- Posts
- 3,104
- Likes
- 14,520
Wryfox
·I've a Breitling 17040 SuperOcean (circa 1998), runs beautiful(+4/day, 0.1 BE) except the screw down crown has stripped. Its been going out for the last year with only 1/2 turn left and then bam two weeks ago the last bit stripped.
Looking up the cost to repair...with no watchmakers anywhere nearby I looked at the Breitling website for service, and it looks like 490 for the service and then ~250 for crown/case repair, and they would probably recommend hands and crystal for another ~300, so basically a grand to get it to as-new, which I would have heaved a heavy sigh and probably done it....except the case is clean and the movement is running great as I note above, but Breitling won't do a repair without a service so then I thought 'hey my jr watchmaker license is still good' (the one I gave myself about 5yrs ago). Assuming good design I'm thinking the crown is the sacrificial wear part between the crown and case tube, and then looking into the tube I see threads clearly (and inside the crown I didn't see any, as expected).
So off to ebay I go and find a crown for $40, and then to youtube for confirmation my expected repair steps are right (an Esslinger video no less...cool).
Took about 20 minutes start to finish. Now I have 4 full screwdown winds back and everything is hunky dory!
Wanted to share this as most of us know not every watch project turns out this easy, or cheap.
Looking up the cost to repair...with no watchmakers anywhere nearby I looked at the Breitling website for service, and it looks like 490 for the service and then ~250 for crown/case repair, and they would probably recommend hands and crystal for another ~300, so basically a grand to get it to as-new, which I would have heaved a heavy sigh and probably done it....except the case is clean and the movement is running great as I note above, but Breitling won't do a repair without a service so then I thought 'hey my jr watchmaker license is still good' (the one I gave myself about 5yrs ago). Assuming good design I'm thinking the crown is the sacrificial wear part between the crown and case tube, and then looking into the tube I see threads clearly (and inside the crown I didn't see any, as expected).
So off to ebay I go and find a crown for $40, and then to youtube for confirmation my expected repair steps are right (an Esslinger video no less...cool).
Took about 20 minutes start to finish. Now I have 4 full screwdown winds back and everything is hunky dory!
Wanted to share this as most of us know not every watch project turns out this easy, or cheap.
