Tiny fiddly crown: how do you wind it?!

Hi All

Got this gorgeous 165.002 which shares a crown and case with many other late 1960s references.



Now I'm used to all kinds of watches, old and new, but the crown on this is tiny -- very hard to grasp and even harder to turn. It's just so darn fiddly. Best I can manage is a sort of back-and-forth twiddle.

I have several watches and like to give them all a go on my wrist; my normal practice with automatics that have run down is to "charge" the mainspring with maybe 20 to 30 turns before putting it on and letting the rotor take over.

Is there a knack to these? Or is it just a design flaw? (Well, maybe not a flaw: I guess whoever came up with this pinhead crown wasn't thinking of people like me and assumed it would be rarely used, and mostly only for setting the hands to correct the time once in a while.)

Thanks

People must have been smaller back in the day…

its all about the right technique

Is also possible that a watchmaker may ease the rotation of the stem, may be clean and lubricate, or check the friction of o-rings inside crown

That's what she said. Just before she left me.

You should have no problems if you simply rub gently backwards and forwards with the outside of your index finger.

Although I’ve found that it can become a little sore if you do it a lot.