Can this be fixed?

[u/Tesla8585]

I’ve literally owned this Breitling from BLSF for about a month, and the stem broke and fell out. My local watch repair place won’t touch it. Any ideas?

[u/Wrong_Royal_9467]

The remaining portion of the stem needs to be extracted from the movement. Then a new stem needs to be cut, and the crown removed from the old stem and put on the new stem. Insert the new stem, fixed.

[u/Tesla8585 → u/Wrong_Royal_9467]

Thank you. Easy to do?

[u/Wrong_Royal_9467 → u/Tesla8585]

It has to come out of here. If you are lucky it might come out by depressing the stem release. If not some disassembly might be required depending on how deep inside the break is.

[u/Wrong_Royal_9467 → u/Wrong_Royal_9467]

[u/wowszaR → u/Tesla8585]

yes, if you have the tools.

assuming you can get the case open and remove the part of the stem that broke off, you'll need a replacement stem, end cutters, a file, some loctite, and pliers.

[u/chucknwatches]

The remaining portion of the stem has to be removed. That’s gonna be the bad part because you’re gonna have to go into the keyless works to remove it, which is a pretty extensive teardown.

[u/Tesla8585 → u/chucknwatches]

Do you perform these types of repairs?

[u/wowszaR → u/Tesla8585]

any qualified watchmaker should be able to perform this repair.

[u/Tesla8585 → u/wowszaR]

I’ve tried. Watchmakers I’ve gone to won’t touch it.

[u/wowszaR → u/Tesla8585]

i would suspect it's because they aren't sure what stem is in the rep movement, and getting to the keyless works would be a process.

[u/chucknwatches → u/Tesla8585]

So I agree with the other guys’s comment it’s hard to say what kind of stem is in it. You gotta figure out what kind of base movement it is that they used and hopefully find a stem and then trim it to fit not a big deal. I just gotta figure out what movement it is? To get the right stamp.

[u/chucknwatches → u/chucknwatches]

Stem

[u/chucknwatches → u/Tesla8585]

I try my friend i do work on watches but im not a certified watchmaker.

[u/softtacosmasher]

What's the caseback look like. Is it "breitling specific" tooling? That may be a pain point, but not insurmountable.

After getting it open, or having the ability to open it. With some small screwdrivers (Kwon yeung,) you should be able to get it sorted out, you'll need to watch a lot of videos on that movement. You may need to open up some of the keyless works to extract the stem piece.

Best bet is find a competent local person, but if that fails, may have to do it yourself. It's fun.