Lorus Stem Release

[Phil1]

Hi my names Phil and I live in Kent and have a small collection of watches (mainly Rotary and similar).

However, as most left-handers, I wear my watch on my right arm. So far I have successfully rotated the movements of a couple of cheap, unbranded watches bought from charity shops. Its now time to do the same to a Lorus watch ( "Y482-0020 [A1]" ). A watch which was bought for me by my parents over 30 years ago.

The problem is that I cannot release the stem. I have pushed everything and loosened every screw that look like it could do the trick but still it won't come out.

The movement says "SINGAPORE TIME PTE Ltd. Y482A L".

Can anyone please help?
Phil



 

[AndyHull]

I think I played with one of those movements a while back, and if memory serves me correctly then you push those two spring fingers at the top of the second picture gently apart while pulling the crown. I think you are meant to push a conical object (the end of a pair of tweezers presumably) in to the hole behind the spring fingers and in the process spread them apart.

Obviously be careful not to use too much force, I would estimate you only need to spread them by about 0.2mm to release the crown.

[Phil1]

Perfect!
I use a screwdriver in between and parallel to the two fingers and rotated it gently while pulling on the stem. It came away with no problem at all.
Thank you so much. I would have probably ended up damaging it.
I'll let you know if it goes back in as easily.
Phil

[Phil1]

Success!
It all came apart fairly easily. I had to grind two little spikes off the back of the face as they didn't line up in the new position and glue it back on.

The hands popped back on okay too. I chose this particular watch as it doesn't have a second hand.
The only casualty was the 1 o'clock baton. That'll have to go back on at a later date.

Thanks for your advice. I could not have done it otherwise. What a great site this is!
I'm now after some parts for a Gucci watch which I was recently given...in pieces. I hope I have as muck luck with that little project.
Thanks again,
Phil