I need to find a case for my movement.

[woody24]

Hello! Finally digging into my first repair. Watched Lessons 1-3 on WatchFix, so now I'm an expert! Ha. But there's one question that I haven't seen answered in these classes, or in other Youtube videos. How do you find the proper case for a watch?

I bought a cheap movement on ebay. Something that says it didn't run/for parts. I got it going, and now I'd like to actually wear it. It didn't come with a case. It did come with a really nicely worn dial. But I'm struggling on how to find the proper case for it. 

The movement is just a hair over 23mm. And the dial is just slightly over 25mm. It's just a standard manual watch, with the seconds hand down by the 6. What do I need to look for, or search for when looking for a case? I see people showing the dimensions of the outside of the case, but I don't see how that'll help me. I'd hate to buy a complete watch of the same caliber. And since there seems to be a lot of these movements on ebay without cases, the cases have to be somewhere, right?

I've seen plenty of complete watches with square faces. But this movement came with a round dial, so I'd like to find a round dial case. 

Also, if you end up sending me a link to a case that would work, would you mind "showing your work" on how you found that? 

Thanks! Enjoying this so far. Blow away by how small these things are. How the heck did they make these things to begin with? Ha.

[Kalanag]

Nothing is standardized in watchmaking. So each combination of movement and dial requires its own case in terms of dimensions. You have to be more than lucky to find a matching case for your movement and dial.

[oldhippy]

I don't know if suppliers still do this, because I have been retired for years. All you needed was the cal number of the movement say if you wanted white metal or gold plated and give as much info as you could such as description of the dial, seconds hand center or other and they would send a case that would fit. 

[woody24]

8 hours ago, Kalanag said:

Nothing is standardized in watchmaking. So each combination of movement and dial requires its own case in terms of dimensions. You have to be more than lucky to find a matching case for your movement and dial.

 

Makes sense. I was hoping that since movement's pretty much follow a similar layout, was hoping fitting cases was similar too. Haven't really seen anyone explain how cases work, other than a brief mention in videos as they are taken them apart. 

Besides eBay, are there any other sites that are good for buying used watch parts? 

[spectre6000]

12 hours ago, oldhippy said:

I don't know if suppliers still do this, because I have been retired for years. All you needed was the cal number of the movement say if you wanted white metal or gold plated and give as much info as you could such as description of the dial, seconds hand center or other and they would send a case that would fit. 

Which suppliers would have done this? I've not heard of this before.

[oldhippy]

It was Southern Watch and Clock Supplies from Orpington Kent. They are no longer trading in supplies.

[spectre6000]

Bummer! That would be a great resource... I have a ton of watches with beat up old cases but really happy movements. 

[nevenbekriev]

On 1/7/2024 at 6:38 AM, woody24 said:

...And since there seems to be a lot of these movements on ebay without cases, the cases have to be somewhere, right?
 

Sorry to ruin You idea how the world works...

Some of the cases get worn and good for nothing, and gold plated ones go to the acid and only the golden 'skin' is what lefts... That is what modern gold diggers do.  There is plenty of naked movements but no cases for them at all.

Edited January 8, 2024 by nevenbekriev

[woody24]

14 minutes ago, nevenbekriev said:

Sorry to ruin You idea how the world works...

Some of the cases get worn and good for nothing, and gold plated ones go to the acid and only the golden 'skin' is what lefts... That is what modern gold diggers do.  There is plenty of naked movements but no cases for them at all.

That's perfectly fine. I just wasn't expecting it to be a near-impossible task. I was assuming that even if the originals are gone, I'd be able to buy a new case. I wasn't sure how cases work. I figured there may have been a handful of different ways they mount in, but as long as you have dimensions, you could find one. Like crystals and mainsprings. 

It's no real loss. Bought this movement just to see if I could get it running. It's a Longines 23z movement. Figured since it came with the dial, would be fun to make a fully functional watch. 

[nevenbekriev]

Well, there is plenty of cases for Seiko movements that people use to assemble their own custom watches. You can use such case, but will have to make custom spacer ring and all the things needed to 'mary' the movement with the case, which is not so somple task

[Neverenoughwatches]

On 1/7/2024 at 4:38 AM, woody24 said:

And since there seems to be a lot of these movements on ebay without cases, the cases have to be somewhere, right?

Sold for scrap in hard times, melted down to make jewellery maybe even into another watch case at some point ?

56 minutes ago, woody24 said:

That's perfectly fine. I just wasn't expecting it to be a near-impossible task. I was assuming that even if the originals are gone, I'd be able to buy a new case. I wasn't sure how cases work. I figured there may have been a handful of different ways they mount in, but as long as you have dimensions, you could find one. Like crystals and mainsprings. 

It's no real loss. Bought this movement just to see if I could get it running. It's a Longines 23z movement. Figured since it came with the dial, would be fun to make a fully functional watch. 

Its more than just inside diameter and height sizes,  lip to support the dial dimensions, spacer ring around the movement to keep it stable, stem hole position, tube size. Sounds like fun.

[RichardHarris123]

40 minutes ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Sold for scrap in hard times,

It wasn't just hard times, keyless works replaced key wound, so the cases were scrapped, swiss level replaced English lever etc and the cases were scrapped.