I Did It!

[stroppy]

I finally worked up the nerve to potter about inside the guts of a watch.  A friend of mine came to visit just the other day and showed me a rather inexpensive "Winner" brand mechanical wind-up watch he bought off Ebay (new) for $12.  The problem was that his youngest son (a ten year old) had popped open the crown so violently that the stem broke.  My friend went off to the local flea market to see if he could get the watch repaired cheaply but the owner of the stall he frequents was away and his wife could not repair the watch BUT she did potter about in her husband's spare parts bin and came up with two stems which would likely fit the watch and charged my friend a dollar for both stems.

 

So he turned up at my place on Sunday and asked if I could have a look.  I screwed the "glass window" caseback off easily.  It required minimal effort and seems not have been closed properly tight at the Chinese factory.  Anyway, I peered inside with my magnifying specs on and looked at what was obviously a Tongji SCM movement with seventeen jewels.  I knew that the little winding stem release point was easy to work with these watches and, luckily, a bit of the old stem was still sticking out.  So I used a micro screwdriver to push the release point and a pair of fine tweezers to pull the broken stem piece out.  It worked!

 

Next I took one of the stems my friend had bought along and wiped some WD40 on it with a cotton bud.  I then pushed the crown in and, miracles of miracles, it locked in first go!  I was able to wind the watch and adjust the hands without any trouble at all.  I was very proud of myself for overcoming my shaky hands and silly eyes to have achieved this simple repair.  

 

I then put the caseback back into position and used my caseback tool to tighten it up.  There was no rubber seal to deal with at all which I thought a bit odd.

 

Anyway, the watch is now working and my friend reports it gains less than 15 seconds a week.  Not bad for $12 !!!

 

Edited February 8, 2016 by stroppy

[Geo]

Well done Stroppy, it's a good feeling when a plan comes together.

Chronometer performance for $12................amazing!

[stroppy]

Well done Stroppy, it's a good feeling when a plan comes together.

Chronometer performance for $12................amazing!

 

Thank you, kind sir!  I don't think my mate's getting chronometer performance out of the watch and I think he's being optimistic about the gain being only around 15 seconds a week.  I reckon it might be closer to thirty or so but if he's happy, who am I to argue? :)

 

I'm just so chuffed that the repair worked and the new crown and stem went in first go.

 

As far as the watch is concerned it actually looked really good.  The movement seemed to be well finished, definitely a Tongji with 17 jewels and it all seemed nice and tight.  The hands were not wobbly like you get on many cheap watches.

 

The only thing which mystified me was why there was no rubber gasket on the caseback.  I've ordered a package with a mixed lot of gaskets off a seller from Ebay so maybe I might fit a gasket to it when my mate next visits.

[Geo]

Chronometer performance is -4 to +6 seconds within a 24 hour period, so if he is getting +30 per week that's still well in at +4.2 seconds a day!

[stroppy]

Chronometer performance is -4 to +6 seconds within a 24 hour period, so if he is getting +30 per week that's still well in at +4.2 seconds a day!

 

Well just goes to show that even an el-cheapo 17 jewel CSM Chinese watch can work just fine if it is assembled right, I suppose. :)

[bobm12]

The name says it all: WINNER! :)

[ro63rto]

It is very satisfying.

Just remember to never use wd40 on any watch you actually care about [emoji16]

No gasket because none of these cheap watches are waterproof/resistant.

Some sellers even warn you not to wear them while washing your hands.

Edited February 9, 2016 by ro63rto

[stroppy]

It is very satisfying.

Just remember to never use wd40 on any watch you actually care about [emoji16]

No gasket because none of these cheap watches are waterproof/resistant.

Some sellers even warn you not to wear them while washing your hands.

 

 

Hi Roberto.  Yes...this isn't the sort of watch one can wear while tooling about watering the garden or washing the car.  I bet it'd be like a fish tank if you tried that!  :)

 

Is WD40 bad to use as a watch lubricant?  I didn't have any watch-grade lubricating oil and so I had to improvise.

[jdm]

Is WD40 bad to use as a watch lubricant?

Yes, it's bad. It's not even a true lubricant but more like an aggressive cleaner for large pieces.

[ro63rto]

Yes. As said above.

It is actually a Water Dispersant not a lubricant. The 40 is the number of the amount of times they tweaked the formula (made from fish etc I think) until they perfected it.

Leaves an absolute mess behind.

I think Mark posted something once illustrating this.

Edited February 13, 2016 by ro63rto

[Vich]

Hello Stroppy and well done with the repair,

 

The value of the watch was incidental,  the fact that you followed the routine through and fixed it is the important part so you get a :thumbsu: fom me.

 

Cheers,

 

Vic