My 69-st has a near perfect DNN bezel. I have since taken it off. And put on the newer bezel.

Anyone do this for their daily wear? Feels kinda out of place with the newer bezel. But I do wear watch all day everyday. Makes me feel less bad when I bang it against something.

 

If I had a perfect DNN I’d do it. Honestly let’s be honest they look exactly the same except to nerds. Even then how often do people here miss replacement bezels on watches...

 

Ha. About ten years ago when DON's went over the £200 mark I put a sacrificial bezel on my daily wearer 105.012, about five years after that I saw a post about the 220 misprint bezels, looked at my sacrificial bezel and noticed it was a 220. So I replaced the 220 with another sacrificial bezel which now turns out to be quite a valuable DNN. Maybe it's time for me to swap it again.

 

Life is a bitch, really

This reminds me some Paneristi wearing their watches without removing the bezel protector



There is always a good old way of protecting the whole watch on your wrist if you don't have an appropriate protection available :





Jokes aside, I have a modern service Telemeter Miles bezel on one of my 69ers but I have it because I like the look and certainly not to preserve the original don.

When you wear your watch, it will be marked and scratched anyway. Putting a virgin bezel back on a watch that has stories to tell can appear somehow strange in the end

 

I wear my watches as they are, if they take on a nick or two, that's life. I'm certainly not making any of them "less attractive" (to my eye at least) on a daily basis just to preserve them.
But then again, I have weird taste and I prefer a service faded telemetre vs a brand spanking new DON, so I'm all good

 

Just wear it

 

Not my daily but when I saw an asking price of 8k for an original I reached out to Aldo so I can swap them when it comes. In meantime I wear with great trepidation and stress.

 

Soooo.... do the bezels just pop off or is there more disassembly/special tools required?

 

You just use a plain old flathead screwdriver.

 

For the Speedmaster bezel, watch this video

 

Wow. I had no idea it was so easy. Thanks.

 

I was kidding btw.

 

Luckily the video followed before I saw your post. I thought that perhaps taking a screwdriver to my watch was a bit reckless. Glad you came back to clarify. ;-)

 

The bezel on my 145.012 has some wear but is OK.


It would bother me if my 145.012 had the wrong bezel on when I'm wearing it: kinda silly I know BUT my bezel can still take a lot of abuse before it looks like some bezels I've seen and by the time it does it will fit the rest of the watch

 

I keep everything original where possible. If I want a modern bezel I'll buy a modern Speedmaster

 

Life is too short....wear the darn thing and enjoy! Today you're here, tomorrow who knows. I'm wearing my '68 with near perfect/mint DON today, puts a smile on my face every time.

 

Definitely yes, you wouldn't want to damage a valuable bezel.

But what if the crystal gets damaged? You should buy and install a new crystal just in case, and leave the original one in the safe.

And then what if the case gets scratched or dinged? Best to buy a new case you can beat up so as to avoid scratches on the original one. That goes in the safe, too.

The crown though - what if the crown and pushers should be damaged? You need a new crown and pushers too.

But even a brand new case, crown and pushers aren't a 100% fail-proof guarantee of water resistance. What if you get pushed into a swimming pool? Lose control of your car and end up in a river? You wouldn't want to damage the original dial, hands, or movement now would you? Better buy replacements for those too!

...

Personally, for me, a modern bezel sticks out like a sore thumb compared to a vintage model. Wear the vintage watch in its original condition and be careful. If that's not doable, wear a modern one!

 

The DON bezel on my daily 145.022-69ST has so many deep nicks, gouges and scratches on it that I can wear it completely care free.

 

Good points. In that vein, I decided to put a bra on my Lamborghini to protect the front end from stone dings. The bra looked really nice, though, so to protect it I put a bra bra over it. To my surprise, the bra bra looked really great so I scoured the web and found a bra bra bra that I could use to protect it. Wouldn't you know, the bra bra bra looked fabulous............................................