Replacement part for an Oris Carlos Coste with a striped tube

[chubbchubb]

In May 08, I bought an Oris Carlos Coste. It quickly became one of my favorite watches and my daily beater. It is a well made rep and there is a great review on it by Seadweller4000.

Unfortunately, there are two nasty problems that many owners of the CC had to face:

1. Defective (scratched) daywheels

2. Striped (POS) tubes

The striped tubes are due to the low quality material used for the tube and the fact that the thread of the tube is too short. The crown can do less than one full turn until it is locked. Even though I used extreme caution when screwing/unscrewing the Crown, after about six weeks, the tube went belly-up. I contacted the dealer from whom I had bought the watch and asked if he could source replacement parts. He said yes and the Carlos Coste went into the watchbox.

Some six months later, I still had no replacement parts and so I decided to source them myself. I disassembled the watch, removed the tube and measured it with a digital caliper. Then I went to the Cousins site (hxxp://www.cousinsuk.com) and looked for a matching tube and I found one which fits perfectly. It works with both the rep crown and the OEM crown. Like the rep tube, it is pushed into the case and secured with a tiny bit of glue. I used UHU plus Endfest300, a 2-component adhesive on epoxy resin base. The thread of the Cousins tube is a bit longer. I ended up re-using my rep crown as it was ok.

[Toadtorrent]

That's good to hear about the tube. I have a few questions hopefully you can answer:

• How do you measure these?
  
• Do you mesure the outside insertion section diameter and also the overall length?
  
• How did you measure the tube thread size/pitch to ensure it would fit with the rep threading?
  
• Did you do a standard ETA datewheel replacement?
  

I'm trying to figure out where to source date overlays for a Sumbariner and possibly a Seadweller, and am not sure where to look.

Thanks for the post...it's quite interesting.

[chubbchubb]

That's good to hear about the tube. I have a few questions hopefully you can answer:

• How do you measure these?
  
• Do you mesure the outside insertion section diameter and also the overall length?
  
• How did you measure the tube thread size/pitch to ensure it would fit with the rep threading?
  
• Did you do a standard ETA datewheel replacement?
  

I'm trying to figure out where to source date overlays for a Sumbariner and possibly a Seadweller, and am not sure where to look.

Thanks for the post...it's quite interesting.

I used a caliper similar to this

This is what I measured

I did not actually measure the pitch of the tubes thread, assuming that they are somewhat standardized. If you look at the specs on the Cousins site, it seems that this assumption is right as there is no mentioning of any variations in pitch. The minor difference in the thread diameter is due to the old tube being striped. I also measured the inside diameter of the crown.

Cousins also has the date and daywheels in various languages and colors. My CC does have the date problem but I did not order these yet as I was too eager to finally get the watch back in a wearable state. Replacing the datewheels on a 7750 Chrono is more time consuming than the tube switch.

AFAIK you will have to look for date overlays for Rlx in the rep world. ETA wheels are not difficult to get as there are rep eta copy movements and the gen movements and parts are (still) sold openly. The gen rolexes come with rolex movements that are different from the eta clones used in the rlx reps. Therefore, you can't just swap the datewheels. A couple of members had overlay projects in the past, mostly for vintage rolex (drsd, 1680...). As for new Submariners, the datewheels on the recent quality reps are actually pretty accurate.

[Toadtorrent]

I did not actually measure the pitch of the tubes thread, assuming that they are somewhat standardized. If you look at the specs on the Cousins site, it seems that this assumption is right as there is no mentioning of any variations in pitch. The minor difference in the thread diameter is due to the old tube being striped. I also measured the inside diameter of the crown.

I know some of the vintage experts (Freddy if I remember right) had problems with thread pitch changing...on GEN PARTS no less!! He had to get different gen Rolex taps for some obscure mid-production spec change...crazy.

AFAIK you will have to look for date overlays for Rlx in the rep world. ETA wheels are not difficult to get as there are rep eta copy movements and the gen movements and parts are (still) sold openly. The gen rolexes come with rolex movements that are different from the eta clones used in the rlx reps. Therefore, you can't just swap the datewheels. A couple of members had overlay projects in the past, mostly for vintage rolex (drsd, 1680...). As for new Submariners, the datewheels on the recent quality reps are actually pretty accurate.

I know the issues with the ETA vs. Rollie movement rotation date order swap and some of the projects to print overlays...but haven't seen any successful updates in recent history.

I'm going to have to contact some of the collectors to see if they can get Asian overlays for the Rollies.

Thanks for the info!!

[triunfadorazo]

Hi I'm very interested in that.

It's too difficult to remove the tube and install the new one?

I never open the watch. I'd like to do it myself.

Thanks,