Even if it's a lever-set watch, you'll be able to snap the crown out a notch if it's a swing-out case. So the answer is simple: just be sure to pull the crown and stem out into the 'setting position' before trying to swing-out the movement. To make it worse, when that happens, you'll be so upset that you won't notice the little broken stem part rolling around inside the case, and it will fall out and be lost, making it much more difficult for your watchmaker to reproduce the stem without being able to measure the broken pieces. If you force it, as many people oddly seem to believe is the right way to proceed, you will almost certainly break the stem, and then you will no longer be able to wind or set the watch. If you attempt to swing the movement up and out of the case, you will feel resistance when you start bending the stem sideways. The winding stem, which connects the winding knob (the crown) to the watch mechanism, is still engaged in the movement. Often there's a little notch opposite the hinge where you can insert a thumbnail or case-knife to lift up the movement.īut here's where most folks get in trouble. Once the bezel is removed, you'll see that the movement mounting ring is hinged, usually at the 12:00 position (sometimes at the 3:00 as in the photos below). To open a swing-out case, you first remove the front bezel and crystal, which is almost always a screw-off front. The swing-ring case was advertised as the most dust-proof and moisture-proof case of its time. The case body and back are made as one piece, so there is no separation between the case back and the case body.

That's because the watch movement is mounted in a ring which is hinged to the inside of the case body. More people damage their watches trying to open swing-ring cases than any other case style. Weekly and Horological Review, March 13, 1901. I've never seen a case that wasn't a standard right-hand thread, so righty-tighy lefty-loosey applies.Ĭrescent Watch Case Company ad for Swinging If it's a screw-off back there should be no sign of a hinge attaching the back to the body. For a screw-off back, you should be able to see a seam-line that separates the back from the body of the case. Let's look at each of these in more detail: Screw-off Pocketwatch Case BackĪs the name suggests, the backs of these sorts of pocket watch cases simply unscrew. It's probably one of four most common types: a screw-off back, a snap-off back, a hinged back, or a swing-out case. If we want to open the watch case so that we can see the movement (the working parts) of the watch, then we've got to figure out what kind of case it is. This simple habit will save you from a costly case or crystal repair down the road. So to close the cover on a hunter-case watch: first depress the latch button, then close the cover with your fingers on the edge of the cover, then release the latch button. Sometimes the clearance between the case lid and the crystal is VERY small, and we've seen many a broken crystal from someone closing their hunter case with a big ol' thumb pushing down right in the middle of the case-lid.

It's also important that you don't press the cover down into the crystal of the watch.

Gold pocket watch