I don't know what could cause new watch batteries to fail so rapidly, unless it has something to do with all packages being X-rayed, but I've bought half a dozen watches from China or Singapore and all of them bar one one has worked perfectly upon receipt, and in that particular case, its Silver Oxide battery was clearly faulty as it was putting out less than 1V of its supposed 1.55V.

The discharge characteristics and much higher voltage of Li-ion batteries makes them a pointless exercise for use in watches anyway. 😉