[Knives and Lint]

Hey guys. I decided to do a resin swap on my black/blue GulfMaster and figured I'd start a thread because I don't think many people have had the bezel off one of these yet. I was very happy with this watch they way it came originally, but always wished it had a bit more blue to it. My initial plan was to do a band swap, and have a two tone look to the watch. However, when I swapped the band it didn't look quite right to me, and almost gave the bezel a dark navy look rather than black. Luckily, when I ordered the band from pacparts, I decided to order a bezel while I was at it, and I could tell with the parts in hand that it would look good to do a full resin swap.

First of all, let me tell everyone this bezel was a beast to get off, and it took a lot of nerve because every time I tried to take it off it felt like I was in danger of breaking it. In fact, it took me three nights of taking it off of the buttons on one side, trying to figure it out, and then deciding not to force things and putting it down to start fresh another time. Well finally tonight I decided to go for broke (hopefully not literally) and stay persistent until I could get it off.

There has been some speculation as to the construction of this bezel in regards to the stainless steel part and the resin, as well as any adhesive that might be involved. Well I can tell you, the adhesive is actually what holds the resin part of the bezel to the case (4 strips). Then, once you remove the entire bezel from the case, you can separate the steel ring section from the resin by pushing out from the back side. There is a groove in the resin where it snaps in.

Then it was a simple process to snap the steel bezel ring onto the new resin bezel (it fits quite securely), and put the entire bezel back on much like any other G-Shock resin swap. The hardest part was keeping the metal sensor cover in place. I took the risk of doing this mod while still having spare adhesive tape on backorder from pacparts. However, the original tape was unharmed after removal of the old bezel, and I was able to just leave it on the case and install the new one. Trust me, it's not going anywhere. So, here's the end result. Might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I'm happy with it.















Here's a quick shot of the case showing the 4 adhesive strips. Sorry for the blurry pic here, I was more concerned with the work, and taking photos was an afterthought

 

[kung-fusion]

Looks great with the blue resin, and that's some helpful info about the bezel. I think this may be the first documented gulfmaster mod

 

[Kev55]

Absolutely love this mod. I have these adhesive strips on my GD-X6900s - i thought they were alpha gel strips designed to absorb shock through the bezel.

 

[Chrisek]

Great job k+l! Learning it the hard way

sent with aloha

 

[Silverswoosh]

Nice!

 

[Kawei]

Excellent mod... can you tell if the glass is Sapphire?

Cheers,
-Kawei-

 

[jmathis]

Very adventurous! Well done and explained.
James

 

[JonL]

A daring, yet very successful mod! Congrats - love the new look!

 

[Knives and Lint]

Many thanks for the compliments gentlemen. I can't express how much I appreciate this site and its members for all the shared knowledge. I am glad to feel like I can add content that might be useful to other members who might be doing similar mods or part replacements in the future.

Shock on!

 

[Knives and Lint]

Excellent mod... can you tell if the glass is Sapphire?

Cheers,
-Kawei-

In my haste to finish the project once I got past the exhilaration of finally getting the bezel off without damage, I did not examine things as much as I normally would have. In hindsight, I should have taken more pics of the process. Also, being a novice collector, I lack the knowledge to determine whether or not the glass is Sapphire, though I am interested in knowing as well.

 

[dpeete]

Okay, now I think I am stalking you. I just placed an order with PacParts yesterday to get a winter jacket and pants (okay, bezel and strap) for my bright yellow Gulfmaster: https://www.watchuseek.com/f17/mod-...9a-vs-gf8250-9-yellow-gw3500b-1a-1081445.html

I hope to have a set of black clothes on the yellow Gulfmaster after the usual 4 week PacParts wait. I wanted to pickup the stainless black bezel from the recently announced blacked out version, but I don't want to wait for availability so I thought I'd see how it looks with the unfinished steel first. I made a few mockups and stuck in another thread that was before the new grunge black was announced: https://www.watchuseek.com/f17/question-about-gulfmaster-strap-screws%85-1078419-2.html

Either way, I'd prefer you say that I am "drafting in our wake"... that sounds better than "stalking". Thanks for scouting it out again.

Oh FWIW: here is that new blacked stainless bezel, I need to do a mockup with this one too:

 

[James142]

Nice mod, K&L. Looks great!

Thanks for forging ahead boldly so we can sit back and watch you take the risks (and get the glory, of course).

 

[Deepsea_dweller]

Fabulous K&L. Looks great and really nice detailed post. Thanks for sharing

 

[dhodesign]

beautiful mod! Nice detailed info too, really helpful. Thanks.

 

[isezumi]

AWESOME: no guts, no GLORY!!!

 

[Olyeller68]

Although I'm not yet a fan of the Gulfmaster I must say that is a nice looking piece after your mod! Great work and thanks for having the courage to see it through.

 

[dpeete]

It took PacParts an EXTRA long time to deliver the resin, and in this case they only delivered the bezel and no band yet, but I am now working up the nerve to pull this apart. Any tips for doing it? Was the three nights you spent fretting over why the bezel appeared stuck and then when you saw the adhesive strips you knew that it was all good?

 

[Knives and Lint]

Yes, that was exactly the reason. Once the adhesive started to give I knew all was ok and peeled the bezel right off. It still was fairly difficult though, but it should be somewhat easier knowing the position of the adhesive as shown in the last picture on page 1. This way you know where to apply the pressure, whereas before I was just pulling.

 

[scottydoesnt]

Nice job. I think it looks better for sure. However, am I the only one here who can appreciate your taste in high quality tools ?! Wiha is a staple in my toolboxes. lol

 

[dpeete]

Yes, that was exactly the reason. Once the adhesive started to give I knew all was ok and peeled the bezel right off. It still was fairly difficult though, but it should be somewhat easier knowing the position of the adhesive as shown in the last picture on page 1. This way you know where to apply the pressure, whereas before I was just pulling.

Excellent, thank you for pics. Now it will probably only take me 2 nights to build up the same courage instead of 3