One of the most frequent jobs we tackle in our watch repair workshop involves replacing the watch crown and/or stem. The crown, also known as the winder, is used to both set the time, and to wind up a mechanical watch. If the watch crown is pulled out incorrectly, or caught in a certain way, it’s quite easy to break it off. Depending on how it’s broken, we may be able to recover the original crown, and simply replace the stem. If the watch crown itself is damaged, or the stem is broken absolutely flush with the crown, this may require the crown to be fully replaced.
Assessing a watch for repair
In this example we are replacing both the crown and stem on a Raymond Weil chronograph watch. You can see the watch stem has broken very close to the crown itself, so this will make removing the old stem extremely difficult. In some instances we can do this, but most often a new crown will be needed. If you look closely, you can see how water damage has affected the stem, causing it to rust. This has weakened the stem and over time has led to it being so weak it has broken.
We were able to source an original crown for this Raymond Weil watch model, as well as a replacement stem. To fit the new crown and stem we need to trim the stem to fit. For this we fit the stem to the watch movement and measuring off how much excess metal we need to remove. We use the old broken stem as a guide. The stem is removed from the watch movement, and held in a pin vice. It is trimmed and filed down, allowing the new crown to fit smoothly.
Replacing the watch crown
There’s a bit of an art to getting the stem to the exact size, and it really is a case of practice makes perfect. The crown should sit flush against the side of the watch case, without a gap. Care is needed, if the stem is cut short, the stem won’t reach far enough into the movement, causing the watch movement to be stuck in date-change, or hand-setting mode (or if it’s cut far too short, it won’t be held in place at all!).
When we are happy with the fitting, we again remove the crown and stem, then take the crown off. We put a tiny drop of threadlock glue on the end of the stem, before reattaching the new replacement crown. This allows us to be doubly sure the new crown will remain in place long into the future. Now we refit the crown and stem, and that’s this part of the job done!
Expert watch repair service
In addition to the steps outlined above, we often take care of additional jobs at the same time. For example cleaning the case and bracelet, replacing the glass or fitting a new battery. Our watchmaking workshop is well equipped to deal with a wide variety of repairs to almost all watches, both modern and vintage.
Do you have a watch in need of replacement parts or a new crown? Contact us to see how we can help. We offer a watch repairs service both locally via our shops in Lewes and Uckfield, as well as nationally via our fully insured secure postal repairs service. Our master watchmaker in an expert in the repair of watches and have the skills to take on a huge variety of repairs. We are business partners of the British Horological Institute, and hold a Platinum Trusted Service award from Feefo – testament to the consistent, excellent reviews we receive from our clients.
Yours sincerely
David Clark PJDip PJGemDip CertGA
Managing Director