Hello everyone, looking for a gold tone crown with female stem for a vintage Omega Seamaster De Ville 165.020 with a cal. 552. No luck on the Bay, can only find silver tone crowns. Cheers!

 

Ofrei may still have it. You'll likely need the male/female stem combination as well, and certainly at least the correct minute hand plus possibly the hour hand.

 

Modern should be available, but now they're gold plated and really don't match the older gold filled or gold cases

I had a bunch, but really wasn't a gold filled watch restorer, so sold them off in a lot sale. Didn't even keep a few back

Little harder to find now

Some Ebay sellers use NOS (new old stock) quite a bit. Even for the newer crowns

The new look like a shiny brass plating whereas the older ones have more of a warm gold look to them

DON

 

Do you need a reference number for the crown? I'm assuming that you already know but just in case you do not, I can get the number to make the search a little easier.

 

I'm hardly an Omega expert, so the crown reference would be helpful, thanks. Do they come installed with the female stem or is that separate? The movement itself is in great working order, and the male stem is working well.

I also tried looking for replacement hands on Ofrei and was a little disoriented. If you have guidance on that it would be great. Thanks!

 

Current crown listed for that case is 069SX42531. It won't come with the female split stem end, so you will need that as well - 081ST9992.

If the current crown matches the case colour depends on what case colour you have - this was made is several shades of gold, including pink gold, and 2N yellow gold, 3N yellow gold, and 1N gold cap, along with stainless steel.

Cheers, Al

 

Hi,
Al has given you great advice and the new reference number but the old reference number would be 43041 as listed by the old Omega reference chart. There is one listed on eBay with the female stem for $41, The auction number is 122183712600.
I hope this helps, please advise if this works for you. Thanks

 

The eBay one comes with the female stem already attached. This would be a bit of a gamble whether it would fit or not.

 

It would be a small gamble, if it doesn't fit you cannot file either parts of the stem. The price is the same as a newer style crown without the female post and if I remember correctly the post can be removed and the correct size piece can be added to the crown.

 

Thanks everyone, I'm fairly confident M.C.B 1974's suggested auction will work so I pulled the trigger on that. Worst case, the new crown goes into my parts bin!

TNTwatch was correct in pointing out that the minute hand is incorrect to the watch (I believe the hour/seconds hands are ok). Anybody aware of spare set of hands available anywhere?

Again, many thanks for the help! Cheers.

 

The male portion in the movement is a fixed length, but the female portion can be filed - obviously the threaded section that goes into the crown.

And trhe price for that crown is more than a new crown from Omega is with them stem that can be cut to fit...

 

Hi Al,
Hopefully the crown and stem fits his watch without altering, Not sure if there would be extra treaded section on that stem, I had many old stock crowns from Omega and other brands that were factory fitted with male and female stems and there was no extra thread to be filed.
Have you ever encountered crowns like that?
Best regards,
Martin

 

I can't recall seeing split stems like this, however Omega does supply one piece stems that are not trimmed for a number of their watches, like this one:





Of course these are specific to the case number, because any change in size of the case means this stem would no longer work. The same would be true with a split stem of a fixed length as you are suggesting this one is. It may be the correct crown for that case number, but that crown could have been used on a number of cases, since that is often done. If this specific part came off another case that is of a different diameter, it won't fit this case if what you are saying is true.

Typically the female split stems that I have seen are very much like a normal stem that has to be trimmed to the correct length - that is the style of stem I listed the part number for above. As I mentioned the male end that is in the movement is a fixed length, and the female portion is the one that can be altered to fit.

Cheers, Al

 

I don't know if the on listed on eBay is a fixed length, I was just suggesting that if it was and didn't fit it could be removed and have another one fitted as you described.
Thank you for replying back with me, As I have much respect for your knowledge and expertise and your willingness to share. I do not know much and look forward learning from you and other members on the forums for years to come.
Best regards,
Martin

 

How do you know the male stem is working well? Does it hold a female stem firmly? How does it look?

If it doesn't fit, you can still use the crown, just take a bit more time to buy a separate female stem then. Same goes for the male stem, just some more time, but still available.

New hand doesn't appear to be available at the common parts suppliers any more, so you may need to look for an old hand (which may or may not match the existing hour hand). It should look similar in shape to the one below, has some lume and reaches the minute track.

Good luck.

 

I have a male split stem if he needed one.

 

I can't even comment on the hands, eBay maybe but it's like a needle in a hay stack. LOL

 

HI SeaSubRod,
If you need a female split stem I just found a few that I had. You have the crown coming and if you need either stem part, I can help you.

 

The thread tap is .9

 

Here are some crowns fitted with the stem I mentioned.