
357a or 357 shouldn't make a difference in the short term. From what I've read the only difference is the way they discharge.
A = alkaline and drops of slowly the voltage. Regular 357 is silver oxide and lasts longer but drops off quickly when it's about done.
can you measure with a voltmeter your old cells to see if they we
really exhausted ? If they were then you may have disturbed something during the swapover or inserted them the wrong way.
If the old ones still read above 1.45 then there's likely to
be another problem with the watch - quartz crystal maybe ?
Good luck
James