Hi everyone, I have a Speedmaster '57 (60th Anniversary 311.10.39.30.01.001), and was wondering if it's possible to fit a sapphire crystal to it. (Yes, I know this goes completely against the heritage of the watch, and all the reasons for the continued existence of Hesalite, but I do wear my '57 regularly and the crystal has accumulated a LOT of scratches. Not having to worry about that would be a nice change). Does anyone know if the FOIS crystal fits the '57?
Unless you are really banging up your crystal a few minutes with Polywatch will take care of most scratches. If they get too bad just have the crystal replaced when you have the watch serviced. On a heritage-style watch like the Speedmaster '57 I prefer the hesalite crystal. To answer your question, I'm not sure the FOIS would fit. There are always issues trying to replace plastic with sapphire.
I have a FOIS with hesalite. The watchmaker that made it told me the hesalite came off the standard Speedy and he used an Omega tension ring and it required no mods to the case (others here disagreed with that statement). I still have the sapphire and he said it can be reverted back to stock by any watchmaker that works with Omega watches. So if your watch has the same hesalite as the standard Speedy then it should work based on that.