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Narikaa PO Crystal Explosion


thw

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Last night I took off my 42mm PO. Doesn't have a scratch on it. I put it on my nightstand. This morning I picked it up and was shocked to see that the crystal appeared to have exploded overnight! The center of the crystal was shattered in a perfect circle about 8mm in from the bezel. WIERD!!!

I took a photo but my camera won't focus in macro so the photos stinks.

Question: I don't want to spend $145 on a gen crystal and they are tough to get right now. Anyone know a good source since Narikaa is in Thailand? I was going to try Tony at asian7750. Also... anyone know where to source a proper Omega symbol for the dial? I know there was a thread either here or on Repgeek but I can't find it. post-20806-124950475006_thumb.jpg

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Your only option is another POrikaa crystal; the gen won't fit as the case for the POrikaa is not to gen specifications like the 4th gen 42mm...

That's what I thought.... A couple folks at repgeek said the gen crystal fits but I didn't think so. Either way I wouldn't want a gen crystal on a $99 PO.

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Am I correct in saying that this has been reported, specifically on this watch, a few times previously?

If so, it may be that the selection of crystal size, to marry into the case, is where the real issue lies.

We know that there are many issues in the manufacturing process, so any poor engineering, in tolerances, and selection of a suitable crystal, could create this situation.

My guess is that the process may be back to front..ie The manufacturer selected a crystal which was close in general specs to the Omega one, and then built a case around the crystal. So any marginal mistake in tolerance could easily lead to what we are seeing here.

I could be way of line on this, but somehow feel it is a plausible scenario.

Which, if correct, means it will continue to be a problem, as it isn't a crystal problem, but an ill fitting case.

My $0.02c FWIW.

Offshore

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Wow. These are some beefy crystals. It's going to take a LOT of pressure to crack one of these. I can understand the Fiddy crystals doing this, due to the radical curvature and relative thinness... But the PO crystals are only slightly domed and very thick... 2.5mm or so for the 42mm PO. It's hard to imagine these breaking spontaneously due to case tolerances... If the case isn't designed properly, I'd think these thick crystals could never be forced in to place.

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Sourcing a crystal for a 42mm PO isn't the tough part. I'm concerned whether the PO that Narikaa sells has physical dimensions that are different from say a v4 PO from Sead. A couple of folks have suggested that I would have to get it from Nakikaa for it to fit. I would think that the crystals should fit across the board on all the PO reps and oly the Gen crystal might have issues fitting in some reps.

As a final note, I removed the remainder of the crystal last night using a pair of leather work gloves. It was murder to remove it and the perimeter piece came out as one unit. I really think there was a manufacturing flaw. I have had a tough time removing them before but the tension on this thing was not to be believed! Figure if the case was made even .25 mm too small and they managed to squeeze it in, the force on it from all sides may have been enough to get the center to "pop!"

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I would think that the crystals should fit across the board on all the PO reps and oly the Gen crystal might have issues fitting in some reps.

Absolutely not. There are different factories producing parts like cases, bezels, etc. Not all are universal and not all share the same measurements, dimensions etc. Narikaa's 42mm has a bezel that is .5mm larger at the I.D. than, say a 4th generation PO rep; the O.D. I think is almost a full mm larger than the 4th gen's. As such, the crystal is likely to be a few tenths of a mm larger on the narikaa PO; otherwise, you'd end up with a slight gap where the crystal and bezel insert meet.

The 4th generation PO rep will accept gen parts as if it were a genuine PO, but to my knowledge and experience, the case used on the 4th gen is the only 42mm rep that is capable of accepting the majority of parts like gen (most notably the crystal and the bezel/insert).

IMG_5447.jpg

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