TW Steel "Grandeur" crown cover stuck

[Vich]

Just been asked by my neighbour to help with this watch. It is a tad chunky and sports what the refer to as a Crown Guard or cover which has to be unscrewed to gain access to the crown.  It bears fell tale signs of some sort of pliers being used already but the crown cap is stuck fast.  

A quick look on the Internet has produced evidence that this is not the first time it has happened to this brand of watch and one solution was to heat the bottom half of the assembly and simultaneously freeze the cap in the hope that this will provide an initial easement.  I have tried this without success.

The problem seems to me that previous attempts (prior to my possession) have loosened the whole crown guard assembly including the "tube" if there is one right back to the case and the whole lot again, right back to the case, is rotating.  I was thinking of taking the back off and taking out the stem but I can not gain access to the crown because the crown cover is stuck.  Looks like I can take part of the assembly that covers the reset button off if the screws are real.

Currently the bit I think should come apart is soaking in penetrating oil.  It is not a "cheap" watch, probably £200 to £300.  I just wondered if anyone has come across this before and if they know if the tube is push fit or screw fit. Will rotation of the assembly prior to my getting the watch have damaged anything, need to put some caveats in place before I start on it !

Cheers,

Vic

 

[Hamish]

Hi,

Yes I agree caveats first at this stage. I have no experience with these types, but would suggest being very carefull with any application of heat as there are bound to be a few seals. I would be tempted to try the brief application of a small soldering iron where it says 'TW' it may be that there is a seal here that has been really compressed and this might soften it. Othewise the heat may just cause enough expansion to the cup to loosen. These are long shots though. Perhaps you could show us a photo (can you get the back off?) the next long shot might be, if you can access the rear, very carefully apply a small amount of superglue to the tube...hopefully this would run into where the tube and the case meet and bind it enough to permit another go. Lastly, I guess everyone that has had a go was winding it the right way?

Best of luck.

 

[Vich]

Hello Hamish,
I have had a chat with my neighbour and apparently he unwound everything to the extent that it all came off apparently along with the crown and tube. I have advised him that I will dismantle it starting with removal of the back so I can have a look. However, after what he has described there may be damage already. Although I have not seen inside yet I expect there will be a smallish movement with a largish plastic spacer. Should be interesting.
Cheers, Vic

[Leslie]

I just came along this page seing some having issues with their TWSteel canteen crown cover getting stuck.

Easy fix, you will need a long nose plyers and a regular plyers.

Just clip the long nose plyers to the watch ( the round thing that holds the crown as shown on the left photo) and the other plyers to the canteen cover itself (at the right photo).

Holding the long nose plyers firmly on the crown attachment, slowly turn the canteen crown cover COUNTER CLOCK-WISE until it unscrews. Then that's it! I hope this helps, because it helped me fix mine.

Have a nice day!