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Wobbly 2-Piece Crown Repair: Watchmaking Advice

ErichKeane
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OK, I've had someone ask me to look at their old IWC frontloader 8541-based watch. Super pretty dial, but missing a crown and outer female stem part.

Not my photo, but the same model of watch:

1785332261634.webp



I've looked a bunch, and the female stem part and crown are all NLA (only Scotch watch parts lists the stem, and he's not got one that he thinks will work).

SO I picked up a generic female stem part, and am using a generic crown (friend JUST wants to wear it!). A 4.5mm crown looks about right, a 5mm crown is too big for the cutout FWIW.

Anyway, I got it all together and the crown works but it 'wobbles'. It does seem like trying to tighten the actual 'clip' part might be difficult (it isn't a special shape it seems, but it is entirely in the shape?

So it got me wondering: should the stem/some sort of crown extension go into the hole in the case? I see some 'long tube' watch crowns, but nothing of the right size. The hole in the case is right about 1.90 mm (I can get a 0.074 gauge pin in, but a 0.075 is tight).

OR am I missing some sort of mechanism that is supposed to keep these tight/not wobbly in a 2 piece stem?
 
Archer
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So, not the crown that is wobbly itself, but the 2 part stem?

The male part could be worn, or could be of a different enough shape that the generic female stem might not be connecting properly.

Omega sometimes used small spacers to stabilize the 2 piece stem inside the case, but the case had a cut out designed to fit that spacer.

You could possibly turn something on the lathe to fit inside the case tube that would help keep it more steady...or use some small O-rings maybe?
 
ErichKeane
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Archer Archer
So, not the crown that is wobbly itself, but the 2 part stem?

The male part could be worn, or could be of a different enough shape that the generic female stem might not be connecting properly.

Omega sometimes used small spacers to stabilize the 2 piece stem inside the case, but the case had a cut out designed to fit that spacer.

You could possibly turn something on the lathe to fit inside the case tube that would help keep it more steady...or use some small O-rings maybe?
Yes, it is in the joint between the two. I could definitely believe that their shape is different enough from each other, either wear or just design difference. I was kind of hoping that the stability wasn't intended to come from that 馃榾

The lathe turned spacer is an interesting idea... I could shape it with a way to keep it from falling out,which is probably the right way here (mechanical hold rather than loctite'ing it in place?).

Thanks for the idea!
 
sheepdoll
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The little half moon spacers used in the dynamic cases can be cut/milled using a laser cutter. I am thinking that I have some scraps of HDPE that might be even better for this. And the laser is overkill, since it is mostly a turning and drilling operation.
 
redpcar
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Does the o-ring inside the crown fit tight on the tube?
 
ErichKeane
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redpcar redpcar
Does the o-ring inside the crown fit tight on the tube?
There IS no tube on this watch. I actually am not sure that it even uses one. I DO have a stash of press-in-case tubes, I wonder if any would fit this...
sheepdoll sheepdoll
The little half moon spacers used in the dynamic cases can be cut/milled using a laser cutter. I am thinking that I have some scraps of HDPE that might be even better for this. And the laser is overkill, since it is mostly a turning and drilling operation.
I don't have a laser cutter 馃榾 What do you mean by 'half moon spacers'? Can you share a picture?
 
sheepdoll
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They are described in one of @Archer's threads. If you search watchmaking you can find the thread.

edit: I see he posted the same time I did.
 
ErichKeane
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sheepdoll sheepdoll
They are described in one of @Archer's threads. If you search watchmaking you can find the thread.

edit: I see he posted the same time I did.
I think I know even less than I did before the picture 馃榿
 
ErichKeane
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Archer Archer
Here it is in place:

414f66d0-1e69-4cc0-82f3-cad22b7f05ee.webp
OH! That IS really helpful! I see now! Hmm... No reason I couldn't figure out how to fab something like that! The only 'unfortunate' bit here is that the case tube isn't in the middle of that half-moon cutout on this case! Maybe this is reason for me to actually use that UV 3d printer I never setup 馃榿
 
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