One of the most frequent jobs we tackle in the workshop involves replacing the crown and/or stem. The crown, which you may also know as the winder, is used to set the time as well as to wind up a mechanical watch. If the crown is pulled out incorrectly, or perhaps caught in a certain way, it’s quite easy to break it off. Depending on how it’s broken, we may be able to recover the original crown and simply replace the stem. If the crown itself is damaged or the stem is broken absolutely flush with the crown, this may also require the crown to be replaced.
In this example we are replacing both the crown and stem on a Raymond Weil chronograph watch. You can see the stem has broken very close to the crown itself, so this will make removing the old stem extremely difficult. While in some instances we are able to do this, most of the time a new crown will be needed. If you look closely, you can see how water has affected the stem, causing it to rust. This has weakened the stem and over time has led to it being so weak it breaks.
We were able to source an original crown for this model, as well as a replacement stem. To fit the new crown and stem we need to trim the stem to fit. This involves fitting the stem to the movement and measuring off how much excess we need to remove. We can use the old broken stem as a guide. The stem is then removed from the movement and held in a pin vice. It is trimmed and filed down to allow the new crown to fit nice and smoothly.
There’s a bit of an art to getting the stem to the exact size, and it really is a case of practice makes perfect. The crown should sit flush against the side of the watch case, without a gap. Care is needed, as if the stem is cut too short, the stem won’t reach far enough into the movement. This will cause the movement to be stuck in date change or hand setting mode (or if it’s cut far too short, it won’t be held in place at all!).
When we are happy with the fitting, we again remove the crown and stem, then take the crown off. We put a tiny drop of threadlock on the end of the stem, before reattaching the new crown. We do this to be doubly sure the new crown will remain in place long into the future. Now we refit the crown and stem, and that’s this part job done!
In addition to the steps outlined above, we often take care of additional jobs at the same time. For example cleaning the case and bracelet, replacing the glass or fitting a new battery. Our workshop is well equipped to deal with a whole variety of repairs to the vast majority of watches, both modern and vintage.
Do you have a watch in need of a new crown? Contact us to see how we can help. We offer a repairs service both locally via our shops in Lewes and Uckfield, as well as nationally via our fully insured secure postal repairs service. We are experts in the repair of watches and have the skills to take on a huge variety of repairs. We are business partners of the British Horological Institute and we hold a Platinum Trusted Service award from Feefo – testament to the consistant, excellent reviews we receive from our clients.
Yours sincerely
David Clark PJDip PJGemDip CertGA
Managing Director