I've been exploring watch repair / disassembly / reassembly as a hobby and am working with a cheap omega 565 movement purchased from Ebay.

As I try to improve my technique, I fear I've made a mistake that I'm having trouble diagnosing. I had everything put together except the balance and the rotor on the automatic winding mechanism. The stem turns very nicely to wind the mainspring, but when I pull out to the time adjustment position, the stem becomes very hard to turn. It also has a 3rd date-set position, and it works as expected. I disassembled and re-assembled the entire movement but the problem persisted. Unfortunately, it persisted to the point that I broke off the tip of the stem right at the square barrel part.

I have a spare stem to work with, but would appreciate any tips on what I should look for in remedying the situation upon the next disassembly / reassembly.

 

I do believe so. I've assembled and re-assembled them a few times now and the 3-click mechanisms worked nicely when i pushed and pulled the stem. The parts were cleaned (using appropriate cleaning and rinsing solutions in a sonicator) prior to this last round of assembly/disassembly, and I had oiled the parts on the initial re-construction.