Tissot 1853 Chronograph automatic

[AlanRH]

A good pal of mine,  came to visit after hearing about my taking the excellent courses on here, he has a much loved Tissot 1853 chronograph, that some time ago he sent of for some work, I think it as just a service, he received this back probably a year or two back, and they had serviced the watch, seemingly changed the crown and stem, and for some reason the hands as well he did not know why, the watch was with them a good three months. however in its return complete with original crown and hands in a small bag, the watch is almost impossible to wind by hand and its difficult to pull crown out to set the time also very very stiff, one has to wind with a small socket or pliers ? i said id have a look, but before i open the back, wanted to ask whether others have come across anything similar, im aware some are meant to be an unscrew crown and or lift and pull, which this appears to be and was before the service,   

any hints tips or past experiences welcome please, im more nervous as its a lovely time piece and he is okay with me looking as cannot be fussed with sending it away again, he has waited over a year mind you! 

anyone?

much appreciated any advice in advance 

Alan 

[jdm]

1 hour ago, AlanRH said:

 the watch is almost impossible to wind by hand and its difficult to pull crown out to set the time also very very stiff, one has to wind with a small socket or pliers

The norm would be to send it back to give an honest business a chance to correct the problem, but if one fears it would be handled again by cowboys, I understand that as well. 

Quote

i im more nervous as its a lovely time piece and he is okay with me looking as cannot be fussed with sending it away again

It's a cronograph hence a complicated piece. Even if the keyeless fault is something trivial you may have to work a lot to find and fix it, under the stress that it is not your piece. Really, unless you feel super confident my advice would be to pass the challenge. There stil are enough honest and reputable watchmakers. 

[AlanRH]

1 hour ago, jdm said:

The norm would be to send it back to give an honest business a chance to correct the problem, but if one fears it would be handled again by cowboys, I understand that as well. 

It's a cronograph hence a complicated piece. Even if the keyless fault is something trivial you may have to work a lot to find and fix it, under the stress that it is not your piece. Really, unless you feel super confident my advice would be to pass the challenge. There stil are enough honest and reputable watchmakers. 

have to agree and have asked if thats an option, my first glance was that some has out an unwind stem/crown where there should be a lift two position stem in place as the original was in a bag with the watch, ill recommend he trys that first 

[JohnR725]

9 hours ago, AlanRH said:

seemingly changed the crown and stem, and for some reason the hands as well he did not know why,

often forgotten in watch repair is keeping it water resistant. They probably change the gaskets also or they should have. So they change the crown to keep the water resistance not sure why they change the stem they might just you both the same time. The hands because on a chronograph for a lot of chronographs there put on with a lot of force and removing them can damage them. So usually the service centers have the hands and packages and they just replace them.

9 hours ago, AlanRH said:

difficult to pull crown out to set the time also very very stiff,

sounds like a quality control problem there should be a warrantee send it back. Because as soon as anyone else touches it there is no warranty usually and definitely a quality control problem.

 

9 hours ago, AlanRH said:

cannot be fussed with sending it away again, he has waited over a year mind you! 

looks like my caution of the warrantee flies out the window as it's been over a year.

7 hours ago, jdm said:

It's a cronograph hence a complicated piece. Even if the keyeless fault is something trivial you may have to work a lot to find and fix it, under the stress that it is not your piece. Really, unless you feel super confident my advice would be to pass the challenge. There stil are enough honest and reputable watchmakers. 

unfortunately as already stated the chronograph makes things complicated.

The problem is we can make guesses as to what the problem is but that either means we can guess something really simple or guess something really complicated which would you like?

The only way you can really tell is you have to take the back off and see if you can remove the stem and crown. Accepting the fact that a chronograph is complicated and if you break it who's going to fix it? On the other hand if you can't use the watch and he doesn't care then there's no responsibility on you if you break it. So now it's a fun opportunity to work on a chronograph and not worry about destroying it.

But you need to back off so we can see which movement it is and maybe a picture of the back of the watch with the back off so we can see how the case looks

[Colditz]

Is the Tissot 1853 a mechanical or battery movement? I looked on the Tissot site and it quotes a Japanese battery movement. If its mech or battery  then take the advice of JDM and others and get someone who has  the experience to do it. As it it not your watch that's a hell of a risk to take with that complication and no experience.

[Nucejoe]

 Tissot was founded in 1853, it markets many similar looking pieces in quartz and auto versions. Usually top grade movements are put in their Chronograph watches and you can expect complicated chrono set mech under the hood. 

Its not that you can't fix it but ought to be prepared for a challange if you decided to work on it.

Good luck