ARF Crystal Gasket Thicker than Gen

[Spiral_Cabbage]

I am trying to see if anyone can help with a question that has been asked a bit in the last year, but no one has been able to answer.
The ARF 116610 3135 has a steel bezel retainer ring that is larger than other reps and Gen.
If you use a gen crystal gasket, the steel bezel retaining ring is sloppy loose. There is no friction at all.

After measuring the thickness of the crystal gasket, the Rep gaskets are about .60mm and Gen about .67mm.
The ARF is about .76mm thick, thick enough to hold the steel ring.

My question. Where can I get spare gaskets that are at least .76mm thick?

Thanks.

 

[KJ2020]

I doubt you will find perfect thickness replacement gaskets anywhere besides the AR factory bro. And of course that stock is unavailable.

What I have done several times is bond two gaskets together. My reason was so I could put a gen-spec crystal in a non gen-spec case. Many less expensive reps have crystals with a flat edge profile. These use a thin gasket and the case crystal opening is slightly larger than a gen-spec opening.

I looked pretty extensively for thicker gaskets but found none. So I bought some gaskets one size larger than gen-spec (30.5mm instead if the gen 29.5mm) and tried some various methods of making them work together. Often you can use the rep gasket with an aftermarket one but be careful, if you damage the rep gasket your options can become limited.

First thing is getting the two heights correct. In my case the gen-spec crystal gasket had to be shaved down. I put the gasket on a junk non-cyclops gen-spec crystal, taped it to a die and sanded it down to the height of the rep gasket. Flat sandpaper on the bench, 220/320 grit. Use circular motion and rotate your grip so uneven pressure isn't an issue. Then I epoxied the two together, fit them to the space, and pressed the crystal in.

Another one I did I got the heights correct as above, then put the outer gasket inside the crystal retaining ring and the inner gasket on the crystal. I couldn't get one gasket to press into the other until I lightly bevel sanded the bottom outside edge of the gasket on the crystal so it would slip inside the top edge of the outer gasket. Once I was sure it would press home, I put a thin coat of UV glue on the outside of the inner gasket and pressed it home.

Lot of trouble just to do a crystal swap but the benefit of having the gen-spec cyclops position and cyclops AR is worth it. The gap between the insert and the crystal increases a little and it's noticeable if you are looking for it but all things considered it's an acceptable tradeoff IMO.

Some pics

This watch had its crystal changed to gen-spec using a double gasket

Some progress pics

I just did this one last night, note the double gasket

.

 

[KJ2020]

With there being such a small gap on yours, I would just use the ARF gasket. If you don't have it or it's damaged, I have read about one case where UV glue was used with the gen gasket to fill the space and hold the parts together. Or, like I had to do, get another gasket and use two. One gasket might need to be shaved in width which is not that hard to do if you use a crystal die to hold the gasket. Wrap the gasket around a die and swipe/roll it on flat sandpaper.

 

[Hazing]

I had the same problem and I think I used a Clark gasket on mine. I will check in the morning when I get to my desk and see what I used and let you know. I just gave him all the measurements of what I 2as trying to do and he knew what ti needed.

Where are you located? I might even still have one.

 

[Spiral_Cabbage]

With there being such a small gap on yours, I would just use the ARF gasket. If you don't have it or it's damaged, I have read about one case where UV glue was used with the gen gasket to fill the space and hold the parts together. Or, like I had to do, get another gasket and use two. One gasket might need to be shaved in width which is not that hard to do if you use a crystal die to hold the gasket. Wrap the gasket around a die and swipe/roll it on flat sandpaper.

Wow! What an incredible step by step.
I was thinking if two gaskets would work together.
thank you so much.

 

[Spiral_Cabbage]

I had the same problem and I think I used a Clark gasket on mine. I will check in the morning when I get to my desk and see what I used and let you know. I just gave him all the measurements of what I 2as trying to do and he knew what ti needed.

Where are you located? I might even still have one.

That is great news. I heard that Clark might be thicker.
please let me know which specs you used.
If you are able to find it, I will buy from you I am in Virginia, USA.

 

[Hazing]

Wow! What an incredible step by step.
I was thinking if two gaskets would work together.
thank you so much.

Yeah KJ2020 is clutch. I couldn’t have figured it out if it wasn’t for him. I was at a standstill with oascom until he popped in with details and suggestions. This was the one I ordered.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Clark-2-7-...a=1&pg=2060778&_trksid=p2060778.c100290.m3507

and it’s shipped out of USA so it should get to you quickly. Within a few days. If not, let me know. I have one - I just don’t know exactly where it is.

oascom Ask him too. He should be able to confirm this is what he put together.

 

[Oascom]

Yes I used Clark's. It's good to buy few of them just in case.

 

[Spiral_Cabbage]

Awesome. I bought a Clark’s and another that is .7mm thick off the bay.
I guess time will tell.

Thank you all for chiming in. I will follow up in a few days.

 

[Spiral_Cabbage]

Well, both gaskets came in and neither worked. The steel bezel retaining ring is so loose that you can put it on and take it off with your fingers.
I tried to use UV glue applied to the gasket with a degree of success, but after installing the bezel, it would not turn. It was either That too much UV glue was applied, or it was not even all around the gasket.

Im thinking that either I got a steel ring that is too wide or something, A noob ring fits perfectly, so it’s not the case.
Just when I find one with great sel recess, perfect rehaut alignment and a great even insert, this happens. I will continue to experiment with the UV glue.

 

[KJ2020]

Well, both gaskets came in and neither worked. The steel bezel retaining ring is so loose that you can put it on and take it off with your fingers.

Just to make sure I'm understanding correctly, are you saying that with or without a crystal and gasket in place, the crystal retaining ring fits loosely on the case? That should not be so. Even after a crystal and gasket are removed, the retaining ring should still stay in place and in fact be difficult to pry up.

if your retaining ring is loose and it would work for you if it was anchored, here's an option you can consider. Epoxy the retaining ring to the case. I've done that a couple times when nothing else worked. I converted a BP 16570 Explorer into a GMT case with a rotating bezel. The WSO retaining ring didn't fit perfectly to the case/rehaut so I epoxied it, then worked on the issue of crystal/gasket fit like you're doing now.

Epoxy holds well and is meant to be permanent, but can be dissolved with acetone if you want to undo this later. It's also waterproof. For this application I used BSI epoxy which is clear and gives you 30 minutes setting time. Just make sure to get the retaining ring centered correctly, plenty of ways to do that - shims, tape, etc.

 

[Spiral_Cabbage]

Just to make sure I'm understanding correctly, are you saying that with or without a crystal and gasket in place, the crystal retaining ring fits loosely on the case? That should not be so. Even after a crystal and gasket are removed, the retaining ring should still stay in place and in fact be difficult to pry up.

Yes. That should not be so at all and it is pretty frustrating.
The the thicker gasket I found was .7mm thick. The ARF gasket that I have is .77mm thick. The arf one works enough, however, that one is not as tight as the last arf V2 I had. The last one I had, the crystal, gasket and ring would stay solidly on the case when removing the bezel. With this arf everything comes off. Bezel, ring, gasket, crystal.
I’m still using the arf gasket, but a certain ar crystal that I bought with the watch has a pretty low magnification. I wanted to add a higher gasket to magnify the date a bit. Now that I have taken the arf one off and on so many times, I would like to find something to make sure I’m as watertight as possible.

I’ll have to think about the epoxy. I will try to practice adding a smooth layer of uv glue to the other gaskets and see if this will work.
My worry is that every time that I take the bezel off, I have to remove the insert to remove the retaining ring.

My last ditch alternative is to use a noob V9 bezel and ring that I have. It needs some clean up and I would have to shim the ARF insert to fit right.

 

[KJ2020]

I’ll have to think about the epoxy. I will try to practice adding a smooth layer of uv glue to the other gaskets and see if this will work. My worry is that every time that I take the bezel off, I have to remove the insert to remove the retaining ring.

Yeah I wouldn't be able to tolerate that risk. I glued inserts into bezels for my mod 16570 and can now just swap the whole bezel to change up the look. Much easier than swapping the insert and no risk of damaging them. Little different than ceramic, but knowing the retaining ring will stay put is a welcome mod for both types.

 

[Spiral_Cabbage]

Exactly

 

[Spiral_Cabbage]

Well, I put on a fresh esslinger gasket and swapped a noob V9 bezel retaining ring and bezel. It was so nice and tight. I used hypo to glue the insert and this chapter of the book is over.

 

[KJ2020]

Well, I put on a fresh esslinger gasket and swapped a noob V9 bezel retaining ring and bezel. It was so nice and tight. I used hypo to glue the insert and this chapter of the book is over.

Yeah the Noob V9s are nice. Lucky you had one, good job.