Getting your vintage diver bezel to turn properly...

[Dan Newberry]

I got my 1973 Submariner back from RGM recently, and as I've mentioned elsewhere, they did a really good job refinishing and overhauling the watch. It looks practically brand new, and they did not polish it so much it ended up with a "melting butter" look to the bracelet. You really can't even tell it has had the bracelet redone, or the case either, for that matter.

One thing that I didn't like, however, was the fact that the bezel would not turn without a whole lot of difficulty. On these older Rolexes, the bezel just has a friction ring underneath it, and it's a bi-directional bezel. These things get bound up pretty often, from the accumulation of dirt and other debris underneath the bezel.

I asked around the 'net for some advice as to how to get this bezel to turn like it should, and I got varied and sundry advice.

One thing I have learned NOT to do is to put silicone grease underneath the bezel. That actually made the bezel harder--not easier--to turn.

Obviously you don't want to put any sort of penetrating oil under it either, for fear it might leech under the crystal over time.

I decided to remove the bezel a second time (this pries off very easily with a pen knife blade) and clean the silicone grease out of there from my last attempt to get the bezel freed up...

I cleaned the grease away with a light oil (WD-40 would do it)... I didn't see any dirt accumulated that would explain the tight bezel... but then I realized something:

There is a groove that runs all the way around the inside of the bezel, which is what snaps over the ridge on the watch case. Inside that groove, I did find accumulated dirt which RGM obviously missed during the overhaul. By using just my fingernail and a thin cloth dampened with the light oil, I was able to clean this accumulated dirt out of the groove in the bezel. If you don't have good enough fingernails, you could use a toothpick and get the same results.

Polishing the friction ring a bit with some metal polish would probably be a big help as well.

When I put it all back together--with no oil left under the ring; it was all dried away--the bezel turns perfectly, with ease. It's not so loose as to move if it's gently nudged against something (and on these vintage Subs the crystal is so high as to prevent the bezel from easily touching anything anyway)...

So there... for you guys with unusable bezels on your old Rolexes, try cleaning out that groove that runs all the way around the inside perimeter of the bezel. If it's got a lot of gunk in there, it'll really bind up the motion of the bezel.

Dan

[juneja]

Thanks for sharing that Dan, very useful :)

And show us some pix of your lovely watch!!

[Tools]

Excellent........

[PhilM]

Great post, would also love to see a pic of the watch

[SPACE-DWELLER]

Thanks for sharing the tutorial, Dan!

[mike]

Well done Dan.

[marshallr47]

Awesome info Dan. Even though I don't own a vintage piece with a rotating bezel, I do own a Sub and a GMTII and this info could help one day. Thanks.