# Opening Roamer Brevete Case



## pmhpmh (Nov 1, 2013)

Hello,

After years of looking at watches I finally have the time and opportunity to try basic watch maintenance.

I have bought a few basic examples of eBay for a few pennies and plan to start practicing on these victims. This roamer cost about Â£6

The first watch I am looking at is a vintage roamer brevete. It works, ticks and runs for a few minutes and then stops. So I am hoping that the watch is in working but dirty condition and needs re oiled. The glass is also scratches so I can practice polishing and refinishing it.

My game plan is to practice taking a watch to bits, clean, oil and re assemble and then hopefully ( but unlikely) it will still work. Finally polish glass and admire.

However I have failed at the first hurdle, how do I get the movement out?

I slid the watch out of the surround, then the crystal comes off the face, then removed the inner bezel round the watch face.

There is no slot around the crown/winder, so does this mean that is is a split shaft?

In which case do I just give the winder a gentle but firm pull away from the case to separate the shaft and winder?

then how do I pull the movement out?

I have attached photos














































so what next, no obvious way to split the back of the case open?

Thanks for your advice

Peter


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## William_Wilson (May 21, 2007)

As I recall, you need to remove the crown and stem, then the movement will drop out of the front. I'm not sure of the recommended technique though.

Later,

William


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## pmhpmh (Nov 1, 2013)

So I just grasp the crown firmly and pull?........

I always worry about where reasonable force stops and brute force starts 

Peter


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## bry1975 (Feb 6, 2004)

Yup appears to be a good ole monobloc type case pull the crown with reasonable pressure and the crown

and two part stem should detach from the movement.

Additional info-

"All split stems are the same. The images below are an example, the two parts can be pulled apart, the female portion will snap over the male part, but this is hard on the female section. Some designs, like the Hamilton and CWC W10s have sufficient space to allow the two sections to slide out from one another, but others, the joint is inside the case tube and must be pulled apart."


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## pmhpmh (Nov 1, 2013)

After much pulling with fingers, leading to one broken nail, I started to doubt your advice.

Sat down had a coffee and agreed that this must be the only way to go. So I used a small pair of scissors to give me some more leverage. After quite a bit of effort the was a sudden crack as the crown flew off, ricocheted off the ceiling, tinged as it hit a metal shelf over my left shoulder and then bounced some where!

OK first lesson learnt. Now to spend the next hour hunting on my hands and knees :-(


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## chris.ph (Dec 29, 2011)

You will get used to the kneeling on the floor position after a while lol,I vacuum the laminate floor before I start tinkering so if anything is on the floor afterwards it means it has escaped,it makes it easier to find as well


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## pmhpmh (Nov 1, 2013)

one and a half hours later but I got the little beggar!


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## Will Fly (Apr 10, 2012)

Well done. I have a watchmending friend who specialises in Roamer wristwatches - he has quite a collection of them - let me know if there's any problem you're having difficulty with and I'll see if he knows the answer.

I have half a dozen Roamers myself, but I don't tinker... yet! ooh_lol:

PS: My friend has a mini-vacuum that he uses regularly to suck up and filter out awkward little buggers like screws, etc.!


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