The WSO Bezel is often named in this thread. Is there a way to fit anWSO Bezel on a BP to put the gen insert perfectly in? Or any other chance to fit the bezel insert perfectly ?
On the BP 16710, the bezel is held on with the 8 sided paper clip. One part of clip fits inside a groove in the bezel and the other side fits under a lip on the round case protrusion that contains the crystal. There is no retaining ring. The retaining ring on the gen serves two purposes - it anchors the crystal gasket to the crystal and case protrusion on the inside, and it provides a mount for the bezel on the outside. Without a retaining ring you can't mount a gen-spec bezel. That's why WSO gen-spec bezels are also offered as kits that include a retaining ring. The BP 16710 case protrusion would have to have the lip milled away to permit a retaining ring to fit. Even then in all likelihood the retaining ring would not fit properly - there would be a gap between it and the case protrusion so the normal placement of crystal gasket, then crystal, then retaining ring over the crystal gasket would not result in a tight fit.
The possible solution to this effort would be to epoxy the retaining ring to the case, then use some kind of fill to occupy the tiny gap. I have actually done this on a BP 16570 case, which is nearly identical to the 16710 case except is already comes with the case protrusion lip missing since its bezel acts a retaining ring. I used two gaskets on it at first and that worked OK. I never tested it for water proofness, but that was never an issue for me as I do not ever get my watches wet. The crystal was on there plenty tight. I later found that a slightly thicker and a much taller gasket could be pressed down into that tiny gap to both occupy the space and mount a gen-spec crystal without issue. Again, it has not been water proof tested but that is not a concern for me. If I can't pop a crystal out by hand (two thumbs on the inside), that's tight enough for me.
Gen-spec bezel, insert and crystal on the BP 16570 below. I have two other WSO bezels with different inserts so I can swap the whole assembly in about a minute to change the look. It's a lot easier and faster to change the bezel and it prevents continued edge damage to the inserts (paint chipping) by leaving the inserts installed.
The 16710 bezel design is also found on many other 4, 5 and even some cheap 6 digit cartel watches. The octagonal wire can be a royal PITA to get out. On one I had to hammer a jeweler's screwdriver in the gap and then use a needle to coax the end up enough to get some needle nose pliers on it. Fun fun
