Greasing Your Gaskets
Hi all, I just finished sealing up my GMT IIc for it to hit the shower/pool and thought i'd take some photos along the way for anyone else who may like to try out this mod. The tutorial I was following can be found here - http://forum.replica-watch.info/vb/...urvive-water?highlight=Waterproofing+tutorial
I thought it may be helpful to see some of the DIY tools I used as some may not have all the proper materials but are likely to have perfectly fine substitutes lying around the house. But it may also help to have the steps explained by a noob (me)
This guide only involves greasing up the necessary gaskets to ensure (well, almost) that your rep is set to hit the pool/shower. If you're planning on going deep-sea diving or are using another watch (especially one with lots of pushers/points of entry) i'm not sure this guide will be very helpful to you. It primarily applies to Rolex watches using the trip-lock crown system.
While I do have a decent amount of confidence in the ability of the newer version cases to keep out water when the necessary gaskets are greased, it is always best to be on the safe-side and take your rep to a watch smith to have it pressure tested after performing the mod. Pressure testing should be cheap, quick and quite easily available at most watchsmiths.
1. What You'll Need:
- Something to open the caseback. I don't have the correct tool required for this so I instead found some of those putty-like earplugs used for swimming; you can find these in most supermarkets/dive-stores/pharmacies and they can be rolled up into a big rubber-ish ball that is great for opening cases/picking up lint/dirt.
- Lubricating grease. Different people use different things in order to lubricate their gaskets, however I opted to use dive-grade silicone gasket grease found in a local divestore. Silicone grease is affordable, effective and does not damage the gaskets over time making it great for the mod. It is important that you put some effort into sourcing a suitable grease as this is what allows your watch to keep out water. By lubing up your gaskets you are able to screw down your caseback/crown extremely tightly without damaging/bunching up the gasket as a result of excess friction.
- Toothpick/Cotton Buds to apply the grease. There are also greasing cylinders you can find on ebay/amazon that are specifically designed to apply the right amount of grease to the watch gasket.
2. Remove Your Caseback:
Roll a few of your putty ear-buds into a ball (or use your caseback tool/a rubber ball if you have one) in order to open up your caseback and expose your movement/caseback gasket.
3. Remove Your Crown
In my opinion, this is the most difficult part of the mod, and is also quite stressful. You need to take a small flathead screwdriver (it should be the case kind used to remove links on your bracelet). You need to take care to only partially depress the button shown in the tutorial in order to release the crown. If you depress it too much, you're going to have to take the movement to a watchsmith in order to have it running again. What I did, was I gently applied move and more pressure while gently pulling on the crown, and then stopped applying pressure as soon as the crown came out. Make sure your crown is in the last (time-set on my GMT II) position before you start applying pressure to the button.
4. Grease Your Caseback Gasket
Using your toothpick, apply a small amount of silicon grease into the gasket crevice. Then take a small with of the grease between your fingers and run the rubber gasket between your silicon-coated fingers. You want the application to be reasonably light but enough to cover the entire gasket.
5. Grease Your Crown Gasket
There is a small o-ring gasket in the crown itself, it will be very difficult to see what you are doing here so just go-with-the-flow and apply until you feel confident the tiny little gasket is coated to a similar level of the caseback gasket
6. Grease your Stem gasket/threads
Grease your crown threads and another small o-ring gasket located inside the tube. Like above apply until you feel you have put the necessary quantity as it may be difficult to see.
7. Screw it Together
Screw the watch back together and slip the crown back in. Make sure the caseback is screwed on as tightly as possible and the crown is tightly screwed down
8. Have it Tested
To be on the safe side, either pressure test it yourself if you have a machine or take it into a watchsmith to have it tested. You can try skipping this step but there is always the risk (however small) of a leak
9. Enjoy!
Head to the pool/beach/shower and wear your watch with pride! No longer do you need to suffer the embarrassment of wearing a dive watch that can't get wet
I found that a nice shower and swim with the watch really worked wonders on the platinum bezel paint. I'm not sure why this is but I suppose I had accumulated dust/dirt in the cutouts and it was washed away.
Although the mod worked for me, please do let me know if i've done anything wrong or left anything out, i'm a complete novice so It's entirely possible that I have. I hope this has helped!
Hi all, I just finished sealing up my GMT IIc for it to hit the shower/pool and thought i'd take some photos along the way for anyone else who may like to try out this mod. The tutorial I was following can be found here - http://forum.replica-watch.info/vb/...urvive-water?highlight=Waterproofing+tutorial
I thought it may be helpful to see some of the DIY tools I used as some may not have all the proper materials but are likely to have perfectly fine substitutes lying around the house. But it may also help to have the steps explained by a noob (me)
This guide only involves greasing up the necessary gaskets to ensure (well, almost) that your rep is set to hit the pool/shower. If you're planning on going deep-sea diving or are using another watch (especially one with lots of pushers/points of entry) i'm not sure this guide will be very helpful to you. It primarily applies to Rolex watches using the trip-lock crown system.
While I do have a decent amount of confidence in the ability of the newer version cases to keep out water when the necessary gaskets are greased, it is always best to be on the safe-side and take your rep to a watch smith to have it pressure tested after performing the mod. Pressure testing should be cheap, quick and quite easily available at most watchsmiths.
1. What You'll Need:
- Something to open the caseback. I don't have the correct tool required for this so I instead found some of those putty-like earplugs used for swimming; you can find these in most supermarkets/dive-stores/pharmacies and they can be rolled up into a big rubber-ish ball that is great for opening cases/picking up lint/dirt.
- Lubricating grease. Different people use different things in order to lubricate their gaskets, however I opted to use dive-grade silicone gasket grease found in a local divestore. Silicone grease is affordable, effective and does not damage the gaskets over time making it great for the mod. It is important that you put some effort into sourcing a suitable grease as this is what allows your watch to keep out water. By lubing up your gaskets you are able to screw down your caseback/crown extremely tightly without damaging/bunching up the gasket as a result of excess friction.
- Toothpick/Cotton Buds to apply the grease. There are also greasing cylinders you can find on ebay/amazon that are specifically designed to apply the right amount of grease to the watch gasket.
2. Remove Your Caseback:
Roll a few of your putty ear-buds into a ball (or use your caseback tool/a rubber ball if you have one) in order to open up your caseback and expose your movement/caseback gasket.
3. Remove Your Crown
In my opinion, this is the most difficult part of the mod, and is also quite stressful. You need to take a small flathead screwdriver (it should be the case kind used to remove links on your bracelet). You need to take care to only partially depress the button shown in the tutorial in order to release the crown. If you depress it too much, you're going to have to take the movement to a watchsmith in order to have it running again. What I did, was I gently applied move and more pressure while gently pulling on the crown, and then stopped applying pressure as soon as the crown came out. Make sure your crown is in the last (time-set on my GMT II) position before you start applying pressure to the button.
4. Grease Your Caseback Gasket
Using your toothpick, apply a small amount of silicon grease into the gasket crevice. Then take a small with of the grease between your fingers and run the rubber gasket between your silicon-coated fingers. You want the application to be reasonably light but enough to cover the entire gasket.
5. Grease Your Crown Gasket
There is a small o-ring gasket in the crown itself, it will be very difficult to see what you are doing here so just go-with-the-flow and apply until you feel confident the tiny little gasket is coated to a similar level of the caseback gasket
6. Grease your Stem gasket/threads
Grease your crown threads and another small o-ring gasket located inside the tube. Like above apply until you feel you have put the necessary quantity as it may be difficult to see.
7. Screw it Together
Screw the watch back together and slip the crown back in. Make sure the caseback is screwed on as tightly as possible and the crown is tightly screwed down
8. Have it Tested
To be on the safe side, either pressure test it yourself if you have a machine or take it into a watchsmith to have it tested. You can try skipping this step but there is always the risk (however small) of a leak
9. Enjoy!
Head to the pool/beach/shower and wear your watch with pride! No longer do you need to suffer the embarrassment of wearing a dive watch that can't get wet
I found that a nice shower and swim with the watch really worked wonders on the platinum bezel paint. I'm not sure why this is but I suppose I had accumulated dust/dirt in the cutouts and it was washed away.
Although the mod worked for me, please do let me know if i've done anything wrong or left anything out, i'm a complete novice so It's entirely possible that I have. I hope this has helped!
