Citizen Pain - The Way Of The Exploding Battery - Can I Restore This Chronic Hisonic Watch?

In this video Mike attempts to fix what many would walk away from a very damaged Citizen Hisonic tuning fork watch. As you can see the battery has practically exploded and caused some rather colourful damage. The Citizen Hisonic is actually a Bulova Accutron 218 movement sold under licence to Citizen back in the 70s ( I think) Watch and see if Mike is successful on restoring this watch back to its former glory. Please remember to like, subscribe and comment if you enjoyed this episode.

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About me:
My name is Mike and I am a hobbyist watchmaker. I am completely self-taught in watch repair and restoration. My channel is all about my journey of hobbyist of watchmaking. I have watch repair tutorials, watch restorations and watch repair videos. Some of my content you can easily follow along to if you are working on the same watch movement. My main focus is to document my journey and inspire more people into this wonderful hobby and demonstrate that this hobby can be very rewarding. I do not profess to be a professional watchmaker and in my videos, I show all my mistakes, mishaps, highs and lows and keep everything as honest as possible. It is easy to edit all the mistakes out and make my videos look perfect but I believe that keeping it real reflects the true reality of this hobby. So what are you waiting for? please check out my watch repair and restoration videos, get inspired and start your own watchmaking journey.

#watchrepair #watchrestoration #watchmaking

[MyRetroWatches]

I hope you enjoyed this video guys and look forward to reading your comments. Please remember to hit the like button as it helps immensely to push the video out to a wider audience and we need to entice more people into this very fore filling hobby of ours!

[nickjohnson]

My old grandad used take off his hearing aid and put it next to his Accutron watch to wind my Nan up as it made an aweful noise, she hated and would chase him round the kitchen table with a broom, I’m nearly 60 now and wish I could go back for just a day to relive those memories, watches are full of memories in many funny ways, well done Mike another super video. 👍😉

[etebol]

I really appreciate that you are fixing quartz watches. All the other you tubers I know off focus mostly on mechanical Swiss watches. Your videos are a priceless source of information. Thanks again.

[borassictime]

That dial is exquisite. Well done Mike, you’ve done a sterling job getting that working again, congratulations!

[Emilmarch]

I have a similar Citizen, but I can't dare to try fixing it. You did a brilliant job, I am so proud of you after this many watches, you became a professional.

[Xtrafix]

Thank you for entertaining me away from my call of duty mobile for an hour, I didn’t get bored as I watched but was shocked to see all of the parts removed and carefully replaced, great job!❤

[Bob-gld]

What a silky smooth sweep for that second hand, great vid Mike

[NekkidWatchmaker]

I love these hummers. Well done Mike, great video

[geoffquickfall]

A capacitor, transistor and resistor. Right coil for timing, left coil for reverse current to stop movement after a physical shock sends the sweep second hand forward ~ 10 seconds. Quite ingenious.

The capacitor holds a charge, the resistor regulates the charge and the transistor switches the current; causing a simple current oscillation that alternates between current and no current to the coil. This causes the coil to alternate between magnetic and non-magnetic which in turn attracts the tuning fork magnet in the coil cup and let the magnet release. The vibration causes the tuning fork to vibrate at 360 Hz on the Bulova/Citizen and 300 Hz on the Omega et al.


Well done resurrection!!

[ruipinto]

My dad owns a Omega Constelation f300 with the same tuning fork technology. Today I learned something new about how it works. Cool stuff.

[csspinner]

I never knew Bulova licensed the accutron movement to other brands! What a great recovery you accomplished on what looked like a lost cause. Thanks for sharing. - Chris

[hansverlaan]

Mike you are a friendly man with great skills!

[simong]

58:10 You gotta love Lidl, you go in for bread and come out with a watch case polisher.😃

[gerryodonnell]

Two things saved you here, The battery was upside down and the watch as you say was probably stored face up. I love this style of old Japanese watch and there is nothing not to like about these watches. Great skill, very professional video, thank you

[MarceloCN]

That's a true restoration video. Hell of a job.

[skiegazer]

A beautiful restoration! Thank you for all the additional tips. I purchased a vintage Accutron a couple of years back and was scared to touch the insides of it. Your video is a great help! All the best to you!

[Rob]

Amazing job! I put a battery in my father's 1967 218, gave it a gentle tap, and off she is running! We used this timepiece for celestial navigating around the world and the feelings I have are indescribable! I made a two watch display dock and put my Seiko 5 Sports along side Dad's 218 as an homage to an incredible time. Thank you so much for a look under the hood and of course your dedication to small things that make an immeasurable difference.

[FilmFactry]

I'm not a watch person, but found this very exciting. Amazing how this was designed, and how ever all these parts were manufactured. Makes you really appreciate the intricacy of the analog world vs the smaller silicon electronics.

[patrickmorrissey]

Great job.

My Dad had an Accutron when I was young... Super cool....

[pokrec]

Thank you, wonderful restoration!
These movements are very precious monuments of watchmaking history. Especially, that they were replaced with other kind of tuning fork watches - the quartz ones. So Accutron technology lasted for roughly 10 - 20 years. Now nobody produces it, I suppose, because quartz watches are simply... much better, much cheaper and much less troublesome.
Solar-powered quartz watches are just ideal...