Jump to content
When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
  • Current Donation Goals

Broken crown stem - is this saveable?


slai

Recommended Posts

Unless the stem and crown are of 2 different materials, ie brass and steel, you will end up doing more harm than good

with this method.

The acid in the vinegar is simply not strong enough by far to eat and bite into steel, let alone differentiate between the crown and the stem.

The crown needs to be colleted in a lathe and the broken stem drilled , a size smaller than the actual thread size.

The broken stem will then be able to be un-screwed leaving the original threads intact.

Tungsten carbide micro drills are used at 500 rpm with plenty of cutting oil.

I have drilled down to 0.3 mm dia. into hardened steel with no problems. ( no annealing or re-hardening required ).

White vinigar actually works well. And you don't need to wait a week. Overnight will usually do the trick. Though check it after a few hours and it may be loose enough that you can back the stub out with tweezers. Do this frequently with bridges. If your crown is also steel you got problems though. They do make watchmaker screwdrivers that can be used to back out a broken screw. A frequent repair on vintage watches are dial feet screws which always seem to get stripped by sloppy servicing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 year later...

Guys great thread here. I know I'm a little late to the party haha. Bought a Hublot Big Bang ceramic whose crown was broken and I have to remove the stem which obviously broke so that you can't remove it. I want to give the vinegar a go but, on the Hublot crown there is a rubber logo do I have to remove this one or is it ok to just leave the whole crown in the vinegar? Thanks for the help guys!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guys great thread here. I know I'm a little late to the party haha. Bought a Hublot Big Bang ceramic whose crown was broken and I have to remove the stem which obviously broke so that you can't remove it. I want to give the vinegar a go but, on the Hublot crown there is a rubber logo do I have to remove this one or is it ok to just leave the whole crown in the vinegar? Thanks for the help guys!

Had to do exactly the same on my hublot (chrono with pink gold case and ceramic bezel). It took 2 weeks to dissolve the stem with vinegar but it worked perfectly and no damage on crown or rubber.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jesus 2 weeks 😂😂. OK I'll start tomorrow. What vinegar did you use regular one like white vinegar or something else?

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

White one.

aceto-di-vino-classico-bianco-ponti.jpg

Kept in a closed (to avoid evaporation) little jar and on the boiler to keep it around 20°C to accelerate a bit :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

Hi guys, I know this is a very old thread but it sure saved my crown as the stem was broken inside. I have a new problem though, my crown was a screw crown, after soaking it in vinegar, not just did the stem dissolve (the crown and gasket were fine) but the spring inside the crown seems to have dissolved as well. Is there any way to replace the spring in my screw crown?

For now, I can still use it awkwardly, by pulling it as I set the time and date. Having to replace a entire crown would cost me about $300++ usd

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...
Please Sign In or Sign Up