Introduction: Silence Your Digital Watch for Stealthy Standardized Exam Taking

Purpose: Silence your digital watch beeps and alarms. Following this modification, your digital watch will be permanently silent.

Method: Remove spring-diaphragm amplification

Target audience: This is especially useful for standardized test takers (MCAT, SAT, LSAT, GRE, etc.) and others who need the element of surprise in whatever they are timing.

Step 1: Get a Cheap Watch Somehow

I paid the kind folks at the Walmart jewelery counter a visit. I traded my $9 for this fine Casio watch.

Perhaps you can find a digital watch around the house.

Step 2: Remove Rear Plate


You will likely need a phillips pattern electronic (watch size) screw driver for this. Flat head could also be improvised to work very easily. I highly recommend the Stanley 6-pack of screwdrivers with rotating top for convenience.

Step 3: Identify and Remove Small Amplifier Spring

In the image you will see a very, very small spring that connects to the piezo on the rear plate to give the watch an amplified beeping sound when you press any button. This mechanism should be conserved across most inexpensive digital watches.

Find and remove that spring and the beeping will stop. If you are lucky, the spring will simply fall out when you open the watch.

You could also remove the piezo that is glued to the inside of the cover but as you can see from my scratches, that is more difficult.

Step 4: Reassemble

Reassemble your watch by replacing the rear plate.

Test the buttons to ensure the beeping has stopped.

Step 5: Stealth Mode

You now own an experimental prototype Skunkworks F-117 watch. Best of luck to you