Hudie screwdown caseback is totally stuck

[lorax]

I have bought myself a Hudie watch which was a chinese brand owned by the also now defunct Hongqi watch factory. The watch is about 25 years old. I want to remove the movement so I can polish the case and caseback, as well as regulate the movement because it's running a bit fast. And more than anything I am curious to see which movement resides inside. However there is a problem. The caseback will not budge at all. I put it in my vice and tried to remove it with my bergeon caseback ball and it will not move a millimeter; the ball just gives out and slips after enough force is applied. I tried heating the caseback too to no avail. I had this problem once before and krazy glued a nut to the caseback and removed it that way but I'd prefer not to do that again if anyone knows any other tricks. It's so stuck I thought it might be a snap on caseback but I do not see any opening to slip a tool in and I also believe the majority of these hudie casebacks are screwdown design like the other similar chinese ones. I actually think it might be glued on because I scrapped off something that seemed like epoxy and in that case I have 0 clue if it'd even be possible to open. Thank you.

[Klassiker]

If the gasket is 25 years old, it may have deteriorated and be acting like glue. Maybe that's the residue you saw. You need a way to transfer more torque to the back than you can with the friction ball. As obtaining the right tool is not likely, your best option is to glue a nut onto it. If you used this method successfully in the past, why are you reluctant to repeat it?

[mikepilk]

I'd Superglue a large nut on the back. The glue is easily removed with acetone.

[Neverenoughwatches]

7 hours ago, lorax said:

I have bought myself a Hudie watch which was a chinese brand owned by the also now defunct Hongqi watch factory. The watch is about 25 years old. I want to remove the movement so I can polish the case and caseback, as well as regulate the movement because it's running a bit fast. And more than anything I am curious to see which movement resides inside. However there is a problem. The caseback will not budge at all. I put it in my vice and tried to remove it with my bergeon caseback ball and it will not move a millimeter; the ball just gives out and slips after enough force is applied. I tried heating the caseback too to no avail. I had this problem once before and krazy glued a nut to the caseback and removed it that way but I'd prefer not to do that again if anyone knows any other tricks. It's so stuck I thought it might be a snap on caseback but I do not see any opening to slip a tool in and I also believe the majority of these hudie casebacks are screwdown design like the other similar chinese ones. I actually think it might be glued on because I scrapped off something that seemed like epoxy and in that case I have 0 clue if it'd even be possible to open. Thank you.

Would it be possible to get an adjustable spanner onto the facets, they look to have a little bit of depth on them.

[clockboy]

The case back balls only work for moderately tight screw back cases. For the more stubborn case backs you need a dedicated case back removing tool. If you do not want the expense of this then some have found glueing a nut on the case back and using this as the lever. 

[lorax]

11 hours ago, Klassiker said:

If the gasket is 25 years old, it may have deteriorated and be acting like glue. Maybe that's the residue you saw. You need a way to transfer more torque to the back than you can with the friction ball. As obtaining the right tool is not likely, your best option is to glue a nut onto it. If you used this method successfully in the past, why are you reluctant to repeat it?

 

9 hours ago, mikepilk said:

I'd Superglue a large nut on the back. The glue is easily removed with acetone.

 

7 hours ago, clockboy said:

The case back balls only work for moderately tight screw back cases. For the more stubborn case backs you need a dedicated case back removing tool. If you do not want the expense of this then some have found glueing a nut on the case back and using this as the lever. 

I tried gluing a nut to it and was able to apply as much force as I can output onto the wrench for about 15 seconds before the nut gave way. I let it dry overnight. The gasket melting makes sense and is likely what I'm dealing with. It has turned to cement.
 

9 hours ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Would it be possible to get an adjustable spanner onto the facets, they look to have a little bit of depth on them.

I assume the reason for the shape is because there is a spanner tool that fits over the caseback but the ones I've seen are very short and wouldn't produce enough torque to remove this one.

[lorax]

Got it off. Super glued a nut to the caseback as I did before but this time I put the watch in a clamp and put that in my bench vise vertical and then used a breaker bar and the edge of my workbench to pry up on one of the bottom lugs and got it to move. Still took a decent amount of force. It was risky and I could have snapped the lug or the watch could've shot out of the clamp but just the nut and a wrench alone with the watch in my vise wasn't cutting it. The gasket was both extremely sticky like glue and also completely flattened to .15mm and was totally flattened and widened so someone severely over tightened the caseback. That was by far the hardest case back I've ever removed. I'm surprised the threads are okay.

 

Also, can anyone identify the movement? It's a Hongqi movement which is no surprise but I'm not familiar with them.

 

Thank you all for your assistance and motivation.

[dadistic]

Standard movement variation, Look here -

http://chinesewatchwiki.net/Chinese_Standard_Movement

And here -

http://chinesewatchwiki.net/Hongqi_Watch_Factory

Glad you got the back off.