Ok so took all of the advice (ty btw!). Still can't get it to rotate nicely (without being able to pull the bezel off easily). When it's firmly pressed down with a crystal press it's nearly impossible to move with both the Gen spring and the CF spring. I'm wondering if I didn't seat the crystal ring properly and that's 8causing issues? This is my first mod and i'm a big noob so I pressed out the crystal which loosened the retaining ring enough to get a case knife in there and get it off.
I reinstalled the crystal using a gen gasket (I had a 2.85mm clark but it didn't seem to fit as nice). I'm wondering if I didn't reinstall properly? I aligned the crystal and then used a press to seat it fairly low back into the case. Then I put the retaining ring on the top and used a different sized press to push that down over the top. Is it not down far enough? Should I have used the bezel to press that ring down instead of pressing onto the retaining ring directly? All the YT videos i've found are for older GMT's/Subs that use a different crystal retaining ring design so i'm not really sure what the proper protocol is.
Also the gen spring doesn't sit completely flat like the CF ring does.
A gen crystal gasket will not normally fit under a CF retaining ring, the gen gasket is a little thicker and denser. So you may not have been able to press the retaining ring down properly. You can use an aftermarket gasket or the gen gasket can have its thickness reduced a little by lightly sanding its outer perimeter. Put the gasket on a junk crystal and swipe/roll it on edge evenly and uniformly across some 400 or 320 grit sandpaper flat on a bench. Take only a little off all the way around and test fit often.
You do not need a crystal press to place a crystal and crystal gasket onto the case. The gasket should go on the crystal first, then simply hand push the gasket and crystal onto the case. It will seat flush to the case if the gasket is tall enough. If not the crystal will sit on the rehaut ledge. Either way a hand fitting will seat the two pieces as low as they can go. The gasket height you choose should be tall enough to allow it to seat flush to the case. A small gap between the crystal and the rehaut ledge is normal. I always put the movement back in if it was out and check date mag before putting the retaining ring back on. Much easier to change to a different height gasket if the date mag is off.
You do need a crystal press to seat the retaining ring and it should be fully seated to the case, not just "fairly low". You have a CF V2 bezel assembly whose retaining ring has slightly beveled teeth bottoms. This was IMO a cheap fix by CF so their wrong size bezel tension spring (washer) could just slip under the retaining ring teeth if it needed to. Instead it's just another way for binding to occur. This lower bevel on the retaining ring teeth makes it harder to tell if the ring is fully seated all the way around, but since you used a gen crystal gasket I suspect it may not be. Sometimes you really have to mash the hell out of the ring to force it all the way down, especially when using a gen gasket.
This one is not a CF GMT, but as an example it took a vice to close that final gap. EXTREME care needs to be taken not to damage a crystal using this technique.
It doesn't matter that your gen click ring pops up a little, or more than the CF one. The bezel will push it down, provided the click ring pins are positioned properly in the shorter, perpendicular slots on the bezel underside. You really should test and experiment with the bezel movements with the bezel gasket (hytrel ring) removed so you can easily make adjustments without damaging the hytrel ring a little more each time. It's also much easier to do this with the insert removed. Push the bezel down and hold it down fully while rotating it. If it won't do it then, it's not going to with the hytrel ring installed. Something is still wrong and an adjustment is needed. Get it moving right and then install it permanently. And you may well need a new hytrel ring as
derjenigewelcher recommended.
If all the parts are in place correctly and the bezel still won't rotate, start adding tiny blobs of silicone grease with an oiler. Put some in every third retaining ring scallop, test, then add some more to other clean scallops as needed. Once it starts to move more freely, work the silicone in by continuing to rotate it. The goal is to find the least amount of grease needed to give you an acceptable freedom of movement. That amount is way less than what CF uses, and the lesser amount will help reduce some of the loose bezel play.
