Help! What's happened to my Aquaracer 300? Crown broken??

Hello. First time poster. Looking for a bit of advice with my TAG Aquaracer 300.

Not sure exactly what model it is - it was a present around 20 years ago. Anyway, was working up until yesterday when it stopped. The previous day everything was working, i had changed the date and the time using the crown - all was well.

Seeing it stopped I unscrewed the crown to adjust mode and nothing happened - i pulled ever so slightly harder and it came completely out. Additionally, it you look at the close up of the face, there is a tiny piece of wire appeared by the hands ... has this come off the crown mechanism itself.

So on to the "help" ... is this something i will need to send away to TAG for a service? Or is it quite a common issue that can be repaired quite simply (albeit not by myself)

To be fair it has not been to TAG for a service since I received it, and the most recent battery changes - while carried out by a jeweller - did not include re-gassing as I never take it in the water. So maybe a full service is overdue?

Any help, pointers or advice gratefully received.

I suspect that bit of wire might be rubber from around the date window. No idea why that would happen... but I don't think it's to do with the crown. Obviously it shouldn't come out like that, the same thing happened to my Senna F1 (fortunately it was under warranty). I was told at the time that often more damage is done trying to force the crown back in and since it probably needs fixing I would leave it out and take it to your nearest AD, boutique or local watchmaker.

Thanks -

I just looked at another photo of the same model (Tag Heuer Aquaracer Date WAF1010) and there does not appear to be any rubber around the date - but it might be hidden from normal view.

The crown goers back in smoothly with no friction and can tighten again to the bezel - but there is just no purchase when pulling partially out and twisting.

I guess I was wondering what provides that grip when turning the crown so that the hours or the date change - was it some kind of wire mechanism? My lack of knowledge on what goes on inside the case letting me down somewhat!

It certainly needs fixing - but is it one that needs to be sent away to TAG (in which case I would rather do that myself than taking to a watchmaker who will just send it away for me and add on his margin) - but I don't necessarily want to engage the full service if this is something simple and obvious (or rather obvious to someone who knows what they are doing, which is not me!!)

I've done some more googling and understand the issue a bit better now. I had not appreciated that there was a "stem retainer" that has possibly got loose or broken and this has allowed the stem to come out of the movement completely.

I am away right for a couple of weeks right now (which is why I had to adjust the date/time) so I'm not in a position to open up the back for a few weeks (but suspect that even once I do I will not be in a position to self repair!)

The "wires" on the dial are from the TAG Heuer logo no? The logo looks weird

The wires are even shaped like a TAG Heuer shield

Great spot... I went through airport security yesterday and had to remove my watch... That was 1230 and it stopped less than 2 hours later.... I can only guess it got knocked going through the machine? This possibly has caused both these... I didn't see it dropped or anything but how would they become loose?

Oh well, off to tag service centre it goes then!