Hi guys,

I decided to wear my beloved 1153 yesterday. The date was wrong by a couple of weeks (as much as can be, as usual , that's typical...). As I went through the "semi-quick-date" sequence (wind back to 10pm, wind up to 2am, wind back to 10pm, wind up to 2am, ...) the crown became unusually stiff after 10 date changes... I gave up, not wanting to damage anything.

First time this happens to me.

Here's a pic of the watch, btw- with the wrong date as you'd expect



Any experts here to chime in beyond the usual "get it serviced"?

Thanks in advance for your help,

Paul

 

I've done this a number of times with all of my Chronomatic movement watches and can't say I've noticed anything like what you describe. "Get it serviced" may indeed be the way to go - how long has it been since the last service?

 

If you stop, let it rest for a while, then try it again, does it feel looser again? If so then it could be the crown seal, as I have some watches that prolonged turning of the crown will warm up the seal, cause it to expand, and make it significantly more difficult to turn. Letting it rest for a bit will usually bring it back to where it was - some additional grease on the crown seal may help this long term.

If it doesn't ease up, then time for it to be looked at. Note that these have an offset cannon pinion system, with the cannon pinion on the third wheel (I think - going from memory here) and these can be problematic for getting the right amount of friction - parts tend to be difficult to get for this spot as well, so not something you want to mess around with if that is giving you problems.

Cheers, Al

 

Thank you so much Al as usual for the quality answer. Apologies for not acknowledging it earlier.

Interesting - I was thinking also thinking about a heat build-up problem, because, yes, after a few minutes it was back to normal. I wasn't sure this could be the case in watches (but I happen to have shot my car's rotors after a spirited driving down an alpine pass a few weeks ago, so this was definitely on top of my mind).

Should I spray some generous amounts of WD40 in there?!?

Thank you very much for your input,

Best Regards,
Paul

 

NOT WD-40! Silicone grease specifically for the seals on a watch case. Don’t use WD-40 on anything you are not planning to throw out!

 

I know... it's a joke... hence the smiley...