"Backwards" running quartz

[Len Lataille]

Just a guess: Purhaps the battery had the wrong polarity. I once had an AA battery that had the + and - at the wrong ends. Took a battery tester to discover the problem.

Len

[Julian Smith]

I think that usually the stator gets a hard lick and it gets bent slightly.It is usually hard to tell whether it's been bent to open the space between the poles or close it.If you want to experiment, try changing the opening .
J Smith

[Charles E. Davis]

The neighbor lady brought it over today for a new battery. While I was eating lunch I took a look at it and the second hand jumped right along. But when it got to about 12 seconds before 12 it jigged a little and then headed backwards for about 15 seconds and started to jig a couple of time before it reversed forwards. It kept repeating these back and forth movements. I finally picked it up and when I set it down again it seemed to run normally for several minutes. I didn't keep any notes but eventually while I was still there it went through the routine again. All I have to do is move it a bit and it starts off normal. Otherwise it keeps its zig-zag path.
I plan on a new movement but am curious about what could cause this.

[le arsi]

Unless the watch is originally designed as reversed the watch has a defective rotor stator. The source of defect is when the watch is accidentally dropped.

[Charles E. Davis]

The movement is a quartz double chime movement that was placed in a very nice 110 volt General Electric case.
The hands continue to spend the day traversing the same 20 seconds back and forth all day long. If moved or put on the horizontal they seem to be ok.
The neighbor is willing to have me replace the movement, but I remain curious about the cause for the strange action.

[le arsi]

Ah... usually if somebody replaces a quartz movement to a non repairable old movement sometimes misalignment of the rotor stator (if the hands moves in reverse) happens due to accidents or mishandling during retrofitting. Or something is restricting the gear trains. Try to loosen the center nut that hold the movement. Or maybe the movement has poor quality. It surely needed a new movement replacement.

[Mike Phelan]

Just a guess: Purhaps the battery had the wrong polarity. I once had an AA battery that had the + and - at the wrong ends. Took a battery tester to discover the problem.

Len

Are there some missing/mixed up posts on this thread, Mods?
This seems to be an answer to a question, and other posts refer to a synchronous clock, not a battery one.

A quartz clock will not run backwards if the battery is reversed - it will just wreck the movement instantly.

A self-starting synchronous clock will tend to run forwards and backwards continuously if something is tight, as le arsi says.