bubbleback problems

[jhanley]

I inherited a 3131 rolex bubbleback watch from my father and decided to polish the case. I took out the stem by loosening the screw inside after taking the back off and removed the works. I polished the case and put the works back. The watch is fully wound but quits working after a few minutes now. If you advance the hands clockwise by setting it it starts back up again and then stops until you advance it again. What did I do wrong. Ive done this with other watches but havent had this happen. any suggestions would be helpful. I dont live close to any watch mechs.

[Rikki]

The movement might possibly be bound up by improperly installing it. Make sure every thing is seated properly. If the movement gets slightly twisted it will run and stop which seems to be happenning. Or it could be coincidence that it decided to stop after you took it out sometimes these things happen. Rik

[jhanley]

Thankyou for responding.Ive read on the internet that these movements are really touchy. Im just curious why it starts running when you manually advance the hands. If you turn the hands counter clockwise it stops instantly. How could that bind it up?

[Rikki]

When you turn the hands they are indirectly connected to the gear train so when you put pressure to change the time it makes the watch run for a short time and unbinding the movement temporarily. Turning counterclockwise goes against the natural direction of the gears thereby stopping them altogether. Some of the earlier movements actually used this as a hack mechanism to stop the watch at a certain time to do a timing function or sync up with a timing device. Rik