Wittnauer Diver Cal C11KS

[LittleWatchShop]

I bought this watch on Ebay.  The dial was in sad shape.  Decided to buy a NOS dial/hands (not cheap!!) for it.  I just love this style.  After servicing and installing the new dial, I found that the hands were challenging.  Mostly because I was being so da*n careful with this investment.  I find that setting hands is quite tedious and nerve wracking.  Anyway.  Got the hands set properly.

After it was all together, I was unhappy with the crown.  Diameter was too small for comfortable winding.  Agonizing over this, sorted through my collection of crowns and found one I liked.  However it did not have an extended tube like the one currently on the watch.  So, to use it I needed a longer stem!!  What to do?  Well I am

I found a couple of stems for sale on Ebay this morning.  More $$.  Some time back @Marcrecommended stem extenders for such a situation.  After that, I ordered a collection of them, so they were ready to rescue me today.  BUT, I did not want to cut back the stem I had...just in case.  I found a stem in the box with crowns and it was very close!  Just a little big.  So, I put it on the lathe and turned it down just a hair.  Cut it to the proper length with extender and installed.  Feels good...looks nice.

[watchweasol]

Nice looking watch.

[Marc]

Nice result.

The other handy thing that you find with stem extenders is that they can be found with different sized male and female threads, so if you have a crown that you like but it has the wrong thread size for your stem you can still couple them up with the right extender.