every two weeks or so. Weakest autonomy when fully charged is about 3 months so I could do this less but prefer not to take any risk, and it's the occasion to clean them, change strap or wear them just after
I use the G shock app where I can see the battery status of my GA-B2100 to make my estimations
Oh man, I had really positive thought about Solar watches and was planning on buying a citizen eco-drive soon. But now I have some second thought. If it's gonna be a real hassle to recharge it and really expensive to service/fix it if it breaks one day then it's just not good. Guess I'll be going with high accuracy quartz then, Longines conquest VHP.
I really love the idea of solar watches.
I now own 6 watches with that mechanism, the best way I found is to make them sunbathing every two weeks or so. Weakest autonomy when fully charged is about 3 months so I could do this less but prefer not to take any risk, and it's the occasion to clean them, change strap or wear them just after
I use the G shock app where I can see the battery status of my GA-B2100 to make my estimations
I didn’t know the GA-B2100 is Solar. I would love to own one as well!
Oh man, I had really positive thought about Solar watches and was planning on buying a citizen eco-drive soon. But now I have some second thought. If it's gonna be a real hassle to recharge it and really expensive to service/fix it if it breaks one day then it's just not good. Guess I'll be going with high accuracy quartz then, Longines conquest VHP.
VHP is probably one of the best quartz in the market. I also have the Bulova Lunor Pilot. That also has a great quartz movement. The. VHP would be a great addition to anyone’s collection!
Don’t get me wrong, I love my solar quartz watches. Just make sure you moderate how many you have.
It looks like there are at least a few solar lovers here on WatchCrunch so let me put this question to all of you. Why are there no solar mecha-quartz watches? This would solve both of quartz watches problems - battery changes and the ticking second hand. Wouldn't you like such a thing?
Also, I have 5 solars - 2 Seikos, 1 Casio, 1 Alba, and 1 Lad Weather. I keep them on a bookcase facing a window and have never had one lose its charge.