Citizen Royal Marines commando stem repair

[Nomad1001]

I recently purchased a watch off eBay with broken stem I have cleaned and then dissolved stem in alum powder and replaced with new stem movement is e168 so stem not to hard to find hope you enjoy the pics 

Watch back with broken stem
 
dissolving stem in alum powder mixed with water put this jam jar in pan of boiling water on cooker ring and 10 hours later over 2 days you get a crown minus stem if crown is stainless steel.




Old stem and new stem next to nice clean crown and clean crown


crown with new stem cut to length and tested the loctite thread seal used and seals put back .


case back cleaned and seal lubed.

The watch was cleaned in ultrasonic bath before reassembly.

watch all back together happy happy hope you enjoyed 

[jdm]

12 hours ago, Nomad1001 said:

put this jam jar in pan of boiling water on cooker ring and 10 hours later over 2 days you get a crown minus stem if crown is stainless steel.

With the rising cost of heating gas, this can be a costly way.
One easier way to keep a constant temperature (doesn't have to be boiling, 50 - 60 C will suffice) is to use an ultrasonic cleaner with heather, keeping the U/S off.

There is also another quicker way to remove stems quickly and from crowns of any material, that is to cut around 1mm of the crown around the stem, and then grab it with serrated pliers. It is quite easily done on the lathe, there are also small devices made for the purpose, and I think it can also be done manually with a piercing saw and some patience.

[Nomad1001]

Thanks JDM

There are different methods as mentioned use the right one for you.

For me this method does not damage the crown if made of stainless and I’m afraid I don’t have lathe or other tools to do task. 
The first time I did not use direct heat but I kept solution by side of my boiler and this worked but took 3 weeks so heat helps but there will be cheaper ways to achieve this than a cooker ring.

Hope this post helps anyone with snapped stem from paying out a lot or chucking good crown as citizen crowns hard to get for the pro master as back to citizen for repair is now stamped on most watch backs and they will not sell to average person.

Hopefully getting one for another watch due to buying watch without crown, getting from Jules borel hopefully but crowns are not cheap.and been waiting for 7 weeks so far as has to come from Hong Kong to US then US to UK so fingers crossed.

Edited October 4, 2021 by Nomad1001

[AuburnDad]

i have a E168 watch as well, but the stem/crown is at 4:00 location.  trying to replace the stem, but cannot figure out what the part number is...suggestions?  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PXVU3GM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_image?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Allisonn]

Cool watch

[Kalanag]

On 8/9/2022 at 8:19 PM, AuburnDad said:

i have a E168 watch as well, but the stem/crown is at 4:00 location.  trying to replace the stem, but cannot figure out what the part number is...suggestions?

Should be 065-501 (see Cousins or Boley).

The part number doesn‘t depend on the crown position.

Edited August 18, 2022 by Kalanag