Can't set time on A7750 movement. Help!

[ahro23]

Just received my first new rep from Andrew this afternoon and was SUPER excited. I took a whole bunch of pics (which I'll post in a review thread later), set the rubber strap into the right spot on the deployment buckle then tried to set the time and that's where things went bad....

 

I opened up the crown guard and pulled out the crown to set the time. It came out but when I turned it nothing happened to the hands. I figured maybe I didn't pull it out enough, pulled a little more and heard a pretty satisfying pop (as with normal watches) and the crown would turn with almost no resistance and nothing would happen to the hands. I took the crown guard off to see what was going on and the crown just came out along with a tiny spring:

 

 

 

I did a quick search about this little spring and I guess it's common with Panerais for water resistance? I picked the watch up over lunch so didn't really have a ton of time to play with it, but I'm really not sure what to do here. I'll try to put the spring back on the little post and see if I can line up the crown correctly but does anyone else have any recommendations? Thank you in advance!

[Rolexman]

Crown clutch is gone. You will need a new crown. Email Andrew.

[ahro23]

Crown clutch is gone. You will need a new crown. Email Andrew.

Just shot him an email and attached the photo. Thank you for looking at it!

 

Edit: So when/if he sends me a new crown, I'm assuming the tiny spring still needs to go on the little post, correct? I'll probably be bumping this thread again once I can get a fix.

Edited April 3, 2014 by ahro23

[ahro23]

So I heard back from Andrew earlier this evening and he seemed confused when I told him there was no crown clutch. Would it help to send him a picture of the crown assembly I currently have? He did mention that any disassembly would void any kind of warranty I would have with him and this watch.

[SSTEEL]

Just tell him the crown is broken, and you need a replacement.

 

You can discard the small spring, and old crown when he new one turns up.  You need to extract that stem though to fit the new crown, and it won't be easy looking at your photo.

[krpster]

The crown can also be repaired if you have all the parts. The small spring is often the piece that is lost. If you have that the rest should be inside the case. Here are a few shots of one that I repaired not too long ago on a 236K.

 

Looked like this when I removed the stem from the watch

 

Here are all the parts after I rescured the clutch cap from inside the case (stuck in the stem hole of the movement spacer)

 

Partially assembled with some loctite to prevent the clutch cap from coming loose again

 

All done beside another PAM auto crown for reference

[ahro23]

Thanks for the reply krpster, that's going to be super helpful! Can you please walk me through pulling out the rest of the stem though? I've never done anything like that before and it looks like a pretty tight spot to get a grip on what's left in the watch to grab it. Sorry if I'm asking a silly question

[krpster]

You need to open the case back and push the stem release on the back of the movement. Looks like this

 

 

Then you can use tweezers to gently pull out the stem. You will likely need to remove the movement spacer ring as well to get the clutch cap unless it comes out the crown tube when you remove the stem. Once you have all the pieces out take a shot and lets see what you have.

 

Reassembly is pretty straight forward but having a pin vice is helpful for installing the clutch cap back on the crown to make sure it is good and tight. Also blue loctite is your friend for this and also reattaching the crown to the stem. Not too much, just enough to keep them from coming loose again.