Longines cal.503 - manual winding?

[MattWatch]

Hi All,

I have a Longines admiral 5 star with, I believe, the cal 503 automatic movement.

The watch runs absolutely fine, but I notice that it cannot be manually wound (ie, to start the movement up initially). This seems unusual for an automatic movement, but I am not sure whether this is by design or due to a fault in the movement, or maybe the crown is catching on the case preventing the crown from turning (the crown is original so that seems unlikely).

So I guess my question is - should it be possible to manually wind this particular movement?

Thanks in advance 

Matt

[Nucejoe]

 Not a independent manual wind, but should wind manually while you can here all gears in winder module turn.

[oldhippy]

Many years ago where I worked we were agents for Longines and I can tell you you should be able to independently wind it.

[ManSkirtBrew]

Silly question, but any chance it's a screw-down crown?

I can't think of too many other reasons you wouldn't be able to turn the crown in the winding position, unless the winding pinion has rusted and bound up in the main plate or something like that.

I know several of my Seikos don't wind manually, but the crown still turns freely. It just doesn't wind the mainspring.

[oldhippy]

Correct the stem is threaded so the button screws on. Sometimes the button depending on it's type can get dirt in it and that can cause problems. 

[ManSkirtBrew]

1 hour ago, oldhippy said:

Correct the stem is threaded so the button screws on

Sorry, I meant screw-down onto the case tube like a dive watch.

[oldhippy]

As far as I remember no. 

[JohnR725]

do you know when the watch was last serviced? Sometimes things don't work right if the watch hasn't been serviced in a very long time.

[MattWatch]

Thanks chaps.

Had another look at the watch today and the crown turns anti clockwise fine, so actually nothing to do with the crown catching the case. It's just very very stiff to wind, to the point where it feels stuck and like any more force would probably break something. So looks like a fault inside as suggested above.

The watch was in a right old state when I got it, so seems all round like a service is in order.

Thanks again