My watch battery died last week which was rather unfortunate. A ’10 year’ battery and I got almost 2 years out of it… I have since been trying to get it replaced.

What a challenge! You’d think I was trying to get a passport to Baghdad…

Here’s the process for replacing a watch battery.

Go to local jeweller 1 and ask if they can replace it

“Oh no. We can’t do that here. We’d have to send it away. It’d take 3 weeks”

Politely thank them and walk across the mall to Jeweller no.2 who says

“Hmmm… we’d have to send it away… 3 weeks… But you could go to Joondalup where there is a watchmaker and they could fit it for you.”

I go to the watchmaker in Joondalup.

“Oh dear… I’m not sure I’d like to open that watch up. I think you should take it to Casio in the city just to be safe.”

I wonder what is so mysterious about this watch and choose not to go to Casio in the city.

I surf ebay to get a new watch figuring it is easier than replacing the battery. I’d like a new watch. I like watches, but it does seem a stupid thing to do as I reckon the old one is easily fixable.

I then go back to jeweller no.1 to compare ebay prices and their prices. While there I ask them again about the battery. They could ‘supply it’ for $4.50 if I wanted to fit it myself, but they definitely wouldn’t recommend it.

I think a dead watch v an investment of $4.50 is a pretty good gamble so stop in and get a small set of screwdrivers to remove the watch cover.

The screwdrivers are too big or too poorly made to turn the screws. Bugger.

I return to to jeweller no. 1 with watch, manual and battery id in hand. I can see them doing watch repairs. I ask if they could remove the cover for me – no obligation to pressure test it.

Apparently they couldn’t do that. There wasn’t a reason…

I buy a battery, smile politely and leave.

I go to Tandy to try and get a new set of better screwdrivers.

After waiting for 15 minutes they finally serve me but don’t have any.

I make towards jeweller no.2, ready to be very convincing should they find the removal of the back cover on a par with heart surgery, when I pass Just Spectacles and remember that the screws in my glasses are of similar size to those in the back of the watch.

I stop in and ask Mr JS if he has a screwdriver that would fit. He is only too happy to help.

We unscrew the rear cover. I pull the old battery out and put the new one in.

It works.

It wasn’t rocket science.

So the moral of the story is next time you need to replace the battery in your watch go to the optometrist. He’s a nice man and he will not make you wait three weeks.