70s manual mind - loose feeling crown?

[FreeLitres]

I just bought a cheapy late 1970s manual wind Timex watch.

It looks to be in good condition with a new crystal and it keeps good time, but the crown feels really loose and can freely wiggle side to side about 2mm.

The winding seems to work ok and I can set the time but it's not the smoothest.

Is this to be expected in an old manual wind watch, or should I send it back for a refund?

[r159]

It’s getting on for 50 years old so some wobble might be expected. The other thing you could do is open it and remove the crown and reseat it - there’s a screw which holds the crown stem in - plenty of stuff on line on how to do it.

More important is that it works...

[Lorne]

Might be that the crown seal(s) have fallen apart and dropped out, leaving the stem free to wiggle about without much in the way of lateral restraint.

[Fallingup]

Send it back if you are not happy and are still able to. However it's not surprising that a cheap fifty year old watch has issues. If you like the watch then perhaps this might be an opertunity to try your hand at some basic seal replacement. As others have said, the first place to look would be the crown stem seal. I assume the previous owner has replaced the crystal. This would probably have entailed removing the crown stem and movement as the old crystal would have to be pushed out from the inside (most but not all. Some crystals are retained by the bezel). It is possible that the old stem seal has fallen off in the process. If you are not confident in doing this then it would be a simple job for a watch repairer though may cost more than you paid for it. Replacement seals are available from Cousins. All you need is a digital caliper to measure the thickness of the stem where the seal sits and the width of the hole where the stem fits. You will need some basic tools but if you can keep a steady hand, it's not difficult. It's well worth trying as the satisfaction of fixing it yourself will be most pleasing.