I finally got my watch back from the watch shop. With it the new crown and the new stem installed. The old crown, diameter 5.5 mm, thickness 4.5 mm.
The stem tube. You can see that it is pretty mangled up. This happen during the removal process, but you can see where it cracked.
You can see the gasket inside the stem tube.
Another view.
I peeled back the top part of the stem tube to show where is the crack. It was at the second thread.
The new crown with the stem installed.
Diameter 5.5 mm, thickness 2.5 mm. It is thinner. Unsigned.
You can see the gasket inside the crown. The stem looks crooked, it is as I depressed it into the crown to test the spring-load of the crown. This is the spring load that 'pop' the crown from the stem when you unscrew the crown from the stem tube.
The watch was pressure tested to 20 ATM and it was ok. I am happy. The new stem tube. The gunk you see around it is silicon grease.
There are 2 gaskets inside the stem tube.
Testing the crown.
Now to reassemble the watch. Actually I test fitted the parts earlier and took the watch apart again to clean all the parts, lubricate parts that needs lubricating and cleaning. The following pictures are from the test fit. The test fit looks good.
Now for the complete reassembly. Clean the movement holder and spacer. The gasket is lubricated and the case is cleaned and checked for any debris from the boring to fit the new stem tube.
The new crown installed and checked for ability to screw-down and unlock.
The movement is installed into the case.
The battery is installed. The battery comes with movement.
The movement holder goes in. The movement comes with a battery retainer. If you remember, the movement holder had to modified as in the old movement, the battery is located at the opposite end of the new movement. So a little snip at the correct place and the movement holder fits. As you can see the retainer is now over the battery.
Next, the gasket is fitted. It sits in the groove in the case.
Next the case back is fitted and the watch is done.
The watch is fitted with a locally sourced black 'Mil' spec strap. It originally came with a NATO strap, but that strap is currently fitted to another watch.
Overall, I am happy with the results. It would have been batter if the stem tube was not cracked and the internal thread of the crown was not damaged and the only modification was the change of the movement and spring bars, but as luck would have it.... Oh well, anyway it was an interesting modification. Perhaps I should get the CWC RN diver (which this watch is based on), but for what I paid for this watch and from what I learnt from this modification, it was worth it.
I am currently wearing the watch and it has gone through my non-scientific water resistance test and passed (well it passed the 6 ATM pressure test). So far the battery has not 'popped' out and the watch is running smoothly. I am happy. A review will be done soon.
