Plugged to Solar

I have a Citizen solar watch for 8 years and its spent a lot of time in the dark and when I take it out for a spin it works again. I usually leave it in the sun for a couple of hours to get fully charged. Surely the sun must be the ultimate (free) charging resource for the watches :-)

Anecdotally I have heard the solar/charge doesn't last 'forever' - how long it last is a mystery to me still.

I have not found anything definite on the length of life for a solar watch, but I have been told that they last for approximately 10 years or so, depending on the brand. I have heard that Citizen, Casio, and Seiko solar watch batteries last the longest on average.

I have also been cautioned about leaving my watches to charge for too long in direct sunlight, as the batteries can overheat and stop working, but I have not had that happen to any of my solar watches. I have had a situation where one of my Seiko Recraft solar watches stopped working in the sun and started again when it cooled a bit.

I have had the most issues with my Timex solar watches charging, especially my Gallatin. Occasionally, the watch will stop working while it is charging, and will not start until I pull the crown and move the hands; then it will start working when I push in the crown.

The length of time they last without light when fully charged also varies greatly. Timex watches also only seem to last for 3-5 months when fully charged, while my Citizen, Seiko, and Casio watches all last for over 8 months, with one exception, my Casio AL190W, which is only supposed to last for two weeks fully charged. I had a Peugeot solar watch that needed to be charged every day for 15 minutes, but I got rid of it.

Thank you for your informative comment...

The new Cartier solarbeat claims 15 years between services... Time will tell 🤷‍♂️

I can only give info on my watches but I find citizen to be Best so far all the EcoDrive range are solar and I guess they would update them every so often they also charge with any light .....I have seiko,  casio, and breil as my other good solar watches,  the only brand so far that doesn't hold the charge as long is my pulsar solars I have 3 and 2 are out of sync and need charging,  but you can't go wrong with the Holy trinity of affordable watches,  caside, citizen and sekio...... plus I remember reading online somewhere that u can get 15 years plus out of them

It may take a few days in direct sun or by the windowsill to fully recharge a dead solar watch.

However, as @Candide3693 mentioned, depending on location and time of year, direct sunlight might be too hot and cause the watch to overheat.

Also, the batteries in solar watches (like in most modern devices) do not like to be fully discharged and doing so frequently could reduce its service life.

Here's an informative blog post I found on the topic of recharging solar watches: thetruthaboutwatches.com/2020/11/solar-watch-charging-the-debate-rages  

I usually take one of my 6 solar watches out of the kennel and take them along on my daily COVID-19 after lunch walks. :)

I have been interested in one of these and may add it to my list for 2023.