I'm having trouble winding this nice watch. It has a crown within a crown as you can see in the photo's. The bottom crown turns and seems to adjust the stem. What it does is...winds a turn or two and then binds. Maybe its not the stem at all? Does anyone have experience in this kind of situation? Also, this dial is procelan and I have never seen another like this. What can you tell me about the dial. I'm guessing that it was a railroad workers who carried it as his dress watch although it is railroad approved. I purchased two other fine railroad watches from the estate but they couldn't tell me much about this watch. Any info would be nice to have concerning this dial. Value? etc. many thanks Here are some photo's

Here is a photo of the crown, see the smaller crown type under the main crown...this turns and seems to adjust the stem. I think this is where the problem is with binding up winding.

Here is a close up of the dial which is in perfect condition.

back of the case

the movement

These cases were called the dustproof models and from a later era than your watch. Once the crown is removed there will be the cap on the bottom which we see is knurled like the crown. It is a screw down protective cap which is designed to help keep the dirt and grime out. There will be a rubber O type ring still found on the inside of a few after all these years. Once the bottom cap is removed then you should be able to get a sleeve wrench on the sleeve to adjust the stem up/down or to replace same, if this case does in fact have a sleeve. It sounds like the sleeve, if there is one, which has 4 fingers that hug the stem, may need replacing. It may have one or more of those fingers that have broken off and are causing the binding that you talk about. Once you have inspected, cleaned, and/or replaced what might need replacing and adjusted the sleeve, if present to work with your watch, the protective cap should be put back on and "snugged" down finger tight. Now put your crown back on and make sure it is tight.

As to the watch... The dial and the hands are definitely wrong and belong on a gentleman's watch or gold watch and would of never been accepted on a RR watch as I'm sure you know. And I think most of the 23J Vanguards if not all of them were in fact lever~set for the RR approved standards.

regards,
bb

Thank you Gene and Buster for the info. This is a lever set watch. I will take the crown off and check the sleeve to see if it hads a broken part. Sam

Update....I checked the sleve and it is okay. I put it back together and tried winding again. I think I have located the problem....the click spring seems to bind about every revolution. I think the spring is weak or broken. Now I just need to locate a click spring. I should have one.

Thanks again for your important advise and help.

Sam

The click and spring are a one-piece combination. Still fairly abundant.