I had the same problem. I discovered a small label in my watch that says, when the battery is removed, short out the -ve battery spring terminal to the ATM movement, this is the part of the watch in the centre of the lower part of battery holder, it has a small access hole through some clear insulator material. You need to pull up the battery spring a bit to see this. It says to use tweezers to short it out. This discharges the watch circuit and resets it.
After this the instructions for setting all hands to the 12o'clock position work OK. Once this is done all works OK and the time zone etc can be set properly.
Hope this helps.
Tony Lilley, August 2009