Nanuq

It depends, what watch is it, and from whom? The aftermarket crowns are often non-standard thread too (relative to gen sizing) so "any" tube won't fit "any" crown. But if you buy a pair, like a 703, then you just have to install the tube to the case. It might screw right in.... maybe. Some watches will accept gen tubes just fine. You may also need a stem thread adapter depending what movement you've got. It's a bit of a can of worms but eminently doable.

Let me start with this one ... it's appropriate for Friday the 13th, considering its frankenstein existence already survived. Now I'm tearing into it, hopefully to emerge alive and kicking on the other side. It's an old, old handmade rep 6204 from Vietnam, and I'm at least the 6th owner.

On this Veterans' Day I want to take a moment to thank those who have served on our behalf. Thank you. Old Man and a Bucket of Shrimp It happened every Friday evening, almost without fail, when the sun resembled a giant orange and was starting to dip into the blue ocean. Old Ed came strolling along the beach to his favorite pier. Clutched in his bony hand was a bucket of shrimp. Ed walks out to the end of the pier, where it seems he almost has the world to himself. The glow of the sun is a golden bronze now. Everybody's gone, except for a few joggers on the beach. Standing out on the end of the pier, Ed is alone with his thoughts...and his bucket of shrimp. Before long, however, he is no longer alone. Up in the sky a thousand white dots come screeching and squawking, winging their way toward that lanky frame standing there on the end of the pier. Before long, dozens of seagulls have enveloped him, their wings fluttering and flapping wildly. Ed stands there tossing shrimp to the hungry birds. As he does, if you listen closely, you can hear him say with a smile, 'Thank you. Thank you.' In a few short minutes the bucket is empty. But Ed doesn't leave. He stands there lost in thought, as though transported to another time and place . When he finally turns around and begins to walk back toward the beach, a few of the birds hop along the pier with him until he gets to the stairs, and then they, too, fly away. And old Ed quietly makes his way down to the end of the beach and on home. If you were sitting there on the pier with your fishing line in the water, Ed might seem like 'a funny old duck,' as my dad used to say. Or, to onlookers, he's just another old codger, lost in his own weird world, feeding the seagulls with a bucket full of shrimp. To the onlooker, rituals can look either very strange or very empty. They can seem altogether unimportant .....maybe even a lot of nonsense. Old folks often do strange things, at least in the eyes of Boomers and Busters. Most of them would probably write old Ed off, down there in Florida ... That's too bad. They'd do well to know him better. His full name: Eddie Rickenbacker. He was a famous hero in World War I, and then he was in WWII. On one of his flying missions across the Pacific, he and his seven-member crew went down. Miraculously, all of the men survived, crawled out of their plane, and climbed into a life raft. Captain Rickenbacker and his crew floated for days on the rough waters of the Pacific. They fought the sun. They fought sharks. Most of all, they fought hunger and thirst. By the eighth day their rations ran out. No food. No water. They were hundreds of miles from land and no one knew where they were or even if they were alive. Every day across America millions wondered and prayed that Eddie Rickenbacker might somehow be found alive. The men adrift needed a miracle. That afternoon they had a simple devotional service and prayed for a miracle. They tried to nap. Eddie leaned back and pulled his military cap over his nose. Time dragged on. All he could hear was the slap of the waves against the raft...suddenly Eddie felt something land on the top of his cap. It was a seagull! Old Ed would later describe how he sat perfectly still, planning his next move. With a flash of his hand and a squawk from the gull, he managed to grab it and wring its neck. He tore the feathers off, and he and his starving crew made a meal of it - a very slight meal for eight men. Then they used the intestines for bait. With it, they caught fish, which gave them food and more bait....and the cycle continued. With that simple survival technique, they were able to endure the rigors of the sea until they were found and rescued after 24 days at sea. Eddie Rickenbacker lived many years beyond that ordeal, but he never forgot the sacrifice of that first life-saving seagull... And he never stopped saying, 'Thank you.' That's why almost every Friday night he would walk to the end of the pier with a bucket full of shrimp and a heart full of gratitude.

I think what he did was use us as a final soapbox. Our uptime is nearly 100% and he knows we won't delete his topic because it didn't break the rules. So we were a means to an end. Sorta parasitic though.

...and some issued watches have no markings at all. My 6536/1 is from its original owner, a spec ops diver to whom it was issued. There are no engravings other than the usual. He told me it was a form of currency in case they got in trouble and needed money to get home.

Hat trick

Nicely done, that's one to be proud of.

Skates

Well spotted! It is indeed, with the concentric date wheels. I haven't worn it much, it's actually been since Feb 5th of this year... that's the last time I went to the effort of setting those bloody wheels. You'd think they could make a quick-set for that complication, but nooooooooooooo. So 31 orbits of the hands to get one click on the "month" wheel? 345 orbits of the hands to get to today's date? Fuggedaboutit.

The 702 is very simar to the 700 with its gaskets. This shows how the crown gasket fits in the end of the tube.

What a bunch of pampered lap dogs! Here in Alaska our dogs swim in ice chunks (and make the Boss's car filthy on the way home!)

Specific gravity

Buster is the kind of dog that doesn't mind getting his hands dirty.

Thanks mate, that's a Phong case.

Here's a set of Tiger hands, the widths, lengths and points where the diamonds intersect the hour markers are spot on.

Beautiful. Want to double your money?

The answer is..... "maybe". Some rep tubes will accept a gen crown. Someone did a nice tutorial about this a few months ago.

Those are great replies. ^^^ What they're trying to say is rep crowns will work awhile but the cheap metal just feels bad when you screw it down, and the threads get galled and it quits working right. If you're going to make something that "feels" right, then replacing the crown and tube is high on the list. It just feels right when you screw it down, and the threads are nice and smooth. And it's much more likely to be waterproof. I lived with the original rep crown on an MBW Seadweller for 10 years, and it was "okay". But when I finally replaced it (because I dropped the watch and bent the tube) the difference was remarkable, Other reasons to replace a crown are the Cartel Subs... the old combination of stubby crown guards and tall crowns were positively clownish. Putting an Athaya 702 (narrow) crown on made a world of difference. So yes, you can live with it just fine. Eventually the threads in the crown or tube will get nasty and it will be rough screwing it down. Then replace it with a 6mm crown and 6mm tube and you'll kick yourself for waiting so long.

We seem to be off in the weeds here... the original question was about tightening up a loose bezel. To really see whatcha got there, you'll need to pop the bezel off and post photos of all the parts and the case where the bezel came off. Then we can tell you how to tighten it up.

Big Crown meets Milgauss

Look here for hands sizing, then you can order what you need elsewhere: http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db.cgi?10&ranfft&2&2uswk

Buster the Wonderdog