Hi everyone, just wanted to share my journey with the BP 16600 I bought some months ago from another forum member, great value for money and a true workhorse…
…BUT since the very first day on my wrist the crystal profile, completely off compared to gen, started to bug me.
In the end, after some measurements taken without taking the watch apart, I decided to pull the trigger on a secondhand gen crystal and try to install it by myself.
Of course, things didn’t go as smooth as expected: gen crystal has a completely different profile compared to the BP one, therefore neither the gen nor the BP gasket would suit… in the end (after more detailed measurements taken with the watch dismantled) I tried with another gasket that suited perfectly the case but was a tad smaller on the inside to lock the crystal in position (for the DIY fanatics, outer diameter is 30,4 mm, inner 29,4), so in order to not lose the crystal any time I rotated my wrist I tried locking it with a very thin layer of silicone between crystal and gasket.
I know, sounds like blasphemy… but in the end, it worked!
And after all those words, I would like to share with you some photos of what I think is (AFAIK) the world’s first BP 16600 with gen crystal installed (also with LEC detail)!
In some pictures you can see some silicone smudges near the crystal, but in person are barely seeable up close, on the wrist are pratically invisible.
Now it's time to address the wrong code clasp...
