hamilton watch

[jerseyben]

Bought a semi-rare vintage Hamilton men's watch. Needs a band. Cannot determine if it runs because it is missing the crown. How difficult would it be to replace the crown? I see you can buy a crown on ebay for about $10. The movement looks clean and moves when touched with a pen tip, so there is hope that it will run.

 

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[Nitric]

It's not hard at all if it's just the crown.....If the stem is still there. The only thing that might be tough is finding the correct crown that fits the case and the thread size of the stem. Some hamiltons had what they called split stems, it was a two piece stem that snapped together. And a lot of the watches I find the crown end of the split stem and crown are missing.

If you can see the stem threads? Then you should be able to just thread one on......Basically......

 

[jerseyben]

I don't see any threads. Looks like a hole where it should be.

 

[Nitric]

I don't see any threads. Looks like a hole where it should be.

You may need a stem too, If you look on the inside at the movement and there is nothing sticking out? You need a stem...But that can get into other problems, the part that holds the stem in may either be broken,wore out, or just loosened up over time....To get the stem you will have to find the number on the movement, not the serial number, there will be another number.... off hand I think most for hamilton are 3 digit numbers. not sure.....With that number you can look on ebay for a stem.....If you wanted to dig into it that far... It's not hard at all, just time consuming sometimes tracking down parts...

 

[Nitric]

If you can post a pic of the movement...I may have the parts...I have some random stuff yet for wrist watches...

 

[jerseyben]

I am fairly certain that the stem is broken off in the movement. The movement has the numbers 770 with "adj" and "22 jewels". I believe this is the vintage "Hamilton Valiant" model.

 

[JimDon]

If you know what you're doing is not too hard to replace the crown and crown stem. That being said I ruined a couple watches trying to do it the first few times. 770 is a solid movement so if everything else is in good condition is probably worth fixing