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.
Good for you! I've got a 7-jewel Caravelle that's 55 years old. Had it since I was a kid. You think you could fix it to run?
They still hadn't sorted this common fault by 2006! I had my WM just convert to no screw down. The closest this will get to water is me drinking ice tea in the summers.
I can replace the crown.....I have exactly 20 minutes experience doing it. And I gave myself a watchmakers award for it. So if you want an award winning jr watchmaker to take a look, I'll give it a go.
Just FYI - it is normal/accepted practice that you replace both the crown and tube when you have stripped threads. Usually both are damaged, not just one or the other. If these threads fail in a short time, this is probably why.
Yeah, I got the tube with it but learned on this model the tube is soldered in, so since the threads were so clear in the existing tube, I decided I'll see how it goes. If new crown wears out in a couple years, it's just another 40 bucks. Plenty of crowns available cheap. And by then maybe it'll need a full service anyway.