Frankenwatch

I've had my Garmin Forerunner 405CX for three or four years.  It has been a workhorse (it has had to be).  There have been some repairs along the way.

About a year and a half ago the battery died.  I found a youtube video showing how to do the replacement oneself, but in the end I opted to mail it to a guy who advertised on ebay.  There was an option to go for a battery with a bit longer life than the original.  I went for that and have been happy: the watch truly does have a longer run time now.  Whoever did the repairs was a bit brutal however: both halves of the wrist band came back cracked.  If I were to send the watch out again, I'd first remove the wrist band.  Some time later (more on this below), when I opened the watch, I discovered that the threads for one of the screw holes had been stripped.  There's probably no way to protect oneself from this.

A few months ago, as the rainy season in Seattle set in, the watch became fogged up.  So I took it apart and blasted it with a hair dryer.  When I put it back together (if not before), it had lost the functionality on the right and left sides (Training and GPS).  Working with this loss has been a challenge:

1. I must now go into Simple Training Mode via touching the bezel on the bottom and going in via the extensive menus, it can't be done via touching the bezel on the right side.  Then it is necessary to set the duration (distance, time, or whatever) to match the run.  In the case of a marathon, eg., however, I put in 27.0 so as to be able to watch whole miles accumulate.  There is a horrible down side to this situation: if ever the watch decides to move from this mode (while none-the-less still running in the background), it is impossible to get back in without killing the run.  So, all you can do is run along and if you happen to glance at the watch at the end of a "lap," you'll catch the lap summary.
2. It is now impossible to enter GPS Mode, via touching the bezel on the left side, to turn off the GPS.  So, even if you're training INDOORS, the GPS is on.  At least I now have the longer run battery.  None-the-less, you can't actually go into the GPS mode to use any GPS-specific functionality (i.e. can't set waypoints, etc.).
3. It is also now impossible to turn on the back light.  Fortunately I almost never run at night.  Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I'm more of a morning runner.

During a recent 10 mile run in the rain, the watch fogged up again.  So I took it apart again to zap it with a hair dryer.  The O-ring seal was broken in one spot.  If I take it apart again, I'll hunt for a replacement.  If you know where I can get a replacement O-ring, please let me know.

The other problem that has always been present, in rain, is the watch's tendency to start cycling through its displays (or, in the case of Simple Training mode, to completely leave the mode).  I finally discovered the way to prevent this is to lock the bezel.  Works like a charm.

So there you have it, Frankenwatch takes a licking ... and still kinda sorta keeps limping along.