New Member-Hamilton watch crystal

[dinosaur60]

Hello members,,I am a brand new member with a love of RR pocket watches,,27 years employed with Norfolk Southern RR,,I recently started seriously collecting RR pocket watches,,,,learning the skills on cleaning a pocket watch,have successfully managed to complete one ,to my amazement,and running Great as I look upon it ticking away,,my question is ,,,,,The crystal on a Hamilton serial #1010307,,I purchased this watch with a cracked crystal,,watch is near mint,dial, case, beautiful,'''DOES THE CRYSTAL HAVE TO BE PRESSED ON ,,I know this may sound silly,,but I have focused on the movements,,have not thought too much about the crystal application until I had to repair one,,I cracked the one I bought trying to snap it on bezel,,is this a tricky manuver,,?,,I see it installs from the front of bezel,,am I right?,,,Any help would be Greatly appreciated,,:(:confused::)

[Bill B]

As you found out glass crystals don't snap in. I clean crystal groove well then heat the bezel and insert a crystal that is the proper size to fit. The sizing is not always always easy. The best way is to measure the old crystal. Crystal does set from front.

[Tom Huber]

Bill B. I respectfully disagree with your statement about the glass crystals not snapping in. A glass crystal of the correct size for the bezel will neatly snap in place with finger pressure and hold tightly.

Tom

[Kent]

I'm with Tom on this one.

When a glass crystal is sized correctly to the metal bezel that holds it, it is an interference fit. To fit a crystal into the bezel, set the bezel on a flat surface, facing upward, and place the crystal on top. If the crystal is slightly too small, it will drop right into place and be loose within the bezel. A correctly-sized crystal will "almost" fit within the inner rim of the bezel, appearing to extend beyond the rim of the bezel by a tiny amount. If this is a crystal that had previously resided in the bezel, it is correctly sized. If it is a new crystal, be careful that it is not too large for the bezel. The correctly-sized crystal can be "snapped" into place by placing your thumbs on opposite sides of the bezel, overlapping the crystal. As you press down firmly (but not excessively) and roll your thumbs together, the correctly-sized crystal will seat with an audible "snapping" sound.

Good luck,

[Bill B]

Tom heating bezel will set a crystal tightly without edge chips and practically no chance of breaking crystal. Snapping will break some and with cost and availability of crystals, I prefer to keep them whole.

[John Pavlik]

Bill has a point here.. I usually heat the bezel with hot water for a few minutes and the crystals do snap easier and it does reduce edge chips and accidental breakage.. This is especially helpful hunter case bezels with thinner crystals.....

[Jon Hanson]

A correct fit SNAPS in, but a collection of many sizes and types are necessary to do it correctly!

[bkerr]

Welcome aboard from NE Ohio.
All of the post above have a point. From my perspective the most important item is proper sizing. Some crystal are getting harder to find. There were several different suppliers and manufactures of the crystals. That being said not every supplier had the EXACT same size as the others. Also there are quite a few different size bezels.
My point is that there are slight differences along the way that you will get "a feel" for.

If you heat the bezel or fit with the snap it is a choice that you will learn along the way. Please, just do not put a glob of glue in to cover up a poor fitting crystal job.

You have another choice and that is to use a plastic crystal. I personally don't care for them but, they are hard to break and quite a bit less money to replace.

Again Welcome a board (get it?)

[dinosaur60]

Thanks all for the response,,At the least I found out that they do install from the front,schould snap in,,I am leaning more towards the heating of the Bezel,,sounds safest,,after examining this broken one,,I glued it back together,,looks like its the ever so slightest bigger than the seating ring on bezel,,I having worked with steel for years makes sense to heat the bezel..carefully snap in bezel,,let it cool ,,,hopefully wa-la,,might I ask a good shop or member that sells& fits crystals,,,,Thanks so much for all the input,,,& meeting other members,,This has been very helpful,,,Thanks

[crsides]

to add to the above, not all bezel are truly round, and in some cases not all crystals. Rotating the crystal around the bezel will sometimes allow a better fit.

Charlie

[Tom McIntyre]

To emphasize the interference fit, if you have crystals with the original size stickers on them, you will find they differ very slightly in diameter. Typically, I find it takes 5 or 6 nominally identical crystals to find one that will snap into the bezel.

It is much more difficult to fit HC crystals because they are more delicate and because the height is critical. There is almost no excess room between the top of the center post and the bottom of the HC cover.

[Tom Huber]

I have followed the posts on the advantages of heating the bezel to insert a crystal. I was advised by sevral old watchmakers that, although this will work, there is the possibility that it can break the crystal when the bezel cools and shrinks. This is especially possible with the thin hunter case crystals.

Tom

[Jon Hanson]

cleaning out the crystal seat properly

locating the correct crystal, style and size, PLUS HEIGHT

snapping it in

.........................is the correct method

[John Pavlik]

Jon,

You are correct...it is just that the Locating thing is becoming a slight problem to many ....Lately I have had to emery, 320 grit with soap, the edges of 1 size larger crystal to fit the bezel..that along with heating the bezel in water has worked very well.. I will not use glue..

[Tom McIntyre]

Crystal grinders were commonplace around the turn of the 20th century. I am pretty sure that outside the major metropolitan areas it was common to grind crystals to fit.

[Jon Hanson]

Crystal grinders were used for that special watch--many times WWs which were not standard and required oddly shaped crystals

[Jon Hanson]

tagline: most watch makers had cabinets full of crystals and reordered ones they used up quickly. These were very cheap in rolls from the supplier. I have found that old inventories of sm clock crystals (glass) were frequently ground to size.

Nowadays many old stock crystals are ground because of the short supply of the tough ones.

The WW boys also grind many crystals because of the odd sizes and shapes of the rarer wristies.