Stem Insertion into NH36

linux · March 8

My rookie experience so far consists of tearing down an ST36 movement. I hadn't even put it back together when my wife bought me a DIY watch. It's a Rotate dive watch using the NH36. So I dropped the ST36 and tried to assemble the DIY watch. To make a long story short, I messed up on cutting the stem to the correct length and in the process thought I'd broken the movement as I was trying to force the stem in and then the watch wouldn't run.

Anyway, I ordered two replacement NH36's as a learning experience and for the life of me I cannot get the stems seated properly in either of the movements. The release lever is showing OK and I do push it down when inserting but the best I can do on them both is to latch them in via a 'click' but they are stuck on the 3rd position (ie, the outermost position where you can set the hands). Thinking I may have released or inserted the stem with the hands in the midnight position where the date/day wheels flip I've tried to set the time at noon and still no joy.

Is there something I don't know about the NH36 (actually I know nothing right now, ha ha) and the stem? I did read a comment that I may have to "reset' something in the setting lever/yoke area and that I may have even broken something. I was hoping that there was something I was doing wrong, otherwise I guess I'll have to take off the rotor assembly and try to figure it out.

Also, it turned out that I did not break the original movement and I'm proceeding to restart that but it was running and I wanted to unwind the mainspring before putting the hands back on but it doesn't behave like the ST36. When I release the click the ratchet wheel does not want to unwind; it just sits there. I'm guessing it may have something to do with the fact that it's an automatic where the ST36 is manual.

CYCLOPS · March 10

sounds like the clutch wheel/sliding pinion has become mis-placed and stuck in the setting position on the movements that will not move, if that is the case one way is to look at it from under the dial to correct, some watches require the stem to be pulled out in setting position to release the stem and some don't, you might try rotating the stem a little while inserting, with the dial off you can easily see the issue and learn, with the stem fitting, remember it is better to cut too long and test before removing too much, we have all learned this the hard way......

Edited March 10 by CYCLOPS

linux · March 20

Well, I disassembled most of the dial side and sure enough the yoke lever had slipped out of the clutch wheel. I tried to nudge it back but wound up taking apart most of the movement side to get to the setting lever, yoke and yoke spring, all of which I had to remove to reset the yoke into the clutch wheel. What a pain but a good learning experience. I've attached a photo and also did a short video for anybody who might run into this who, like me had no clue what lay ahead. Please pardon the video, or actually audio quality; I have lots to learn if I'm to ever be a watch repair "influencer

Here's the URL for the video: