Tech Research, Watchmaker

Journey as a Timelord; Part 4

Posted by AJ on

Finally! Three click springs later, I was able to reassemble the SW200 movement and wind (and set) the crown stem!

Meet the click spring (part 430; the click spring), also know as my problem child. Something that is smaller than a hair, but as strong as a staple. I have currently lost two of these in rebuilding the SW200 movement. On slight shake of the hand while inserting it into the main plate, and it springs out faster than the eye can catch. And there is no way to spot this thing easily when it does. Three more are ordered, as well as a pair of anti-magnetic Swiss made needle point tweezers...
Meet the click spring (part 430; the click spring), also know as my problem child. Something that is smaller than a hair, but as strong as a staple. I have currently lost two of these in rebuilding the SW200 movement. On slight shake of the hand while inserting it into the main plate, and it springs out faster than the eye can catch. And there is no way to spot this thing easily when it does.

Next order of business; using the M3 X .35 Tap to bore out the crown tube hole and set threads to take a Rolex style (7mm) screw down crown tube.

Making sure the tap was straight on, I slowly bored it into the case; surprisingly I got it on the first shot!

I used a Rolex tube wrench to set the tube; and again notice the difference in knock-off vs real parts. The tube did not have the grooves to receive the wrench! But, I managed to screw it in using a combination of the wrench and the crown itself. In retrospect- I should have also used a little thread-lock.

I got everything assembled, and on my wrist; it was running (and still is) like a champ! I noticed that the winding stem was a little off in fitting the tube hole, so pulled the stem (this time making sure the movement was pulled all the way out, to prevent the transmission in the keyless bridge from slipping) and realigned it.
However, upon reinserting it…the movement stopped. I immediately knew what happened; the keyless slipped again.

But- at least I know where to look to fix it. And, for the time being, version 2.0 of the “Bellingham Bay” is on my wrist. Next up; making a custom leather strap for it!

Originally published: http://www.ajbarse.com/blogs/post/Journey-as-a-Timelord-Part-4/