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black263

With a Seiko Kinetic you may have to buy a watch winder

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black263

I thought I'd mention this as I've had to buy a winder, because my Seiko Kinetic ran out of charge.  Sure I can give it a good shake to get it going again, but after a while on the wrist, it stops.  I'm simply not active enough to give enough charge to keep it going, never mind charge up the battery.  So be aware, if you want a Kinetic, a winder may be essential.

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tonyh7

This is a big drawback of Seiko kinetic watches. If you let them run out of charge, I believe that it is often necessary to replace the capacitor, which is a £60 or so job. I also believe that they do not charge in a conventional watch winder. However there is a solution. Get the base charging unit from a set of Phillips Imageo candles, and set it to charge, placing your Seiko upright in one of the three round depressions in the base. In 12 hours or so the charger will, by inducing current, give your watch enough power for 3 months or so.

 

I have a kinetic land monster, which is a nice watch, but a PITA, and this really works. My first and last kinetic.

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Genius

Kinetic is good if you wear it every day but not like an auto where you can just pick up and wear.

I had a kinetic for a while sold it because I didn't wear often enough so it became a pita .  You can recharge without a winder and they are a lot more forgiving than an auto in that you can put your hand trough the bracelet and give it a spin, best done sat watching TV. Easily put a few months worth of charge in in an hour sat playing with it but like I said.. pita

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black263

Been on the winder now for a day.  It's showing more than a week, but less than a month of charge.  I'll have to wait until it shows a month before I can tell how long it will take for a full charge (6 months power reserve, or thereabouts)

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redmack
4 hours ago, Genius said:

Kinetic is good if you wear it every day but not like an auto where you can just pick up and wear.

I had a kinetic for a while sold it because I didn't wear often enough so it became a pita .  You can recharge without a winder and they are a lot more forgiving than an auto in that you can put your hand trough the bracelet and give it a spin, best done sat watching TV. Easily put a few months worth of charge in in an hour sat playing with it but like I said.. pita

Spot on i do exactly that when on the computer, watching the telly, just enough so i can hear the capacitor moving. i do it about once a week to keep it charged. Mines around 26 years old and on its 3rd capacitor £50 fitted last month.

They definitely don't last as long if you leave them dormant for long periods. And i agree my watch winder isn't enough to keep it charged.Cracking watches and lovely bits of kit

IMG-0976.jpg

IMG-0978.jpg

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deju

Nah...Screw that for all the effort. 

Great for one / two watch owners but any more and that’s a demanding watch :lolcina:

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black263
18 hours ago, redmack said:

Spot on i do exactly that when on the computer, watching the telly, just enough so i can hear the capacitor moving. i do it about once a week to keep it charged. Mines around 26 years old and on its 3rd capacitor £50 fitted last month.

 

 

Being pedantic here, whether the kinetic is fitted with a true capacitor, or a rechargeable battery  that bit doesn't move.  There's a rotor just like an automatic watch, but instead of winding a mainspring, it drives a little gizmo to charge the capacitor/battery. (The original true capacitor had crap power storage, so they replaced it with a rechargeable battery and simply continued to call it by the same name. Part of the advertising blurb when the watch first came out was that it didn't need a battery.  So when they stopped using capacitors and started using batteries, they called them capacitors.)

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black263

Checked this morning after 40 hours on the winder.  Now showing more than a month, but less than 6.

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CurioLeo
32 minutes ago, black263 said:

Checked this morning after 40 hours on the winder.  Now showing more than a month, but less than 6.

There is actually a dedicated kinetic charger. They are a PITA as several have noted

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black263
31 minutes ago, CurioLeo said:

There is actually a dedicated kinetic charger. They are a PITA as several have noted

Mine is a specially modified charger to work with kinetic watches.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOsO5H8By34

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Rx4Time

I have a Seiko kinetic, and my winder will charge it.   According to the literature enclosed with mine, it takes about 400 shakes to fully charge.  I've let mine flatline before and had to replace the capacitor.  Annoying to say the least as I didn't know this when i bought it. 

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BenjaminButton
On 31/10/2018 at 16:31, black263 said:

Being pedantic here, whether the kinetic is fitted with a true capacitor, or a rechargeable battery  that bit doesn't move.  There's a rotor just like an automatic watch, but instead of winding a mainspring, it drives a little gizmo to charge the capacitor/battery. (The original true capacitor had crap power storage, so they replaced it with a rechargeable battery and simply continued to call it by the same name. Part of the advertising blurb when the watch first came out was that it didn't need a battery.  So when they stopped using capacitors and started using batteries, they called them capacitors.)

Nothing wrong with pedantic although I'd say that's simply a correct correction. I've looked at kinetic Seiko's quite a few times and you've probably made my mind up with this topic so thank you. And thanks for the information about the battery and  capacitor - I do love a bit a detail.

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black263
7 hours ago, Rx4Time said:

I have a Seiko kinetic, and my winder will charge it.   According to the literature enclosed with mine, it takes about 400 shakes to fully charge.  I've let mine flatline before and had to replace the capacitor.  Annoying to say the least as I didn't know this when i bought it. 

When did you buy it.  The original capacitor only had a few days reserve so wouldn't have taken too much to charge it.  The rechargeable battery is supposed to have a 6-month reserve so takes an awful lot more. Seiko manual says that about 500 swings will give 2 days of power. By my reckoning that means a full charge will take 45,000 swings! The charger has one rotation every 10 seconds, so 8640 per day.  5 days  should give 6 months run time without being worn.

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black263

Checked this morning and it's hit full charge (6 months)  So that took about four and a half days from flat.

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