VSF Omega Seamaster 300 Bezel Insert Alignment! With Tons of Photos!

[miscusi]

I wore the VSF SM300 Today and Every time I put it on, the not at 12 triangle kills me. I went to work, got off, and went to bed, and that was when I was like fuck it all, I dont care if I fuck it up, I cant allow this to continue! SO in my underpants, I went to the table, took out my old swiss army knife and started prying away at the bezel... I was completely convinced I was gonna royally fuck it up, then BEHOLD! it started to work so I started taking pictures....

I took the little blade of my SWISS army knife that I use to open casebacks with, and inserted it between the bezel and the case. I press down, then I pressed it in the other side, then the other side and the bezel became more loose each time, and then it popped right off.

As you can see, the triangle is so far off it would drive a man to murder.

Here are a series of photos showing my knife did not fuck up the case or the bezel

Moving along.

I then wondered how to get the bezel out.. So I noticed the back ceramic edge and steel edge and decided to use the big sharp knife of the swiss army knife and slid it in between, I worked my way around the whole thing and noticed the bezel started to move outwards.

After the bezel is out, I noticed there was a layer of sticky something on it, seeing this means for me that I will only try this once or else risk the sticky getting ruined. Because I dont have additional sticky stuff available if I ruin it, I would have to get rid of all the old sticky and put new sticky and that would be a pain. Plus the insert was rather thick and fitted in snuggly, so I figure I can reuse the sticky this one time, well not like I have a choice anyway...

So I try my best to align the triangle to the beveling, I am doing this because I know that before I removed the bezel, the bevel itself was pretty on point.

I made sure the click spring thing was positioned properly with the thing in the hole.. (also made sure the many angle wire inside the bezel was okay too..

then I prepared to give it all hell to push it back on.. but it went on with a small push and a click! So there you have it, I tried my best. Is it perfect? no, but hey, its close enough and I am satisfied enough that I can go to bed.

Thanks for looking,

Disclaimer: This is not a tutorial, This is just a post about what I did... and if you try anything, it is at your own risk, you cut your hand open or bust your rep or whatever, not my fault.

 

[KJ2020]

Nice job bro and great documentation. Few things on a rep are more annoying than an insert triangle always catching your eye because it's off center. It's always nice to see how other watches are constructed, I don't have one of these so now I know!

It's nice that a bezel with the wire clip attachment method can be pried off - most 5 digit Rolexes with this arrangement cannot. You have to remove the movement and the crystal to get under the insert and separate it out of the bezel. Then grab an end of the wire clip and work it loose a section at a time. I mention it here only so folks don't try your method on one of those reps.

I should get an Omega like yours, it's a great looking rep. Congrats on the ace workmanship!

 

[domiffm]

Nice job and good result. You were lucky not to have scratched anything.

However, I have to say that you could have done the insert alignment much easier and with less risk. While the bezel is still on the watch, simply heat the bezel slightly with a hair dryer to soften the glue underneath. Then, using the narrow end of a thin razor blade, carefully go into the small gap at the outer edge between the insert and the bezel and slide the blade under the bezel. Then go all the way around and the insert will come off completely. Then glue the insert back in place, correctly aligned. Done. This takes 5 minutes.

 

[Replisimio]

Only thing you should have done differently would be to re-fit the bezel first and then correctly align the insert afterwards as you still have the same problem lol.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[miscusi]

Only thing you should have done differently would be to re-fit the bezel first and then correctly align the insert afterwards as you still have the same problem lol.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I had said the beveling is good, I matched the triangle to the bevel. on a coin edge watch yeah I would do that, but this one, if I did it the way u said, the triangle wont match the bevel and that would drive me insane. the problem here, is that I will need to open up the watch, and move the dial itself, because the bevel and triangle is now aligned in the center line, the dial itself is a 5th of a millimeter to the left. I have posted another post about moving the movement inside, I will do that again but this time I will wedge something on the 8 and 10 area to keep it from shifting back... I guess I will take pics and do that too.

 

[miscusi]

Nice job and good result. You were lucky not to have scratched anything.

However, I have to say that you could have done the insert alignment much easier and with less risk.

I was SO worried about scratching the watch that I was super careful to just press the knife edge like a wedge, and not use anything for leverage.. It was a method I saw on youtube or maybe I read it on watchuseek or something..
Gee I dunno about that heat and razor method for this watch, the ceramic bezel inside was thicker than I would have though and the bezel shell is pretty solid. This bezel fit in very very snug.. razor being metal, and since I am not swapping a bezel, I would be afraid of chipping the edge of the bezel insert itself or leaving little little dents on the bezel shell edge. I do know the glue softening method works great as there are watches that once the glue is weak, comes out real easy, but this one.. was pretty snug, I think VSF could have skipped the glue substance and no one would have noticed it was that tight of a fit.

t's a great looking rep. Congrats on the ace workmanship!

Many thanks for the kind words

 

[KJ2020]

If one is going to apply intense heat to a watch head (like from a hair dryer), the movement should be taken out first. That kind of heat is not good for watch oils, what little a rep movement may have.

 

[miscusi]

And now that I am fully awake, took this pic the best I could, Its a 3D object so every bit of angle changes the alignment but here, I see that what I would like to do, is to rotate the dial clockwise a smidge and then move the dial towards 1:30 and that should be good enough to satisfy my OCD for until time for lunch...

 

[KJ2020]

I would try moving the dial toward 3 oclock first and see if that addresses both your concerns. Your other bezel markings are already lined up, any dial rotation will throw those off.

Of course it's often the stem length that determines a movement (and dial) position in a case, so you may not be able to push the movement toward 3 at all.

 

[miscusi]

THE OCD MADNESS CONTINUES!

I opened up the watch and loosened the movement retaining tabs..

I cut a piece of plastic from something and shoved it in the side

closed it up and here is what we got...

And as it stands, here we have this:

the dial itself is straight up and down, the bezel insert is straight up and down, but they dont match up! the 12 is slightly to the left of the triangle, and the 6 is slightly left of the 30.

The movement inside is pressed as far as it can go, it is metal to metal contact at the 3:00 side.

NEXT STEP either A or B.

A: go see damn the shrink and leave the watch alone.

B: continue OCD with these steps:

1 - open watch case
2 - press button and remove crown
3 - remove crown from stem
4 - file off 1mm from the end of stem
5 - put crown back on the stem
6 - remove movement from case
7 - remove movement holder ring
8 - mark 1mm with sharpie the entire 3:00 side
9 - file off 1 mm from the ring
10 - put it all back together again
11 - call the shrink and admit what I did...

 

[miscusi]

Of course it's often the stem length that determines a movement (and dial) position in a case, so you may not be able to push the movement toward 3 at all.

I agree! I will be cautious.
I have found that screw down crowns have a spring type fitting holding the stem and thus gives a small amount of wiggle room.. very small.. I wouldnt wanna move it too far and then have the spring exert too much force on whatever is against the stem..

 

[KJ2020]

I agree! I will be cautious.
I have found that screw down crowns have a spring type fitting holding the stem and thus gives a small amount of wiggle room.. very small.. I wouldnt wanna move it too far and then have the spring exert too much force on whatever is against the stem..

The stem just sits in a hollow hole in the movement so there is no cause for concern about the stem damaging the movement. What would give ultimately would be the straightness of the stem, making it bind against connected parts and making the crown threads bind on the tube threads.

I think 1mm is too much to take off both pieces, 0.5mm on each is a better place to start.

 

[ben_a34]

The bezel insert can be adjusted by small amounts (e.g. one click) without having to remove anything. Just get some masking tape or similar and roll it into a couple of balls (sticky side outward about 5mm diameter). Use these to help grip the insert. Stick them on the bezel (e.g. at 9 and 3) and twist clockwise while pushing down on the insert. As the bezel is unidirectional and the bezel insert is not fixed the fixing tape behind the insert will give a little and allow it to rotate. There will be some rebound when you let go so you need to (a) over-adjust and (b) repeat several times. For example, if adjusting by one click you would turn as hard as possible up to 2 clicks clockwise, then hold and let go, the repeat until aligned. The insert will probably only have moved a fraction of a click after it rebounds in the opposite direction, but repeating the process you can obtain a near perfect alignment. In my experience it works well and after adjustment the insert is still firmly fixed in place.

 

[k4jun]

miscusi thank you for taking and posting photos, love your attitude and end results (gloves too )
Gen SMPc inserts are installed with a fricktion gasket, but rep inserts are glued in, your manual should work for any rep of SMPc.
I wil see how to move the whole topic to Omega tech section.

 

[miscusi]

miscusi thank you for taking and posting photos, love your attitude and end results (gloves too )

thank you for the kind words!

 

[miscusi]

ITs been a year and this VSF is still going. One of the click spring tabs had broken off and was loose inside the bezel. I took it out and it now just have two click tabs. Other than that, I found this this rep fits me pretty well and I may consider buying the gen.. the only issue is that I dont get a very good grip on the bezel with this scalloped edge... have anyone been successful in installing a coin edge bezel on one of these? Rep or Gen ?