05/30 A comparison of twenty-nine brands producing CR2032 batteries to find the best CR2032 battery
So that’s the guy who owns the LiBs!
I remember that, the first time I had to change one of those batteries, around the late Nineties, I naively panicked that might come a day when CR2032 batteries would not be that easy to find, and stockpiled a few in advance for my Saturn, Y2K bunker hoarder-style. Well! That was pretty unnecessary: the CR2032 battery standard is as popular as ever and might outlast us all.
But why is the CR2032 named the CR2032?
Here is how you are meant to read it: [C][R][20][32]
[C] indicates the battery works with a lithium and manganese dioxyde reaction. The letter is based on the IEC nomenclature which separates the different chemical solutions for batteries, in order or registration, with a designated letter (A, B, C etc.).
[R] indicates the coin-shaped form factor of the battery. (R = round)
[20] indicates the coin has a 20mm diameter.
[32] indicates the coin has a 3.2mm thickness.
The technological concept and form factor of the coin-shaped battery date all the way back to the Fifties, and the"modern" coin-shaped Lithium battery was developed in the late Seventies and spread commercially in the early Eighties, notably via the portable wearable electronics revolution initiated by the Japanese industry. But the CR2032 as we know it is apparently even more recent, from 1991. The Lithium-ion Battery (LiB) technology is actually a Sony-patented technology; at least until they spun off their battery business as a different company, Murata. So it was still relatively new stuff in 1994.
Three decades later, the CR2032 is by far the most common coin-shaped battery found in our daily lives. You probably have a few around your house, whether you know it or not. On this one detail, at least, Sega made the right hardware choice for the Sega Saturn.