3135-5210 screw broken

[trueblackpercula]

Hi

My watch would stop working when I placed it down over night. I didn’t think anything of it. Well I decided after a couple of days of this to check the main spring and it was never served so I purchased a new one and installed it official parts. Two days later it did it again. So today I opened the watch up and when I went to remove the ratchet screw I noticed it had a hair line crack were the threads meet the top of the screw. When I took my tweezers to so if it wiggled it fell off. How does that happen or should I ask why did that happen? The main spring and arbor looks perfect. Did the screw just break down with wear and tear? I have the watch 14 years and I purchased it brand new from a Rolex dealer.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated

By the way any tricks on reinstalling the pallet fork as I have so much trouble always trying to put it back.

Michael

[Ron P]

Pallet fork: use a microscope with bood lightning from the top so can see the pivot under the jewel and bring it with a fine tweeze to the hole. Easy piece of cake when you can see perfectly what you ar doing.

[trueblackpercula]

Originally Posted by Ron P

Pallet fork: use a microscope with bood lightning from the top so can see the pivot under the jewel and bring it with a fine tweeze to the hole. Easy piece of cake when you can see perfectly what you ar doing.

Worked like a charm thank you. Now all I need is the screw to come in and I am good to go I hope.

[SearChart]

I have broken countless of these exact screws, even with perfectly honed screwdriver inserts and the right amount of torque they still break occasionally.

There's another one of these securing the crown wheel underneath the crown wheel bridge, the bridge which has the engraving of the caliber on it.
Always frustrating when you start assembling and that one just breaks, the axle with screw thread is always completely stuck, can't wiggle it free. Either have to take a new bridge or carefully drill it out.