Removing Play in Graham Chrono Lever

[Bike Mike]

If you own a few Grahams or even one, some of them tend to have a issue with the big lever, used to start/stop the chronos…you know, the bottle opener looking thing. The lever can have a lot of up and down play in it causing it to wobble around and becoming annoying at times. Out of the 4 Grahams that I have owned, 2 of them have exhibited the same problem with excessive play in the chrono lever. I have found this issue is not so much to do with the lever, but more to do with the thickness of the case piece the lever actually attaches to. Across the 4 Grahams I own, the this thickness varies by as much as 0.5mm. The 2 watches I had issues with were both 0.45 and 0.5mm thinner in the area the lever mounts, then my two Grahams I consider not to have this issue. Also, some of these are not the flattest of interfacing areas.

So I sat down tonight to execute a solution that I have been thinking about over the past couple of days. First step is to remove the lever. What seems to be a screw that is removed with a allen wrench is not, but instead it is half of a pin that presses into the lower half. I fine blade screw driver between the lever and case makes a nice pry-bar. With some care and pressure the pin will separate into 2 pieces allowing you to remove the lever.

Next using a file, I rough up the underside of the housing where the inner lower piece of the lever would interface and apply a small amount of JB Weld to build up a “pad” if you will. JB Weld is some great material if you have ever used it. I have used this stuff to repair 2 stroke engine cases that run at 30,000rpm and am yet to have a failure. Take your time here and don’t get too crazy with the JB Weld. You have plenty of time to work with the material before it begins to cure.

After a good 12 hours of cure time, I filed down the JB Weld pad I built up to the proper thickness. The more time you take here the better your lever will fit. You want the lever to fit tight so you don’t have up/down slop, but you don’t want such a tight fit that the lever can not be returned by the start/stop button spring. After a couple measurements and test fittings of the lever, I felt that I had reached the proper thickness of material I wanted left behind. You can also square up the pad if you want to go that route, but you will never see this once the lever is installed.

I reinstalled the lever and pin halves and gave it a go….Perfect! No more wobble or jingle sound coming from my watch when wearing it around. You can see how the pad causing the underside of the top portion of the lever to hold nicely against the case stopping that up/down slop from being a annoying.

[jchurch]

Great fix for that sloppy lever that shows up on these things.

[Samurai]

I've fixed the lever on 3 of my Grahams with a very simple solution that was discussed when the Grahams were launched a couple yrs back.

Take a medium thickness cloth and put it on the lever screw/pin. Use a plier and gentle squeeze/apply pressure on the pin. Voila...the lever becomes nice and taut.

[Rolexman]

Great tutorial for an ugly watch

Thanks for the time and info mate!