Polerouter Jet: what replacement for worn crown?

Hi,

I am happy of this purchase. It keeps great time, it looks good on the wrist, and I believe it was a good deal.

The crown looks worn, and it makes winding a bit hard (although being automatic I do not need to do that often). I am considering a replacement crown. Not sure if I can find a UG original one. But at least one that would look close to the original.

What would be correct for this Polerouter Jet cal 215-9?
The crown as it is is 4 mm wide, but I'd guess originally it could have been 5 mm or 4.5mm?
Or I could keep it as it is.
thanks

stefano

Yeah, that watchband came with an inexpensive Omikron or Doxa watch from Eastern Europe. It looked bad on the steel / frame watch. I tried a black band on the Polerouter but it makes it look like a "granpa" watch. But works great on this. It gives a good summer / sporty vibe. It is kind of suede like. I dipped into some luke warm tea to make it a tiny shade darker and give it a more aged look. Only thing band ins 18 mm and lugs are 19 mm.

I saw on ebay 100 yellow crown on sale for 14.99. I may as well buy, see if there is one that works and sell the rest or give them to my watchmaker, or to people on the forum.

Gatorcpa, yours looks great!

I paid for mine about 220. the photos were a gamble but I am happy to what I got for the price. Not perfect, but definitely wearable.

Should I leave the crown as it is? I can always use my nails to hold and turn the crown. and the automatic rotor seems to work well...

I'd replace the crown, and I would not waste your time ordering your own assortments.

Just send it to the watchmaker and let him do his best. You can keep an eye out for the signed originals, but they will cost well over $150 and you will likely need to order multiple crowns to find one that works right... if you can ever find one in the first place.

yes, I would take a generic crown. I have a watchmaker in chinatown that charges me just $20 (for brands like Wittnauer) to $40 (for Omega / UG etc) for cleaning, regulating, but I need to provide the parts (that I source from Otto Frei or so). He is from China so I go through translations with his assistant. Many watchmakers in NYC are quite expensive, but this works well for me ( I just timed a 1966 Seiko he serviced 2 months ago and was within 4 seconds accuracy after 19 hours). I can leave as it is or get an assortment of crowns from ebay. I saw some page of a watchmaker / collector that serviced a similar Polerouter and I will write him to see if he has specs.

Anyway just checked the Polerouter still running great on my wrist. about 10 seconds slow since more than 30 hours ago last time I wound it.

He does a full service for $20-40? That's completely unheard of, even for trade rates. Are you sure he actually is disassembling every part of the movement, running it through the watch cleaner/ultrasonic and then properly oiling when he re-assembles?

For that price, many "watchmakers" clean and lubricate a watch by removing the dial and dunking the movement in a cleaning/lube solution. You can achieve "good" timing results from that method, but over the long term, you can totally wreck a fine mechanical movement doing that.

I too source my own parts for watches before sending them to the watchmaker so as to ensure that I know the exact provenance of every niggling part... but there's a limit to what you can even know about before having the watch completely disassembled and visually inspecting every piece. While I order new mainsprings and obviously broken parts, there's usually a whole second batch of parts that are needed once the movement has been disassembled and inspected. If your watchmaker is not requiring any additional parts once he's opened everything up, I would suggest that he is likely re-using damaged and worn parts, which not only compromises on functionality, but can also endanger the good, existing movement parts by subjecting them to unusual wear and additional problems.

Either your watchmaker thinks he's still in China and is charging the commensurate rate, or you're not getting all you think you're getting with your servicing.

I think for that price he disassembles the movement and cleans it and lubricates it. For the polerouter he needed a few more days because it was complicated to take apart. . He has not changed mainsprings. I can take photos of the movement later. There is a store nearby at some jewelry exchange where a seller told me there are a few very old watchmakers who service watches for $ 60/ 100. Places in midtown Manhattan charge about 175.

Anyway I can ask next time. I think he gives me a discount as he'd usually charge 60 and up

I'm quite familiar with the cut-rate watchmakers in Manhattan. Everyone has their "guy." After having countless watches serviced over the past few years, I've learned a few lessons. Among them that you get what you pay for when it comes to watch servicing. All it takes is one wrecked watch from a bargain price "watchmaker" to teach you some painful lessons. As my own knowledge advanced and I began servicing simple mechanical movements, I was horrified at what my "watchmakers" had done. I now pay quite a handsome sum to a couple guys who earn their service costs, and I sleep easier at night knowing that my vintage (sometimes irreplaceable) watches are not being butchered.

Hopefully your guy is a keeper, and perhaps I ought to be asking for his contact info... but if not, you've been warned 😉 The fact that he has never asked to change a mainspring on a vintage watch does not leave me impressed. Sometimes keeping the original mainspring is the correct move, but more often, it ought to be changed out for a proper replacement to maintain appropriate amplitude.

Woodwkr2, I really appreciate your concern and your points. I went to a few shops in Manhattan. Those in Midtown seem to cater to people with a lot of disposable income and charge whatever they want. I looked at some in Chinatown and some seemed to do as you said, just dip the movement in lubricant, they had no timing machines etc. This guy I go to came from China recently. He has an electronic timing machine and a clean desk. He has a corner inside a store so maybe his rent is cheap. He services a lot of quartz watches, but he really enjoys servicing old manual/ auto watches. I am no expert, so I may as well be wrong. I see some vendors of vintage watches that bring stuff to be repaired to him.

It would be interesting to see what you think if you have a guinea pig watch to service. My idea is to send the most valuable ones to some guy in England that I think I saw through a forum that does overhauls I believe for around $110. The guy in Chinatown always checks the amplitude before servicing a watch.

Maybe I should ask you who your trusted guys are, and how much they charge. It is good to have options.

I wanted also to check these guys in their 70s servicing watches at this jewelry exchange where I saw some vintage for sale I got there just before closing time and teh repair guys had gone.