1680sub Posted March 17, 2008 Report Share Posted March 17, 2008 The retaining bezel that holds the crystal down will not go completely flush down to the case. Therefore after installing the tension ring and rotating bezel makes the whole bezel seem to float and show the crystal. I use a bezel press with a fake case to used to press it down but it will come up and not stay down. Any suggestions to make it stay? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manuel Posted March 17, 2008 Report Share Posted March 17, 2008 Hi, I had this same problem when installing a gen tropic 127. The mbw 1680 case is based in the mbw 5513 case. The 5513 case takes tropic 19 which has a different diameter i guess. My watchmaster had to trim the cristal (with a hand file and then polish the plastic crystal) until it was fitted. So you will have to trim down the interior of the cristal, just where the crystal attachs to the case, any vintage mbw modder can correct me if I am wrong, but I am just telling you what my watchmaster told me. Regards Manuel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1680sub Posted March 18, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2008 (edited) Hi, I had this same problem when installing a gen tropic 127. The mbw 1680 case is based in the mbw 5513 case. The 5513 case takes tropic 19 which has a different diameter i guess. My watchmaster had to trim the cristal (with a hand file and then polish the plastic crystal) until it was fitted. So you will have to trim down the interior of the cristal, just where the crystal attachs to the case, any vintage mbw modder can correct me if I am wrong, but I am just telling you what my watchmaster told me. Regards Manuel. Manuel, the watch was installed with a 127 prior to me buying it. The bezel was already floating when I got it. I had purchased the press kit and I needed to use a hollow watch case to fit around the crystal cuz the kit pieces did not work. I was thinking of maybe doing the shaving of the outside of the crystal which is basically doing the same thing reducing the plastic on the outside since the crystal is lined up pretty good. I don't want to disturb that. I should be able to fit the retaining bezel down and maybe the roughing will make it grab tight. I will polish any scratches. I will do a short pictorial and post them tomorrow. I am going to work on it tonight. I bet a Sapphire converstion crystal that is raised would work better than the 127. I guess it looks better with acrylic Edited March 18, 2008 by 1680sub Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bertieng Posted March 18, 2008 Report Share Posted March 18, 2008 Manuel, the watch was installed with a 127 prior to me buying it. The bezel was already floating when I got it. I had purchased the press kit and I needed to use a hollow watch case to fit around the crystal cuz the kit pieces did not work. I was thinking of maybe doing the shaving of the outside of the crystal which is basically doing the same thing reducing the plastic on the outside since the crystal is lined up pretty good. I don't want to disturb that. I should be able to fit the retaining bezel down and maybe the roughing will make it grab tight. I will polish any scratches. I will do a short pictorial and post them tomorrow. I am going to work on it tonight. I bet a Sapphire converstion crystal that is raised would work better than the 127. I guess it looks better with acrylic Do not touch the crystal at all! It will be extrememly hard to polish the brushed plastic back to the original shinny texture. I suspect why you have a floating retention ring is that its inner dimension is too small to fit tightly onto the bottom of the 127 - provided your 127 is a gen. piece. This often happens to the MBW when you put on a gen - don't force it or you will end up cracking your crystal or bent the ring. Tropic. All you have to do is to trim down the inner rim of the retention ring till it is about 10 micron smaller than the Tropic's outer base diameter, then press fit it using the kit designed for the Rolex press - those low cost nylon presses will not work. You have to keep measuring while doing the trimming otherwise you will end up ginding too much away and it will leave you a loose fitting rentation ring - that's what happened to one of my MBW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manuel Posted March 18, 2008 Report Share Posted March 18, 2008 please take a look at this thread in replicacollector: http://www.replicacollector.com/members/in...amp;hl=bevelled It seems that the problem is not the crystal itself but the retaining ring... Sorry I didnt wanted to mislead you. BTW, if you are looking to buy a shappire conversion kit try this: http://www.krysworks-store.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1680sub Posted March 18, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2008 please take a look at this thread in replicacollector: http://www.replicacollector.com/members/in...amp;hl=bevelled It seems that the problem is not the crystal itself but the retaining ring... Sorry I didnt wanted to mislead you. BTW, if you are looking to buy a shappire conversion kit try this: http://www.krysworks-store.com/ WOW, I see the sapphire version is 79.50 for the 1680. I guess it would be expensiv being the first Submariner with a date. I could look at this as a one time purchase. Plus the scratch free qualities. Well, as you see in the pics I already did the scraping on crystal edge with the emory board fingernail file. I got the retaining bezel down real flat but I am missing the rubber gasket that is suppose to be in the groove so maybe thats why i see a micro gap. Manuel, maybe its good I did not use the file on the inner retaining bezel in case I get the sapphire conversion crystal it will grab easier and smoother. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manuel Posted March 20, 2008 Report Share Posted March 20, 2008 ok, please share with us your progress...I was thinking of doing a shappire conversion too... Also I would be interested to know if a noobmariner caseback can fit into the mbw 1680.. Guess what? It would become a nice vintage 16610 with lugholes because it would have a shappire crystal and a modern caseback...and lets not forget the mbw case comes with lugholes... Also the noob dial is the best modern 16610 rep dial avalaible. I am very curious to see the results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tribal Posted March 20, 2008 Report Share Posted March 20, 2008 to fit a Saphire Glass in a 1680 kills the Character of the Watch I think. you can't build a 16610 with this Case because the Diameter of the Noob Dial is too big. Also the Bezel is totally wrong. To install the retaining Ring back took a good Press than it will work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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