Now What? - Fixing a broken crown/stem

[micahman33]

So, I dont exactly have a ton of experience with all of this, so I thought I would start here. I have read several of the forums, including some of the tutorials, but didn't see anything dealing with exactly what I'm doing. The issue is, I went to set my watch for the day and the crown came off from the stem. It does not appear to screw back on, so I decided (boldy after seeing some of the amazing stuff everyone here does) to remove the case back to see if I could identify what was going on.

I have attached some pictures, and will hopefully continue taking pictures as I progress in fixing this. Its probably not a super high-end rep like alot of people here have, but I figured it would be a good place for me to start learning to do some of my own repairs.

Obviously I'm interested in learning to do some of this, so if anyone can point me in the correct direction or anything that would be great. I dont know if there are links for that or what. Also, I have no idea about knowing where to get replacement parts if that is what I need to do. For reference purposes, this is the toolset I just received and used to get as far as I have.

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/16-PCS-Watch-Tool-Kit/dp/B000T9VK56/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1355276300&sr=8-1&keywords=watch+repair+kit"]16 PCS Watch Tool Kit: Watches: Amazon.com@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31qxZMyO8zL.@@AMEPARAM@@31qxZMyO8zL[/ame]

Again, new to all of this so if I'm putting this in the wrong place please let me know, just trying to learn as much as I can to figure some of this stuff out.

 

[ahboy]

Check the crown if the tube have the other lead stuck inside if not, remove the stem from the watch and put thread locker onto it and screw back the crown.

 

[Rick914]

Take a pair of small needle nose pliers. Take hold of the stem still in the movement sticking out. Pull to the third position, time setting position.

Then take a small pin, safety pin works well because you can hold it. Just to the inside of where the stem goes into the movement there's s button, lightly push it down and at the same time pull the stem from the movement with your pliers.

Once removed. Add a tiny drop of Loctite to the stem. Thread the crown onto the stem. Hold the crown in your fingers and use your pliers to hold the stem as you tighten the crown with your fingers.

To install just insert back into the movement. As you push it in you might need to twist the crown to fit the square part of the stem into the gear.

21Js are the easiest to learn this on. They are very forgiving unlike 28xx series ETAs.

Good luck and have fun.
Get you a good set of tools from Offshore if your serious about working more. They make all the difference.

 

[Alex_P1]

Take a pair of small needle nose pliers. Take hold of the stem still in the movement sticking out. Pull to the third position, time setting position.

Then take a small pin, safety pin works well because you can hold it. Just to the inside of where the stem goes into the movement there's s button, lightly push it down and at the same time pull the stem from the movement with your pliers.

Once removed. Add a tiny drop of Loctite to the stem. Thread the crown onto the stem. Hold the crown in your fingers and use your pliers to hold the stem as you tighten the crown with your fingers.

To install just insert back into the movement. As you push it in you might need to twist the crown to fit the square part of the stem into the gear.

21Js are the easiest to learn this on. They are very forgiving unlike 28xx series ETAs.

Good luck and have fun.
Get you a good set of tools from Offshore if your serious about working more. They make all the difference.

A big +1 on all of this!

I would just add that the tweezers you have in that kit are excellent and really good for pressing the 'stem release button' on movements; they are well worth the price of the whole kit as they are strong and well made, unlike virtually everything else in there! It'll be fine for doing this one job but do upgrade if you want to do more (the pliers are especially terrible - I know becasue I bought the same kit and ditched it after one job!).

 

[micahman33]

Thanks to everyone who responded...I took a picture of the button mentioned so anyone reading this later on who knows as little as me knows what was being referenced. I circled the button mentioned to release the stem in red.

Now, I tried to rethread the crown on the stem, but upon closer examination it appears that the end of the stem has actually broken off in the crown...no matter how I try to put it on, there seems to be no way for me to re-attach the stem to the crown. Picture as reference:

Do I try to put a small dot of super glue or something inside the crown and attach the stem that way, or am I SOL? Is there a way to order another crown/stem from anywhere? Its not a super expensive watch, but just want to learn to fix what I can if possible. Thanks again for all the responses so far. Even though I'm kind of stumped on this one, I was able to use my watch kit to replace a battery on one of my gen GShocks so Im getting a little better at this.

 

[Alex_P1]

It really depends on how much thread you've got left to play with IMO...

What you need to do first is identify what movement you have, and then jump on EBay and check you can buy a replacement stem for $10 or so.

Also, have a look for a replacement replica crown to see if you can get one cheaply.

If you can get replacements easily for both, go ahead and try the superglue as you've got nothing to lose! If it works, great news, if not, order some replacements.

 

[Rick914]

No glue won't be enough to hold it on solid and not really a proper way of repairing it.
If your conus, PM me with your address, ill send you a stem. I have plenty of extras around.
Rick

 

[micahman33]

PM Sent.

I looked around at eBay, but it didnt look like a ton of stems/crowns were even for sale beyond legit rolex and omega. Is there a place to purchase random spare parts that work on these reps? I was considering taking apart another watch to try to fix this, but would rather not ruin a good watch to possibly fix a broken one that I like more.

 

[KBH]

Here's how to remove the broken stem piece:

http://forum.replica-watch.info/vb/...stem-that-44117?t=44117&highlight=alum+powder

 

[micahman33]

Awesome KBH, I will look at giving that a try. Like I said, I cant really even see the amount of stem left...it must be very little, but I may give this a try and poke around inside the crown after a few days to see if I can dig anything else out.