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Generic 21 tropic on the bay


gplracer

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I saw that last night, too! I've always heard that there were aftermarket, beveled-edge, T21s in existence (Zigmeister mentioned this in a couple of posts; he said they were 'indistinguishable' from gens), but this is the first time I've seen one being sold! I'd love to see one up close, and find out just who is making them.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Here's the one from jandkwatches- it's a beveled edge crystal on my 6239/7750 case- I like it. It's similar to the purported gen T-21 that I have.

P1010064.jpg

It's better than the DW crystal that came with the case, IMO.

The watch on the right is the DW 6239/7750 w/ the 6238 dial- the crystal has the rounded edge

P1010060.jpg

The watch on the left is my 6238/9- V72 with the gen crystal

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I have an apparent gen Rolex t-21 on my daytona. Its got the rounded edges like the Sternkreutz crystal posted above by FXR. I personlly like the sharper beveled edges, but I agree that anything is better than the stock DW crystal. It was horrible, cloudy and just crumbled around the edges as i removed it.

dizz

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Looking at 'Rolex Daytona, a legend is born', it looks like either crystal is correct. I don't know if the domed top was first and the flat top w/ beveled edge was later or not.

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the changeover from domed to beveled crystals happened sometime in the mid-1970s. This also affected other types of crystals at the time, but their names confusingly remained the same e.g. "Tropic 21" stayed "Tropic 21", despite the entirely new profile.

Please have a look at my comparison of gen and aftermarket T21s from earlier in the year, since very few people did! I would love to add this J and K crystal to the comparison, as it seems to be a spitting image of the newer gens I have. (I've bought -and ruined!- quite a lot.) I've never bought a genuine domed T21, as both the Sternkreuz and Clark crystals are excellent at 1/10th to 1/20th the cost.

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Excellent LH, glad to see you the chime in, and I would agree with your observation of the beveled edge T-21 being later. I remember your comparison post from earlier this year and enjoyed revisiting it just now.

I'm pretty happy with the jandk crystal, I'm using it to replace the original DW crystal which was too loose. I've found these DW crystals to be a little slim on the OD- in the 30.4+mm range, whereas the aftermarket and gens are in the 30.55mm to 30.6mm. So when you swap in a better crystal, you then have to go back and file the bezel so it will fit over the better crystal. Enlarging the ID of the bezel is a slow process for me- 30 minutes to an hour of hand filing and sanding with lots of test fitting in between. But eventually you reach the point where you can press the bezel over the crystal with a good tight fit.

LH, hope all is well. You left home as a typhoon was arriving. Are you having good luck finding free internet connections?

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