Comments on: Think like a Watchmaker

By: Jake

Jake — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 22:20:25 +0000

Was the customer Yuri Geller by any chance?

By: Tick Talk » Take the thinking caps off

Tick Talk » Take the thinking caps off — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:41:16 +0000

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By: Andrew DeKeyser

Andrew DeKeyser — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 18:36:06 +0000

i’m gonna have to agree with the movement not lined up with the tube. the dude tightened the case screws before screwing down the crown so the stem is always bent. but then again that could just be a parallax error.
if thats the case i would suspect the cannon pinion has frozen- but you can’t “see” that in a picture. or the hands are touching each other or a dial marker but you can’t see that here nor would that be enough to break the stem, you’d bend a hand first. gold vs. steel, steel will win every time.
this looks like a 1555 so there is no quickset feature eliminating any problems with setting the time near midnight. the stem being too short wouldn’t break anything on an automatic watch, it would just make it challenging to manually wind the watch.
Well you might be thinking with a 1500 that the automatic mechanism is always engaged with the manual winding mechanism and it turns the stem as the rotor winds the watch. in fact only the crown wheel and winding pinion turn- the sliding pinion simply skips over the Breguet teeth.
kudos Mathew, i didn’t notice that until i read your comment.

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 13:32:20 +0000

Looks to me like the stem-tube is coming unscrewed, and probably took the stem with it?

By: Mathew

Mathew — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 01:44:15 +0000

Without looking at the comments above, it looks to me from the cyclops alignment that the movement is not in the case straight, so after many revolutions of the stem the wear from the edge of the case caused it to wear down and eventually snap off.

-Mathew

By: J.Peter

J.Peter — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 04:16:13 +0000

Via E-mail

just a guess, but does it have to do with setting the time while the watch was advancing the day/date?

Eric

Dear Peter,

The time may be near midnight based on the dial setting. He may have tried to change the date and jammed the calendar mechanism; thereby twisting off the stem. This would take some big time abuse to break the stem. Did he also damage the calendar mechanism?

In the interests of full disclosure, I am not a watchmaker, just a confirmed watch nut.

By: Aaron Recksiek

Aaron Recksiek — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 23:09:36 +0000

The stem was cut too short for the watch. Thus not allowing the crown to center itself and properly disconnect from the hex/spring mechanism. Eventually putting too much pressure on the stem and snapping the somewhat brittle blued steel stem.

By: J.Peter

J.Peter — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 20:48:46 +0000

Chris & Seth Good guesses.

Let’s keep them coming. I’m not saying what the right answer is until next week.

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 20:29:17 +0000

I hear you’re not supposed to set the date on a Rolex between 2200h and 0200h due to the way the date complication works.

I’m thinking the owner decided to set the time before bed. Maybe he accidentally pulled the crown out to the date setting position, rather than time setting. the mechanism jammed, and the stem broke.

My other theory is that the the crown was not screwed down and through normal daily activity, it got bumped into the date setting position. The owner decided to wind the watch before bed, and gave it a spirited twist which broke the stem.

By: Seth Hollen

Seth Hollen — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 20:23:02 +0000

He didn’t keep the crown screwed down? the wobble in it eventually sheared the stem off I’m guessing.