Hi there!
I'm not really sure if I should post this here or in the technical section, but since I had this same question and I'm guessing others out there may have it too, I reckon it has a bit more visibility here.
As with many others, I own a couple Seiko Kinetics. 5M42, 5J22, 7L22. And as usual with these watches, it's pretty much impossible to keep them charged with the occasional wrist time. Indeed I could use a winder but the regular ones don't work very well with Kinetics without some modifications and I simply didn't even bother to go through with finding one electric toothbrush (or similar) charger to keep them topped up through induction (the original charger is pretty much impossible to find for a decent price nowadays).
Somewhere in the past googling about something else I found a thread on WUS catacombs about someone having replaced the rechargeable batteries with regular ones and having the watches working without a glitch. Unfortunately information was scarce or dispersed through the replies and there wasn't a fool proof walk-through.
That lingered on my thoughts for a while and after having yet one more rechargeable battery dying way too soon due to low usage and constant low charge I decided to give it a try.
Indeed, I could simply choose other non Kinetic watches but it happens that I quite like the SKH29X models.
The 5M42s commonly use the TC920S rechargeable batteries. 9.5x2mm 1.5v. Following some of the threads recommendations I bought a SR920W/V370 non-rechargeable battery and installed it on one of my watches. That was last November. Today I just installed another one on a different one and hes ticking away happily. The power indicator even works normally and shows the battery power.
Following this experience I can't see why it cannot be replicated with different movements. You just have to take into consideration voltage and sizes. If all fit the bill, the watch should work without any issues. I'll have to find out what batteries to use with the 5J22 and the 7L22 but I'll most certainly be replacing the re-chargeable batteries for regular ones.
I'll assume someone attempting to do this is aware of how to replace a battery on these watches, hence why I haven't posted photos.
For the "hack" to work, you have to have the metallic tab that comes with the rechargeable batteries. Pry it off the one you are removing for instance. Re-assembly is just like the normal procedure, just a bit more fiddly cause you'll have to put the metallic tab from the older rechargeable battery on top of the new non-rechargeable battery. But don't worry. After assembling all the parts with the screws in place it doesn't go anywhere.
It is extremely important to remove the rotor to prevent the watch from charging the non-rechargeable battery. Trying to re-install the rotor screw to have the hole covered is rather hard without the rotor in place. So if you don't have a see-through case back I wouldn't bother.
Following these recommendations, your watches should work just fine. If you're willing to do this, do it under your own responsibility though as this is converting the watches to a way of operation they weren't apparently designed to.
I'll be updating the thread with the battery durations as with some of the posterior conversions I'll be doing since this is a subject with pretty much no information available on Google.
Hope it helps someone!
You may notice there are SR920W and SR920SW batteries, respectively V370 and V371 in a different naming standard. That has to do with preferred usage. The S stands for low drain. From the info I garnered it's preferable to use the non S batteries for a little longer battery life. How long I cannot yet say.
I'm not really sure if I should post this here or in the technical section, but since I had this same question and I'm guessing others out there may have it too, I reckon it has a bit more visibility here.
As with many others, I own a couple Seiko Kinetics. 5M42, 5J22, 7L22. And as usual with these watches, it's pretty much impossible to keep them charged with the occasional wrist time. Indeed I could use a winder but the regular ones don't work very well with Kinetics without some modifications and I simply didn't even bother to go through with finding one electric toothbrush (or similar) charger to keep them topped up through induction (the original charger is pretty much impossible to find for a decent price nowadays).
Somewhere in the past googling about something else I found a thread on WUS catacombs about someone having replaced the rechargeable batteries with regular ones and having the watches working without a glitch. Unfortunately information was scarce or dispersed through the replies and there wasn't a fool proof walk-through.
That lingered on my thoughts for a while and after having yet one more rechargeable battery dying way too soon due to low usage and constant low charge I decided to give it a try.
Indeed, I could simply choose other non Kinetic watches but it happens that I quite like the SKH29X models.
The 5M42s commonly use the TC920S rechargeable batteries. 9.5x2mm 1.5v. Following some of the threads recommendations I bought a SR920W/V370 non-rechargeable battery and installed it on one of my watches. That was last November. Today I just installed another one on a different one and hes ticking away happily. The power indicator even works normally and shows the battery power.
Following this experience I can't see why it cannot be replicated with different movements. You just have to take into consideration voltage and sizes. If all fit the bill, the watch should work without any issues. I'll have to find out what batteries to use with the 5J22 and the 7L22 but I'll most certainly be replacing the re-chargeable batteries for regular ones.
I'll assume someone attempting to do this is aware of how to replace a battery on these watches, hence why I haven't posted photos.
For the "hack" to work, you have to have the metallic tab that comes with the rechargeable batteries. Pry it off the one you are removing for instance. Re-assembly is just like the normal procedure, just a bit more fiddly cause you'll have to put the metallic tab from the older rechargeable battery on top of the new non-rechargeable battery. But don't worry. After assembling all the parts with the screws in place it doesn't go anywhere.
It is extremely important to remove the rotor to prevent the watch from charging the non-rechargeable battery. Trying to re-install the rotor screw to have the hole covered is rather hard without the rotor in place. So if you don't have a see-through case back I wouldn't bother.
Following these recommendations, your watches should work just fine. If you're willing to do this, do it under your own responsibility though as this is converting the watches to a way of operation they weren't apparently designed to.
I'll be updating the thread with the battery durations as with some of the posterior conversions I'll be doing since this is a subject with pretty much no information available on Google.
Hope it helps someone!
You may notice there are SR920W and SR920SW batteries, respectively V370 and V371 in a different naming standard. That has to do with preferred usage. The S stands for low drain. From the info I garnered it's preferable to use the non S batteries for a little longer battery life. How long I cannot yet say.