Another Way To Align A Seiko Diver's Bezel Without Removing The Insert

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How to Align A Seiko Diver's Bezel

by SMC Team October 28, 2018

This is a guide to the bezel alignment of the Seiko SRPA21 PADI Turtle. Other Turtle models, such as SRP777, would apply since the construction of the watches are the same. Only experienced watch hobbyists should attempt this exercise because a simple overshoot could result to a point of no return on the bezel spring.
Seiko is notorious for their bezel misalignment, especially on their dive watches. This issue seems to be persistent throughout Seiko's range of dive watches regardless of their price points.
A SRPA21 PADI Turtle was used on this guide because it was readily available to us. However, most of Seiko's divers would have a similar design with components consisting of a watch case, spring, bezel, and aluminum insert. To tackle the misalignment issue, we must first understand how a bezel works.


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This is an underside photo of the bezel and spring. When rotating the bezel, each half-second click is generated by one of the two leaf springs alternating between the grooved slots under the bezel.

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Seiko stamps the leaf springs in standard length to interact with the grooves. Fortunately, this also means we can change the length of the tabs; essentially changing where the bezel lands.

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The above schematic illustrates how the leaf springs interact with the grooves on the bezel. The red portion represents part of the leaf spring to be filed away, resulting in the shift to the bezel.
Let's get started.
Tools Required:



  • Small plastic bag
  • Case opener knife
  • File
  • Loupe (optional - to assist you for more precision)

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1. To begin, remove the bracelet or strap.

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2. Check the alignment of the watch and take note of how much the bezel is off. Our watch has a 1/4 minute misalignment.

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3. Find an open notch under the bezel. Every watch is different - the notch on our watch is located under the 12 o'clock position.

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4. Put a small plastic bag between the notch and the case opener to prevent scratches to the watch.

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5. Apply pressure towards the notch and the bezel will pop off.

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6. Remove the bezel and spring.

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7. The spring have tabs that are in contact with the underside of the bezel. This is the part we will be filing (shortening) to change the landing point.

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8. Remove small and equal amounts of metal on both tabs of the spring using a file. Do not file away too much material as we will be repeating this step in small increments.

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9. Seat the spring back onto the watch and install the bezel by applying pressure towards the case. Rotate the bezel to the 12 o'clock position and check for alignment.

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10. If the bezel is not aligned, repeat steps 4 through 9. Do not file away too much material because if your spring is filed too short, you will need a new spring. A replacement bezel spring costs under $20 at the time of writing this tutorial.

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11. When completed correctly, the bezel should align with the chapter ring and hour marker.

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12. Throw a pair of straps on the watch and you are done!

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Seiko SRPA21 on two piece nylon strap
And that's it! If you need to align a bezel, this is a clean method to do so without separating the aluminum insert from the bezel (which is glued on tight!).

 
An outstanding tutorial. Thanks Mike.:hat:
 
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