How do you open the E. Howard wristwatch model EH-23SA to change the battery?

Not every watchmaker can be as renowned for its movements as LeCoultre or as admired for its designs as Cartier. Some watchmakers get their start simply by seeing an opportunity and seizing it.

Such is the story of Albert Wittnauer, who came to America from Switzerland in 1872 at the age of 16. Even as a youth, Wittnauer knew watchmaking, which made him a useful addition to his brother-in-law J. Eugene Robert's Swiss-watch importing business. Over the next few years, two more of Wittnauer's younger brothers and a sister would join him in New York City, forming the nucleus of Robert's, and then Wittnauer's, company.

The opportunity Wittnauer identified was not technological. Rather, it was market driven. Wittnauer saw an opening for a less-expensive Swiss pocket watch in the United States. Since Robert was already importing watches from Switzerland, including Longines, it was not a large leap to add a Wittnauer-branded model to the company's offerings. The watches sold well. By 1885, Albert was running the company, importingchronographs and repeaters, and by 1890 the firm was renamed the A. Wittnauer Company.

While Wittnauer got its start with an economy model, it quickly moved into more rarefied terrain, creating highly sophisticated chronometers. The company's breakthrough came in 1907, when Wittnauer supplied a pair of watches to the Navy, which was testing its aviation capabilities. Perhaps because of this very early alignment with the budding aviation industry, Wittnauer watches would be worn by such notable explorers as Roald Amundsen and Richard E. Byrd, as well as aviators from Amelia Earhart to Wiley Post.

After Albert's death in 1916, his sister, Martha, took the firm's reins. During World War I, Wittnauer supplied new military wristwatches and precision navigational devices to American Expeditionary Forces and an aircraft clock to the forerunner of the U.S. Army Air Corps. Around the same time, Wittnauer introduced its All-Proof wristwatch-the anti-magnetic watch was water and shock proof-to the U.S. market.

In the 1920s, Wittnauer produced wristwatches that were technologically advanced as well as aesthetically beautiful. The lugs of Wittnauer wristwatches were one of many details its designers did not take for granted, and the shapes of the faces varied from squares and rectangles to circles and hexagons, as in the gold Grasshopper.

Aviation watches, though, remained a prime focus. In 1927, Wittnauer and Longines both worked with a U.S. Navy officer named Philip Van Horn Weems, whose design for a Second Setting Watch included an inner, rotating dial. The aviator would move the dial until he heard a time-tone on his radio, thus capturing any deviations from Greenwich Civil Time.

Another influence on Wittnauer timepieces of this era was Wittnauer watchmaker John Heinmuller, who was the official timekeeper of the U.S. National Aeronautical Association and became one of the country's leading authorities on U.S. air mail stamps. Because of all this attention to navigation wristwatches and devices, Clarence D. Chamberlin and Charles A. Levine used Wittnauer chronometers for their 1927 trans-Atlantic flight (they flew two weeks after Lindbergh) and Charles Collyer and John Henry Mears used two Wittnauers in 1928 when they famously raced the moon around the earth-they did it in 24 days, beating the moon by 72 hours.

More aviators, Howard Hughes among them, wore Wittnauers in the 1930s, but the company struggled during the Depression, prompting its sale, in 1936, to a pearl manufacturer, who renamed the company Longines-Wittnauer. World War II provided Wittnauer with contracts for Weems wristwatches, as well as compasses and timers, and after the war it produced wristwatches that utilized technologies created for the conflict.

In the 1950s, Wittnauer turned some of its resources to fashionable dress wristwatches. As in years past, the lugs of Wittnauer wristwatches such as the Revue were almost as important to the design as the face. By now the company was offering slimmer self-winding watches than it had in the past, and in 1957 it released its first electric wristwatch.

Westinghouse bought Longines-Wittnauer in 1969, in 1994 Longines was sold to Omega owner SMH, and in 2001 Wittnauer was sold again to Bulova.

Wittnauer Wristwatches

http://www.lacrossetechnology.com/eh23sa/manual.pdf Hi Bill click link this will explain in detail your question i think you will find it is automatic and sets itself ..but check instructions will tell you hope this helps

when you have an expensive watch, take it to a jeweler or, to a pawn shop. Many pawn shops change batteries, and are cheaper than jewelers. Always ask for price first.

http://www.howardmillerusa.com/customer-support/how-to-setup-howard-miller-grandfather-floor-clock.html
Click on this link for the setup info you need and read

This is the model with the exposed button on the right side. The back does not come off, but the front does! If you use a loop you may be able to see a notch between 7 and 9 O'clock. Be very careful because the gasket keeping the watch water resistant is right there. You do not want to harm it. I put the watch in a holder and place a very thin jewelers screw drive on the side. With a jewels hammer I tap lightly until the front comes off. You must then carefully remove the movement from the case and not touch the hands. In order to close the watch after battery replacement, a watch press is a must. Without the press, you won't get the watch closed. The manufacturer suggests taking the watch to a qualified professional. You can send it to the manufacturer as well and they will change the battery for you. The Manufacturer is La Crosse Technology in La Crosse Wisconsin.

you can get the crystal off, but not back on. There is a special tool that is used to compress the crystal to make it fit in the bezel. Besides, if a piece chipped off, it is no longer waterproof. Take it to a jeweler and he can put a new crystal on in no time. Crystals are not expensive.

try turning DST off if possible.

Here is the manual for your watch.

http://www.lacrossetechnology.com/eh23ga/manual.pdf

First, find the arrow on the back and use a small screwdriver or knife to pry open the back at that point. Replace battery and then replace back wiht the arrow pointing to the middle of the band as orginially found. Third, press the back on the left side and then use a rubber mallet to strike the "raised" side down and it'll snap in place. Alternative method -- use a cushioned screw clamp to compress the back.