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hi everyone i’ve been looking for the answer to this question on lots of other forms and no one will give me the answer how do i measure an old winding stem to get a replacement, and what to do when there is no stem or crown
Hi Showaddywaddy,
Well, I remember running across a website a while back that had a lot of good info about the different types of stems and how to measure for them but of course now that I want to put the link up here it’s no where to be found.
Looking at your pic I see that your watch (I’m guessing here) has the Russian ZIM movement which is positive set. Being positive set makes it much easier to cross reference the dimensions to another available stem than if it were negative set. If negative set you would be dealing with the case manufacturers requirements for the different type of case sleeves etc. There are many different styles of stems when dealing with negative setting.
The attached pic shows the dimensions that you would need to know if cross referencing to another stem in the Bestfit catalog. You would also need to know the tap size of your crown ie: tap 2, tap 3 etc.
Since you have the broken stem in this case it is just a matter of getting the measurements shown in the pic.
If you didn’t have a stem to measure off of and couldn’t locate one by caliber number then these dimensions can be derived from the placement of the movement setting components by marking length distances on a piece of small diameter brass round stock inserted into the winding hole passing through all components and then marking where each component sits along this brass rod as well as the active travel distance of the clutch.
Note that it’s important that the stem pilot fits into and rests at the bottom of the pilot hole when making these measurements so you may need to turn down the pilot diameter on the brass rod a little more to fit into the pilot hole. When sitting in this position the clutch should be pulled back and in the winding position (stem pushed all the way in). In this position it will be engaged with the winding wheel. You can then establish diameters by using round hole gauges which you can turn out of brass or you can just use the shanks of a drill bits. You can also determine the square dimension by inserting a round gauge into the square hole in the clutch. Marking out a stem isn’t nearly as complicated as it sounds here and once you try it you’ll understand exactly what’s going on.Let me know if any (or all) of this is unclear.
Hope this helps,Bob
Bob that is a good help to me as I’ve been looking to duplicate a broken stem and one missing stem. I think, but I’m not sure, that American movements were fitted with stems and those were matched to the case design? I say this as most of the big 5 all show winding stem replacements in their catalogs. If the stems were provided by the case manufacturer how could they possibly know what movement would mate with the empty case?
I’ve been trying to find more info on this for my own personal interest, but I could be way off over here
Hi Chris,
Yes I think that’s pretty much the case. There is a huge variety of stems and sleeves to choose from for American pocket watches. I’m pretty much in the dark myself about how this all worked back then. My thinking though (caution: could be hazardous to your health) is that the movements didn’t necessarily come with stems like the newer positive setting movements do. These days when you order a movement like the ETA (Unitas) 6497-98 the stem will be in the movement. This is something that positive setting made possible since sleeves were no longer an issue. Back in the sleeved pocket watch case days most watches were sold from jewelry stores with a customer having a choice of movement, dial, hands and case. The jeweler would then combine them to make a complete watch. So all I can figure is that the jeweler would have the stems and sleeves on hand for whatever movements as well as cases were carried in the store. So if for example the store sold Elgin, Illinois and Waltham 12s and 16s movements with a selection of Fayhs and Keystone cases to choose from then the store would have on hand all the stems and sleeves to fill any possible combination of those movements and cases? Not sure about this but kind of makes sense to me. It’s a bit like back in the 50s and 60s when one jeweler would carry Bulova watches while another down the street carried Hamilton. Each store would have most crystals, crowns and often parts for the watches they carried.Again I’m not sure that any of what I just said here is actually the case but just thinkin’
Bob
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