[K-19]

Hi everyone. I've got a green dial Vostok Amphibia scuba dude watch that I bought new a few years ago. But from the very beginning, the gears seem to grind sometimes (not always!) when manually winding- like they aren't catching or engaging. It's never been dropped or anything. And please note it still keeps perfect time. If I hold and wind it with the stem facing downward towards the ground, it grinds less often. Also, if I manually wind it very slowly and carefully, it usually doesn't grind. But I'm worried about eventually stripping out the gears.

Is this a common problem? Is there an easy fix I can do myself? I have no idea how to take it apart, so please keep that in mind.

Thanks!

 

[mariomart]

My guess would be that you are not placing enough outward pressure against the crown, thus not fully engaging the internal crown clutch mechanism. The problem with this is that it eventually wears away at the internal mating surfaces and the more it grinds and slips the worse it gets getting to the point where the pressure needed to engage and wind the crown gets to the point where the time setting position is engaged. It's a frustrating thing that I've come across on one of my second hand purchases that necessitated me to source and replace the stem and crown.

I may be wrong (which is usually the case)

 

[mattbeme]

....... necessitated me to source and replace the stem and crown.......

So, do the stem mating surfaces wear more quickly than the mating surfaces in the movement (keyless works) ??

If so, I suppose the stem is made of slightly softer material and is designed to receive the damage first since it is much easier to replace.

 

[joeuk]

I have a stem that's worn away were its not grabbing but slipping it too sounded like grinding till it went altogether. Matt the stem looks brass/copper in colour.

 

[mattbeme]

........ Matt the stem looks brass/copper in colour.

I notice that. The keyless works are a type of steel.
So, I guess the stem probably is designed to take the abuse and fail before the keyless works become damaged.

Perhaps it is wise to immediately replace the stem / crown assembly when a grinding noise occurs frequently.
They are cheap and easy to replace.

 

[K-19]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I had a new spare stem and installed it. Unfortunately it still doesn't always engage when manually winding and slips/grinds occasionally. I may have to have a watch repair shop take a look at it.

 

[mattbeme]

.
If you like to often manually wind the watch, perhaps you should think about replacing the movement with a 2414 or a 2409.
These are manual wind movements and have excellent reliability.

Your watch repair man can do this easily.

The manual winding system of the auto. movement is not considered as robust as that of the manual movements.

 

[RFollia]

It happened to me with a brand new K-43. Send it to repair under warranty to Chistopol and just arrived today, just like new again!

 

[schnurrp]

The winding system of that movement has a spring loaded winding gear which will slip out of mesh with the mainspring gear if too much resistance is met. This is to keep the automatic mechanism from overwinding the spring. If enough winds is put on the spring manually you may encounter this slipping which does feel like grinding. If your auto mech. is operating properly you should only put about 10 winds on it to get it going and let the auto winder do the rest.



View from under winding bridge.
1. winding gear
2. plate carrying winding gear
3. plate pivot
4. flat spring pushing winding gear plate in contact with mainspring gear