Titanium Perpetual Calendar Caliber 8F32, ca. 1999

The setting instructions inside the case back are not really helpful if you replaced the battery to late. Thus I created the detailed instructions below and those do not fit onto a watch case back

To open the watch, you will have to remove the metal or metal rubber bracelet. The pins are very similar to the pins in the SEIKO Monster (SKX779/781K) bracelets and I have written an Illustrated Guide on how to resize those. Pushing the pins out is farely straight forward. Just make sure your pin pusher is thinner then the pin collars otherwise you will never be able to push the pins out. To put the pins back in, I found this to be the most suitable configuration. If one had three hands, it would be a lot easier. If you want to see how the pins and collars should be positioned correctly and tightly, have a look at the Illustrated Guide talking about the Monster bracelets. This is an important pin, it holds your watch case and the bracelet together. Thus you really want this to be fixed correctly. I have omitted the bracelet in order to focus on the relevant parts.

After having removed the bracelet, clean the watch and remove dirt or dust that could have accumulated underneath the rubber. Remember, this is a 10 year battery watch and thus there could be quite some dust and you do not want to open a dirty watch. Now you are ready to replace the battery. Wait, there will be no time to remove the old battery and then run to the watch shop to get a replacement CR2412, a very thin large 3V cell. Why? Please read on.

How to set Year, Month, Day on a Perpetual Calendar 8F32 (this watch) / 8F56 (GMT)
AFTER A BATTERY REPLACEMENT?

OK, you were on a busy trip or you did not make it to an Authorized SEIKO Repair Center to have the battery CR2412 replaced. Now the watch has stopped and you lost the Perpetual Calendar Data! What to do?

C. Or follow my Instructions below that I have written after having reset my SEIKO Perpetual Calendar Black Rubber/Titanium on June 19th 2004. I am writing the date down so I can check how long the 10 Year CR2412 PANASONIC will be running compared to the CR2412 SEIKO battery. The CR2412 is a large watch cell that looks like the 2016 or 2032 but is very thin and also costs a bit more, I paid USD 2 for mine at the local watch parts shop.

Step 1: Open the screwed case back. This is no problem with a decent case opener. However be extra careful since Titanium is softer then steel. Of course the Bergeon 5700Z is the ideal tool to do this. Or a good quality JAXA Universal Case Opener. SEIKO has the nasty habit of closing the case backs far too tight. I have consistently observed that. Obviously many manufacturers close the back so tight, in order to avoid water getting into the watch during the first year of warranty. A too tightly closed watch back squeezes the O-ring to such an extent, that the water resistance might be even reduced. Please see my Case Opener overiew page to get an idea what you could be using.

Step 2: You have 3 minutes to put the new battery in or your Perpetual Calendar Settings are gone! Better read this whole step's instructions carefully BEFORE starting!
Remove the spacer and have a close look at the battery. The service manual (the PDF file I suggest you to download and read) explains over several pages how to do this. The black spacer right has two little arrows with a number 1 and 2. Those are the suggested positions to place your tweezers and then prey the battery out. Be careful, if you slip, your coil is a useless copper mass! I chose my own way to pry the battery out. I used a pin pusher to push down on the circuit cover and used this Bergeon tool (right of tweezers) to lift the battery out. I placed the Bergeon tool next to the battery holder near the AC contact. That was low risk of slipping and destroying the coils. The force I needed to lift the battery out confirmed, that I would never want to do this using tweezers. But of course every one has his preferred tools and ways.

Flatten the three hooking portions (SEIKO terminology), the three little flaps on the red battery insulator. You can easily identify those three flaps in the picture above or open a new window following this link with a picture of the insulator after the battery has been removed. Make sure the battery insulator is properly positioned. There is a slot in one of the battery hooks of the circuit cover that holds the insulator. The flattened flaps should lay exactly on top of the three battery hooks. Press the battery firmly down until it snaps into the 3 hooks and the holder near the AC marking.

Step 3: Once more the very important 4 steps that you need to peform after the battery has been replaced. I had overlooked that the crown needed to be pulled out fully and reinserted twice and the Perpetual Calendar Setting did not work as described at first.

Very important Note!

1. After replacing the battery, shorten the AC base with the (+) side of the battery for 3 seconds.
2. Pull the crown fully out to position 2
3. Push it back in
4. Pull the crown fully out to position 2 again!

CHECK FOR THE PERPETUAL DATA SETTING BY PULLING THE CROWN TO POSITION 1 AND BACK WITHIN ONE SECOND!

Now you will immediately see, whether you have lost your Perpetual Calendar Data Settings: if your SECOND HAND runs in fast 4 second increments and then stops and then continues in fast 4 second steps, you will need the instructions on how to restore the Perpetual Calendar Settings below.

If the Perpetual Calendar Settings are wrong, there is no way you could fix the problem by advancing the hands via the crown to the correct date! The only way to restore the Calendar Settings is by shortening the appropriate contacts 0, Y, M, D as described below! This is probably the biggest shortcoming of this movement. Yet, this was the first perpetual calendar in an analogue quartz watch and thus this movement will definitely have its place in watch history!

If your watch starts to indicate the
1) Leap Year: Watch moves quickly 4 seconds one year after the leap year, 8 seconds for the second year after a leap year, 12 seconds for the third year after a leap year, 16 seconds for a leap year. E.g. for 2001, the second hand will make 4 quick steps, for 2002 eight, for 2003 twelve and for 2004 sixteen quick steps.
2) Month: next the date in the date window will run slowly through the months, stopping at the current month displayed in the date window for 5 seconds
3) Day: the watch will then return to display the current Day number
If your watch behaves like this, you have exchanged the battery within the required 3 minutes and all you need to do is to set the time and you are done.

Fussy about marks? Read this!
I had also found that shortening the (+) side of the battery with the different bases (AC, 0, Y, M, D) is a lot easier with a conductive pin pusher. Especially since the CR2412 is so big. Carefully place the pin pusher on the gold contact next to the AC marking and then lean it towards the battery until it makes contact. That is an easy, fast and soft way and your movement's gold contacts will look like new after you have done this!

The SEIKO service manual suggests conductive tweezers. The sharp tips of the tweezers leave ugly marks in the gold contacts. I wish someone had written a guide like this and that I had read it before. My contacts AC, 0, Y, M and D show now some marks that are unavoidable with steel tweezers but would not occur then using a non-sharp tip of a pin pusher.

Step 3: Once more the very important 4 steps that you need to perform after the battery has been replaced. I had overlooked that the crown needed to be pulled out fully and reinserted twice and the Perpetual Calendar Setting did not work as described at first.

Step 4: You are in the lucky group! You can now close the case back and set the time and you are done! For the less lucky, there are a couple of more steps to be done.

Step 5: Your watch has lost the Perpetual Calendar settings. You need to restore them as follows.
Step 5.1: Pull out the crown fully to position 2. Then shorten contact "0" and the (+) side of the battery repeatedly until the date window shows 1. If you are working in a silent workshop, you will hear the clicks of the date disk and do not need to turn over the watch every time you have shorten the contact "0".
Step 5.2: Shorten the contact "Y"(ear) and the (+) plus side of the battery. For a leap year shorten Y four times. 2004 is a leap year for example. The year setting is also displayed in the date window and you will have to turn the watch over to check this setting. For 2005 you would shorten once, for 2006 twice and for 2007 thrice. You get the picture.
Step 5.3: Set the month by repeatedly shortening the "M"(onth) contact until the date window shows the number of the current month
Step 5.4: Shorten the "D"(ay) contact as many times as the current day's number.
Step 5.5: Push the crown back in and check the Perpetual Calendar Settings. This is always done the same way: pull the crown out to position 1 and back in within 1 second. In the box above (green text) I have explained how to interpret the hands movements and this information is also in the User Manuals of 8F32 and 8F56 (GMT).
Step 5.6: If your Perpetual Calendar settings are wrong, go back to Step 5.1 and repeat all steps again until your Perpetual Calendar Settings are displayed correctly.

The red lines indicate that you will have to shorten the gold contacts and the (+) side of the battery. As you can see, the battery is so big, you can simply place a conductive pin onto the contact and then tilt it until it touches the battery. That way you will not leave ugly steel tweezers marks on the gold contacts!

Step 7: Fix the bracelet or rubber/Titanium strap back to the watch case. Have a look at the picture above again. You do not want to scratch your Titanium watch.

Step 8: Enjoy the watch with the new battery. I can tell you, finally having my Perpetual Calendar settings in this watch correctly set made me really happy.