Do you ever call yourself "fixing" something and end up making it much worse?
By sarahb411
@sarahb411 (75)
United States
November 18, 2012 2:22pm CST
I never cease to amaze myself!!! After I discovered in horror this morning my watch, sitting in a puddle of water on the kitchen counter, (the watch I was admiring just yesterday), I immediately picked it up, and tho it was still ticking and the secondhand still moving I remembered another watch I once admired, that I stupidly forgot to take out of the pocket of my jeans before washing them.....Which worked for a day or two then not surprisingly stopped. SO GENIUS THAT I AM, I immediately tried to pry the back off my watch so that the mechanism inside could dry out if it got wet. SO, of course the back of this watch was a little harder pry off then most, (lately I've been gathering up all my old watches with the intent to replace batteries on the ones I liked....so I've been taking the back off alot of watches) So I'm prying and prying can't get the back off, but the pin that sets the watch went flying OFF!!! GREAT,before it was just wet, MAYBE, I probably overreacted, it wasn't even that much water, NOW ITS TOTALLY BROKEN. Although I didn't stop there!! I searched for the pin to see if I could put it back in, I'll probably never find that, so I decided to take the pin out of the other watch that got wet that I'm sure will never work again, and they seemed the same size so I hoped it would fit.....of course it didn't. So now I'm searching the internet for spare watch parts AS WELL as an actual watch repair kit. (the kits do not seem to have spare parts, only tools) BUT realistically I'm hoping for a decent Black Friday price on NEW watches.....so I can go get one cuz I'm pretty sure I have completely destroyed this watch! This ever happen to anyone?
5 responses
@Loverbear (4918)
• United States
18 Nov 12
First, you probably won't find a replacement stem for your watch online. You might try either putting a clean vacuum cleaner bag on your vacuum and vacuum the whole area where you were working on the watch. Another option is to grab a magnet and see if you can recover it with a magnet.
For future reference, instead of prying the back off your watch and allowing moisture to enter the watch, blow dry it with your hair dryer. I've used my hair dryer on many watches when I've gotten them wet and it has saved many watches using my hair dryer on them.
Come to think of it, I have several watches that I really like and I recently bought a batch of batteries from Harbor Freight (they have packages of batteries...there are about 30 different sized batteries. There are 5 each of six different sizes. So hopefully now I can replace batteries and get some watches running.
@sarahb411 (75)
• United States
18 Nov 12
WOW thanks for all the tips. Especially about the blow dryer, because getting watches wet is usually my most frequent "accident" with watches, I LOVE hearing that it actually does work. ACTUALLY, DUMB LUCK prevailed in this sad story! lol! After I resigned myself to the fact that I had destroyed my watch, I went on to help my husband look for the keys to the car....(This has been one of those days! One thing after the other!LOL).....While looking for the keys I accidently came upon the stem that flew out of my watch!! This can only be contributed to DUMB LUCK or a higher power having pity on me! lol! I seemed to have successfully fit it back into the hole it came from, it works in setting my watch.....we'll see how long my watch will keep ticking! I really appreciate your advice because I was wondering where to get the best deal on batteries, and I foresee alot more watch near disasters in the future, that seems to be how I roll! The magnet advice was a great idea too! Thanx again.
@stan87 (47)
• Bulgaria
19 Nov 12
Hello there!
I experienced the above few times but not with a watch. I remember trying to fix sega joypad long time ago. One of the buttons wasn't working properly and I ended up getting the joypad completely broken. I've done the same with my phone :) Such things made me very careful so when I don't know how to fix something I just don't do it. Or I'm trying to read a little bit more about how to fix it first. Then if I think it's worth trying I do it.
@rog0322 (2829)
• Cagayan De Oro, Philippines
27 Feb 13
Hi,
In my younger years, some obscure (and perhaps collectible by now) watch went the way of my curiosity and ended up in a junk heap. I would hammer out the casing with a sharp nail to open the screw back, take out the crown by holding the stem with a long nose plier and screwing it out and taking out the movement and fiddling with the balance wheel up to the extent of taking out the very small screws that hold it together. Then I goofed up by not remembering what gear goes to this slot and making a grand fiasco of it all. Today, I am still a mechanical watch lover but I delegate such things to expert technicians. Maybe, if I can assemble the necessary tools, I would pursue my passion of making these marvelous machines tick once again and keep perfect time. For now, I shall limit myself to study more on the inner workings of a watch by googling it on the net and learning along the way.
@loveandpeace (470)
• Indonesia
19 Nov 12
Oh my husband done that, make something worse than fixing, most of the time. He always insist to do all the "man's fixing job" around the house and he always ruin them up, especially with plumbing jobs. Our house will be in water disaster when we have a leak pipe or drain clog. We've always called the plumber at the end of the day 
.
.@sarahb411 (75)
• United States
19 Nov 12
Thats funny. My husband doesn't try to fix too many things around here, although he'll occasionally do something to the internet/computers "upgrading" them....then all the sudden we don't have internet, or television lol. He actually gets really mad at me when I try to fix little things on the car like replacing lights, or fluids etc. He only wants his mechanic to touch the car.
@Mavic123456 (21893)
• Thailand
19 Nov 12
Yes, it happens, LOL, the Miss Know it all, just happened to break instead of make. Around 60/40 of chance that every time I fix something there is a 60% of make and 40% of break. Most of the losing screws, specially the small ones. When it dropped whew.. so hard to find. Most of the time I can't put back the thing on how it was before. LOL. So I advised to take a picture first before removing anything so I know how to put them back. LOL, embarrassing sometimes.
@sarahb411 (75)
• United States
19 Nov 12
Ah yes!!! The old revelation after taking something completely apart and then realizing you have NO idea how it was originally put together!! I KNOW IT WELL! lol! That's so funny. I've done that so many times, you'd think I'd remember that I can't rely at all on memory....but I always forget!!lol Screws are the worst, especially the small ones. I'm forever finding those "screw" months later after the fact, to which they go into the screw jar in case I ever remember what they were for, or for a different project. Thanx for sharing!
