Wobbly Crown - Just add Loctite?

[AlexPKeaton]

First, apologies if this has been answered - tried to search bit didn't find anything.

I bought a Rolex vintage build off a guy on Reddit - I am new to the Rep game, and in hindsight, looks like this guy just started selling his builds earlier this year. Lesson learned - there's a reason it was so cheap.

There's a "grind" in the movement, and I finally figured out it was because the crown is wiggling on the stem. I got the crown/stem out of the watch, and you can wiggle the crown back and forth on the stem.

I put the crown on another N34 stem I had, and same result - just wiggles around.

Should I just use some Loctite to secure the crown, or do I need to order a new crown? It's a Rolex-branded crown, so not sure how hard it is to get one to fit an N34 stem.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[Rx4Time]

Honestly, if want to save yourself a headache I would look for a new crown. You can super glue / jewelers epoxy the existing one to the stem and it'll probably be okay, but considering the issue you're having, there's other potential issues to expect such as the crown clutch spring collapsing. I don't think thread lock alone will be enough for the long term from what you described. What model exactly is it? Depending on what you have, and what crown is needed, you might be better off to get a a used genuine crown for long-term. If not, a good source for crowns is raffles.

 

[AlexPKeaton]

First, thank you for the reply. Very helpful.

It sounds like the right thing to do is replace the crown.

This isn't a long-term hold for me - just not getting any wrist time. After I fix this issue I want to sell the watch,

Will see how long the lead-time Raffles is to get a crown to me. I was considering a Raffles build anyway.