mike00

I thought this could be usefull here also. I am an active REPGEEK member and not so active over here...neverless I wanted to share this with ya.

This time a forum member contacted me for a repair, he made a pretty long scratch over his bezel

The problem is the bezel scratch very very easilly and not everyone has the knowledge or the propper tools to replace a bezel. You need to remove the crystal for example, so a crystal press is bassicly a must have besides the other tools offcourse.

The difficult thing is that you need find the correct grain for resanding and the fact the bezel is brushed in one direction. The crystal is lying a bit higher compared to the bezel so removing is neccesairy. Also the bezelscrews need to be removed because they are polished and we want to keep this that way.

Just for the record I practice watchmaking for more then 4 years now so I am not a newbie in dissambling a watch or doing small repairs.

I have swapped datewheels, replaced crystals, fixed keyless works etc etc.

Most of the RG members know I am a trustable honest longtime member just sharing the same passion and practice watchmaking as a hobby.

I have made some detailed pics to share...

Let the journy begin..

WHEN PRESSING OUT THE CRYSTAL YOU NEED TO PRESS IT FROM THE OUTSIDE!

WIPE IN A STRAIGHT LINE TO MAINTAIN THE ONE WAY GRAIN, REPEAT THIS FOR ABOUT 10 TIMES

SOME EARLIER CAUSED SWIRLS ON THE POLISHED SIDE NEEDS TO BE POLISHED AWAY

NOW BEWARE: WHEN PRESSING BACK THE CRYSTAL IN YOU NEED TO PRESS IT FROM THE INSIDE OF THE

BEZEL. THIS MEANS YOUR BEZEL IS LYING ON THE PLASTIC DICE RISKING TO BE SCRATCHED AGAIN. I USE SOME KITCHEN FOIL TO PREVENT THIS!

LET'S HOPE HE IS HAPPY WITH THE END RESULT

THANX FOR WATCHING.

Happy to hear it's appreciated! It stays REP but it's an improvement and every geek can do this.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You are right with that indeed.

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Never done it before. It ain't really shoe polish...it's real paint, so it will stay on like real paint.

It started with an experiment and IMO it worked out fine.

I am a REPGEEK guy, but didn,t wanted to keep this TUTO only for ourselves...se see if it can mean something you guys up here.

Save yourself 300 $! This work can be done within a hour and will cost you less than 20 $!

Ok AP freaks here's the thing.

I allready mentioned an idea I had about (re)spraypainting my upcoming AP Montauk Highway strap.

We all know that the REP AP factory strap sucks BIGTIME!

It's such a shame while the AP watches are spot on, the straps are crap. It's a big tell from a distance as we all know.

Maybe I have a (low budget) solution for those who do not have the $$$ for the real deal or a strap from AP bands at the moment. they are over $ 340 ,-. I guess eventually I will buy the GEN or AP bands strap but this will do it till then.

Just fot the record it is just a short term (low budget) solution for me and IMO the end result is better looking compared to the onmodded REP strap out of the box.

HERE WE GO NERDS!! (let the pics speak for themselves)

* What we need:

Still waiting for my AP with the brown strap to come but had a REP crappy black hornback in my drawer from an earlier purchase....so just took my change, offcourse same can be done with the brown strap.

* First we remove the stitches ( I need blue ones in the end as we know)

(I had to study the stitching, never (re) stitched a strap before so took a good look how it's done while removing)

* OK, now we clean the strap with special leather cleaner

(as you can see, after cleaning you allready loose the shiny REP look, for those who wants to stick to a black strap you're task is allready done, it looks like GEN gator now allready)

* Once we have done that, it's time to repaint it with a (darker) brown colour, to get closer to the real deal.

* After repainting (spray) I cleaned it again to loose the new shiney brown look.

* Now we restitch the fu**er. :cool:

(Try to find the right colour stitching in a local shop)

END RESULT PICS

(still need to stitch the short side but couldn't wait to write this turorial)

(BEFORE)

(AFTER)

(Final one (crappy) shot from the GEN montauk strap, for comparing)

DAYTIME END RESULT, IT'S STAYS REP BUT I THINK IT'S AN IMPROVEMENT.

Tell me what you think guys....

I have posted this before but without the end result. Now I have it finished and wanted to share over here.

I was not able to edit my previous thread so here it is again.

I finally had the cojones to remove the bezel insert of my beloved V2 PLOPROF.

RG Member ThinkBachs also removed it couple days ago by a simular method.

Remember: This is not a difficult mod but sure a tricky one!

For the noobs...The fact why we geeks wanting to remove the V2 insert is because the numbers are to grey compared to GEN. The factory placed the Lume on the bezel and not on the backside on the insert as it should be. This is why the markers tunrned out to be to grey. The V1 insert is closer to GEN compared to the V2 because they placed the lume on the back of the insert as GEN, that way the numbers are looking more crisp white. So for you V1 guys IMO this mod is useless, unless you want to improve the Lume on it. Just enjoy your V1 as it is I would say.

The goal of this mod is ending up with crisp white mumbers on your V2 insert.

Here a 2 pics from PLOPROFMAN. He owns a V2 and owned a GEN in the past.

You can tell the difference.

This is a risky job, so beware ! You can mess it up bigtime (scratching/breaking the insert).

No aftermarket inserts available gentlemen!!. I messed up mine just a little by scratching it :undecided: , But there's nothing we geeks can't fix.

Things you need:

* Cojones

* Halogen lamp

* tape (very important, preventing scratches!)

* Patience as usual

* peanut butter, yes I'm serious...

* cleaning cloth

* scissor

* Blue lume or white painting if you dont care about the lume

HERE WE GO!

Step 1: Heating up the insert.

Do this for about 2 minutes under a halogen lamp. No need to remove the movement.

Step 2: Removing the insert.

Cutt some tape, roll it up and place it on the insert.

NOTE: the first times I worked the insert I did not used tape ending up with some scratches on the backside of the insert. I pressed to hard to maintain grip using my fingers and some minor scratches were the result.

After placing the tape try to turn the insert while sitting in the bezel.

The V2's have a bezel lock as we know so the bezel will stay in place.

The v1's on the other hand are a PITA, difficult to keep the bezel in place, cause the mofu will turn also when working the insert. I have a V2 so don't have the answer for you V1 guys about this. Need to find out yourself I guess.

After turning it around you will notice it will loosen up. Eventually it will come of and you can turn the watch upside down and it will fall out.

Beware with this procedure!!! try to press it very gently when working the insert, It's sapphire and will break easily. No aftermarket inserts available guys! This is why you absolutely need the tape and the balls !!!! If you don't use tape by nature you press to hard on the crystal to keep grip on it and you will ending up breaking or scratching it probably.

Step 3: Enjoying the fact it came of :

On the first pic from ThinkBachs his V1 you can see the lume is placed on the insert instead of the bezel like my V2

V1

V2

Step 4: Cleaning the insert (glue residues)

This one made me worry a bit, the glue residue is mostly sticked to the insert unfortunately. We need to remove it for the relume.

Why this worried me? Because when you use the normal used agressive chemicals to remove the glue, the black paint will come of while wiping, ending up with a smooth clean sapphire insert and we don't want that to happen do we.. :undecided:

I wondered which product will not harm the paint, after some research I found it.... Peanut butter!!! After wiping the insert gentely with a soft cloth with some PB the glue just drippes of. No worries about paint coming of using this method.

Just to notify you, if you look on the web they also say orangejuice products will work, don't use it, it will remove the glue but also the paint!

Alcohol I've tried in the start but without any result.

So...stick with the PB you geeks, no need to look further.

Step 5: Will be placing white matt enamel paint directly on the backside of the insert, I have choosen for no lume on the insert.

Step 6: Glue the insert back on the bezel. With an end result just looking like GEN!

GEN:

MY V2 END RESULT

Conclussion:

I am very happy I have done this mod. The watch is way more close to GEN, the greyish markers are a big tell IMO. Have seen 2 GEN's sofar and the markers on the GEN insert are white and not grey, especially when looking from the side. The GEN stays white from a sideview, the V2 out of the box is unfortunately grey and from a sideview it even becomes more greyish. Another improvement is that I have lifted the insert a little as GEN. From a sideview you can see the bevelled edge now. The fact I have choosen for no lume doesn't bother me at all. I am wearing my watches during daytime and when the lume activates it's in my watchbox again anyway. Offcourse you can order lume like member U-1 did, but then again you're risking to dissolving the black paint. I was not willing to take that risk.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Now...I ended up with a little issue as mentioned before. While working the insert (at first before using tape) it scratched a litlle. This is why the tape is very important. You don't need much pressure while working the insert, so no scratches if I had tried this way before...

I have repainted the scratches on the insert and it worked out fine. From the outside no more scratches visable.

Hope you enjoyed and good luck you fu**ers!

Cheers, Mikeymike.

Hope it's all clear to ya all.

Hi ya all.

I am actually most active on repgeek but thought some members over here would appreciate this info.

Yesterday I finnaly had the cojones to remove the bezel insert of my beloved V2 PLOPROF.

Member thinkbags also removed it couple days ago by a simular method.

This is not a difficult mod but sure a tricky one.

For the noobs...The fact why we geeks wanting to remove the V2 insert is because the numbers are to grey compared to GEN. The factory placed the Lume on the bezel and not on the backside on the insert as it should be. The V1 insert is closer to GEN compared to the V2. So for you V1 guys IMO this mod is useless. Just enjoy your V1 as it is.

The goal of this mod is ending up with crisp white mumbers on your V2 insert.

Here a 2 pics from PLOPROFMAN. He owns a V2 and owned a GEN in the past.

You can tell the difference.

This is a risky job, so beware ! You can mess it up bigtime (scratching/breaking the insert). No aftermarket inserts available. I messed up mine just a little :undecided: , will tell you later on.

Things you need:

* Cojones

* Halogen lamp

* tape (very important, preventing scratches!)

* Patience as usual

* peanut butter

* cleaning cloth

* scissor

* Blue lume or white painting if you dont care about the lume

Step 1: Heating up the insert.

Do this for about 2 minutes under a halogen lamp. No need to remove the movement.

Step 2: Removing the insert.

Cutt some tape, roll it up and place it on the insert.

NOTE: the first times I worked the insert I did not used tape ending up with some scratches on the backside of the insert. I pressed to hard to maintain grip using my fingers and some minor scratches were the result.

After placing the tape try to turn the insert while sitting in the bezel.

The V2's have a bezel lock as we know so the bezel will stay in place.

The v1's on the other hand are a PITA, difficult to keep the bezel in place, cause the mofu will turn also when working the insert. I have a V2 so don't have the answer for you V1 guys about this. Need to find out yourself I guess :undecided:

After turning it around you will notice it will loosen up. Eventually it will come of and you can turn the watch upside down and it will fall out.

Beware with this procedure!!! try to press it very gently when working the insert, It's sapphire and will break easily. No aftermarket inserts available guys! This is why you absolutely need the tape and the balls !!!! If you don't use tape by nature you press to hard on the crystal to keep grip on it and you will ending up breaking or scratching it probably.

Step 3: Enjoying the fact it came of :

:partybanana: :applause: :partydj: :drinking: :woot: :partymonster: :sparta:

On the first pic from thinkbags his V1 you can see the lume is placed on the insert instead of the bezel like my V2

V1

V2

Step 4: Cleaning the insert (glue residues)

This one made me worry a bit.

Why?? Because when you use agressive chemicals to remove the glue, the black paint will come of while wiping ending up with a smooth clean sapphire insert :undecided:

I wondered which product will not harm the paint, after some research I found it.... Peanut butter!!! After wiping the insert gentely with a soft cloth with some PB the glue just drippes of. No worries about paint coming of using this method.

(these following steps will be posted later on)

Step 5: Will be placing lume directly on the backside of the insert (like GEN)

Step 6: Glue the insert back on the bezel.

Step 7: Kick some ass cause I'm a PLOMAN! :cool:

Now...I ended up with a little issue as mentioned before. While working the insert (at first before using tape) it scratched a litlle. This is why the tape is very important. You don't need much pressure working the insert, so no scratches if I had tried this way before... I will try to repaint it and keep you updated about how it will workout. Just ordered a black sharpie marker on the web.

Hope you enjoyed and good luck you fu**ers!:cool:

Cheers, Mikeymike.

It seems that the AR coating on the V2's are very sensitive so be carefull with it!

Guys, I have a V2 PLO with scratched AR coating, will this one fit a V2 version..? Does anyone know allready?