How long is your stem?

[Gorilladame]

Good morning!

I just received one of the last parts for my Yuki 1680, a fresh ETA 2824-2 movement from switzerland.

First thing was to mount the Tudor rotor and it looks fantastic ;-)

But as I am not a big fan of try and error on this project I would ask you how long your 1680 stemps are and how you shorten them.

Thank you very much for your help in advance...

[alligoat]

Stem length can certainly be a process of trial and error. You can screw the crown onto the stem further, but at some point you're going to have to cut the stem if it's too long. With the movement in the case, you have to install the stem and see where it is that it functions- set time, quick set date and wind. Then you screw it down on the case tube. If it's too far out, you're going to have to cut it and rescrew the crown on. You can use a pair of end nippers to cut the stem, just make sure you don't booger up the end of the threads. I don't know if there are special cutters or a die for cleaning up the threads on the end of the stem. Maybe you could file down the end of the stem if you had to- give it a taper so it will screw into the stem.

You could check your stem against another one in another movement to get an idea of what length you need to be at. Stems are cheap if you have to buy another one.

[Gorilladame]

I have a MBW 1680 with a 2824 here, so the stem lenght might be the same...

This is going to cost me a lot of my weekend, as always, hope there is a good movie on this evening for Mrs. Gorilla

[freddy333]

Fitting a new stem generally requires only a pair of wire cutters (nippers), possibly a file (if you booger up the cut, leaving sharp bits sticking out sideways making it difficult to screw the crown onto the stem) & takes 10 or so minutes. As Alligoat said, it requires some trial-&-error, which is pretty much unavoidable because you have to cut the stem to fit your particular case & crown. So put everything together, check all the setting functions & see how far it is from being able to screw down (fully) onto the tube. Most likely, being a new stem, it will need to be cut shorter in order to be able to get the crown to fit all the way down over the tube. So, remove the stem & unscrew the crown from the stem. Cut the stem a small bit, reassemble & retry. If it is still too long, disassemble & cut again. Continue the process until you get the correct fit. Be careful not to become impatient & cut too much or you will end up back here posting a 'I cut my stem too short, now what do I do?' (you buy another & be more careful next time ).

[Gorilladame]

Be careful not to become impatient & cut too much or you will end up back here posting a 'I cut my stem too short, now what do I do?' (you buy another & be more careful next time ).

I will try my best with the MBW stem as a blueprint

BTW: I already looked for eta stems on eBay ;-)

[reelmin]

I just replaced mine in my wm9 sub yesterday. I was in the same boat as you. This was my first attempt at replacing these items. I removed the old stem and measured it with calipers, it measured right at 20mm. I carefully held the stem with some very small needle nose pliers and unscrewed the crown from the stem. I placed the new stem next to the old stem and marked it 2mm longer than the old one,(easier to make the new one shorter, hard to make it longer!!!). Then I screwed the new stem into the crown and measured it with the calipers, in my case it was exactly 22mm. Yours may be different if it was screwed in more or less than mine. I then unscrewed the stem from the crown, and cut of 2mm with some small diagonal cutters. I applied a TINY bit of red loctite (not sure about this one) to the stem and screwed it into the stem and measured again. It measured 20mm. I reinstalled the stem into the watch/movement and it worked like a champ. I am not a watchmaker... I just figured if I make the old one the same length as the new one it should work and it did. I would like other members to chime in on my methods, so I"m not a complete HACK. I just wanted to share what worked for me....One watch nut to another. Hope this helps you.

Reelmin

Fish on!!!

[Gorilladame]

Hi!

Thanks for your info.

Actually I did it just like you, I only had to cut it 4 times as I was a bit more of a coward

But in the end it worked very smooth.

After being such a McGyver I even mounted the movement in the yuki case with some Rodico as a movement holder and it also worked like a charm.

worst part was placing the hands, as always.

Now I am only waiting for the datedisc overlay and the spacer and will do the whole stuff again, but on the other hand I could wear the watch on the weekend (with the date 2 mm aside :-( )

And guess what the movement is keeping time perfectly OTB

[Brightight]

It needs to be a trial and error process as sometimes a new crown will screw further or not so far onto the stem than the old one. Personally the last little bit I take off with a file, that way I don't distort the thread and have to file it down further than is good for it, something I learned from past mistakes!

Bear in mind it's not a big deal, new stems are very cheap from watch parts supply houses (Cousins UK