Attaching Cabachons

[NutellaBear]

Has anyone ever tried to attach Cabachons to a watch stem? I have a nice watch that came with little colored plastic chips on the Chrono pushers. One popped off along the way and I checked to see if I could get a new little plastic dot. Heh, they offered to sell me a new pusher for $100. I took the remaining one off and considered what to do. I thought about getting some Testor enamel paint and putting a drop into the pusher cavity. Knowing how paint dries, I figured it wouldn't dry as a "dome" but would probably form a dimple in the middle.

I then looked around and found it is fairly easy to get small gem stone Cabachons that would work -- in the 2.5 to 3 mm size. So I ordered a couple in the size I thought I needed and one size smaller. So I have the stones and the watch.... Now what?

I figured that glue is the likely way to go. I have some E3000 which is used a lot in jewelry. And the other likely candidate is cyanoacrylate glue (a.k.a. Super Glue). Has anyone else tried to do this?

[NWP627]

I have not done that with a watch but have used "super glue" to replace lost stones in jewelry. It's been a number of years now and the stones haven't fallen out.

[NutellaBear]

I was leaning towards the superglue myself. But figured that they had to use something else when they build the watches. Supergluing doodads on my watch sounds a little inappropriate. But for that matter, I never really understood Cabachons much.

So it is either superglue or enamel paint. If the pit wasn't there in the pusher for the Cabachon, I'd probably just leave it plain.

[Dre]

No experience with gluing those doodads (as you call 'em), but I have had good experience using 2 part epoxy. I glued something to a lens in a fairly critical spot, 2 part epoxy was recommended as a good glue to hold up long term and under stresses. So far that's held up quite nicely.

Doodads. Brings up memories of the Greaseman. Dag, now I'm dating myself.

[drunken monkey]

I wouldn't recommend superglue as it seems to me to be the wrong kind of adhesive for the purpose. As mentioned by somebody else, a two part clear epoxy would also be my choice.

[gatsuk]

Try out colorless nail polish. It just as tough. And if ever you make a mistake you can still take it off with Acetone.

[John MS]

I was leaning towards the superglue myself. But figured that they had to use something else when they build the watches. Supergluing doodads on my watch sounds a little inappropriate. But for that matter, I never really understood Cabachons much.

So it is either superglue or enamel paint. If the pit wasn't there in the pusher for the Cabachon, I'd probably just leave it plain.

Super glue would be my choice. I used it once to hold a roller jewel in an old Waltham pocketwatch movement. It is still there.

[~tc~]

If it has a plexi crystal, I wouldn't get superglue anywhere near it.

[NutellaBear]

Try out colorless nail polish. It just as tough. And if ever you make a mistake you can still take it off with Acetone.

I wouldn't think that nail polish had any adhesive properties. I thought it was simply enamel paint.