OK, disclaimer first: this article is for educational purposes only. I absolutely do not recommend that you perform this procedure yourself. If your bezel needs to be tightened, I advise you to take your watch to an official Breitling service center.
But there may come a time when you really need to fix the bezel, and you’re thousands of miles from civilization. So here’s how to do it…
1.
Nothing to do here. This is just a picture of the watch before you start, for comparison purposes. |
2.
Loosen the screws in the bezel. They don’t have to be completely removed; in fact, it can be awkward to get them back in if you take them out, so it is much better to leave them in the bezel. |
3.
Remove the bezel. If the screws are unscrewed enough, then the bezel should come off easily with very little force. This picture shows the watch without the bezel, but with the bezel spring still in place. The blue circle highlights the locator lug; this fits into a small hole near the ‘12′. The red circles highlight the bezel spring lugs. These are the bits of spring that press against the bezel and stop it from spinning freely. |
4.
Remove the bezel spring. |
5.
Clamp the spring at A with pliers, and very gently bend out the lug at B i.e. increase the angle between the lug and the spring. Repeat this procedure for each of the lugs. Note that you only have to bend out each lug by a very small amount to result in a significant tightening of the bezel. |
6.
Replace the bezel spring and the bezel. You should tighten the bezel screws before you try out your new tightened bezel; otherwise, you may find that the shaking induced by the ratcheting effect will shake the screws loose and they’ll land in random locations up to three metres away from your workbench. Enjoy your tightened bezel! |
