Possibly broken Timex Chronograph?

[jtorassa42]

I was helping my wife's grandparents move today, and while helping clean up some of her grandpa's stuff, I found a Timex chronograph that he said I could keep. It looks similar to this one, but I don't have a strap for it. http://brikotime.blogspot.com/2009/09/timex-chronograph-watch.html


The battery is definitely dead in it, so I will need to replace that along with the strap. The problem is that when I turn the knob to change the time, the minute hand seems stuck, and it won't move. Does this mean it is damaged? Or because it is a chronograph, do I just need to replace the battery for it to work? I don't want to pay to replace the battery on a broken watch. If it is broken, any ideas on how to fix it cheap?

[frost]

Have a jeweler take a look at it.

[LesserBlackDog]

There's no reason the hands shouldn't move freely, even if the battery is dead. It's possible that acid has leaked from the battery and gummed up the mechanism. The only way to know what's really going on is to open up the back and take a look, or more realistically, have a watchmaker do it for you. Such an inexpensive watch may not even be worth fixing.


Depending on how old the watch is, it may even be a mechanical. In that case, servicing the movement would cost hundreds of dollars.

[jtorassa42]

I figured that there wasn't anything I could do. Oh well, I didn't pay anything for it. Now it is time to find something similar for my wife to get me for Christmas. Or congratulations for my new job.