Cyclops removal - oh, how we laughed.
Discussion
A cautionary tale, regarding the unfortunate coming together of the internet, some whiskey, and an idiot.
I have a Seiko Prospex Solar. It's quite a nice thing, bought to be worn in a care-free manner on holiday, in the garden, doing messy jobs round the house etc.
Being a bit of a tinkerer, I'd already made a minor modification, swapping the Pepsi style bezel it came with for a black one - giving me a black bezel + rubber strap combo that Seiko don't provide straight from the catalogue.
Scrolling idly through the pages of a few watch forums on Friday night, I was struck by the whimsical notion of how much nicer my watch would look without its cyclops.
The whimsical notion became a strong preference and then an overwhelming imperative over the course of two generous measures of whiskey and a couple of youtube videos.
Emboldened by said videos demonstrating the buttery ease with which a gently heated cyclops slid from the face of any watch - I set to, armed with a box of matches, pen knife and dishcloth.
While the matches did a nice job of blackening the face of the watch, there was no indication the cyclops felt like moving on... More Heat seemed the only reasonable response.
Picture, if you will, a watch being lowered over the blue flames of a gas hob, and held there until the cyclops simply fell off of its own accord - Ha ha! Victory!
Until I tried rubbing at the residual glue with a microfibre cloth - causing said cloth to kind of melt and leave a cloudy smear all over the glass. Not to worry - run upstairs to look for Mrs F's nail polish remover...
As I looked for the nail polish remover, I was distracted by a tinkling sound... the glass had spontaneously fallen out of the watch case and onto the bedroom floor - panicking slightly I picked it up and shoved it straight back on, pushing hard to get it to bed down fast on all sides - phew, disaster averted... except, in my urgency, I had put the glass in upside down, and now the smeary residue and melted fibre bits were on the inside, impossible to clean!
The glass also proved impossible to get back off, using all the sharp knives at my disposal proved useless, until, now sporting quite an impressive number of small cuts to my thumbs and forefingers, and with drops of blood appearing all over the kitchen table, I decided it would be much easier to pry the glass off if I also removed the bezel. The bezel came off OK but the evidence that it hadn't given up without a fight was present in the form of significantly increased blood flow - unfortunately the glass seemed indifferent to the toll of dead and wounded fingers that had been exacted and was still going nowhere.
The process of replacing lost blood with more Whiskey seemed to help on the bright ideas front, so I returned to the hob, watch in hand, to see if gas mark 6 would encourage the glass to pop off again - and presto!! - a mere 60 seconds later off it fell - I quickly picked it up to reinsert the right way round this time ... and burnt all the remaining fingers on my right hand.
Once the glass was restored to the front of the watch, and the bezel had been coaxed back on with the aid of a chopping board and a Jamie Oliver hardback, it was time to clean the residual glue, melted cloth fibres and quite a lot of dried blood from the watch. Let me tell you that nail polish remover onto a heavily stabbed hand will sober you up quick sharp.
The end result?
Well the cyclops is definitely off and the glass and rest of the watch are beautifully clean and clear, but... my previously accurate watch gained 5 mins in the 12 hours immediately following surgery (seems to have settled down again now though), the bezel won't turn at all any more, and my fingers look like raw hamburger.
Oh - and the text in the date window is so small it's actually quite hard to read.
Anybody know how to attach a cyclops?
I have a Seiko Prospex Solar. It's quite a nice thing, bought to be worn in a care-free manner on holiday, in the garden, doing messy jobs round the house etc.
Being a bit of a tinkerer, I'd already made a minor modification, swapping the Pepsi style bezel it came with for a black one - giving me a black bezel + rubber strap combo that Seiko don't provide straight from the catalogue.
Scrolling idly through the pages of a few watch forums on Friday night, I was struck by the whimsical notion of how much nicer my watch would look without its cyclops.
The whimsical notion became a strong preference and then an overwhelming imperative over the course of two generous measures of whiskey and a couple of youtube videos.
Emboldened by said videos demonstrating the buttery ease with which a gently heated cyclops slid from the face of any watch - I set to, armed with a box of matches, pen knife and dishcloth.
While the matches did a nice job of blackening the face of the watch, there was no indication the cyclops felt like moving on... More Heat seemed the only reasonable response.
Picture, if you will, a watch being lowered over the blue flames of a gas hob, and held there until the cyclops simply fell off of its own accord - Ha ha! Victory!
Until I tried rubbing at the residual glue with a microfibre cloth - causing said cloth to kind of melt and leave a cloudy smear all over the glass. Not to worry - run upstairs to look for Mrs F's nail polish remover...
As I looked for the nail polish remover, I was distracted by a tinkling sound... the glass had spontaneously fallen out of the watch case and onto the bedroom floor - panicking slightly I picked it up and shoved it straight back on, pushing hard to get it to bed down fast on all sides - phew, disaster averted... except, in my urgency, I had put the glass in upside down, and now the smeary residue and melted fibre bits were on the inside, impossible to clean!
The glass also proved impossible to get back off, using all the sharp knives at my disposal proved useless, until, now sporting quite an impressive number of small cuts to my thumbs and forefingers, and with drops of blood appearing all over the kitchen table, I decided it would be much easier to pry the glass off if I also removed the bezel. The bezel came off OK but the evidence that it hadn't given up without a fight was present in the form of significantly increased blood flow - unfortunately the glass seemed indifferent to the toll of dead and wounded fingers that had been exacted and was still going nowhere.
The process of replacing lost blood with more Whiskey seemed to help on the bright ideas front, so I returned to the hob, watch in hand, to see if gas mark 6 would encourage the glass to pop off again - and presto!! - a mere 60 seconds later off it fell - I quickly picked it up to reinsert the right way round this time ... and burnt all the remaining fingers on my right hand.
Once the glass was restored to the front of the watch, and the bezel had been coaxed back on with the aid of a chopping board and a Jamie Oliver hardback, it was time to clean the residual glue, melted cloth fibres and quite a lot of dried blood from the watch. Let me tell you that nail polish remover onto a heavily stabbed hand will sober you up quick sharp.
The end result?
Well the cyclops is definitely off and the glass and rest of the watch are beautifully clean and clear, but... my previously accurate watch gained 5 mins in the 12 hours immediately following surgery (seems to have settled down again now though), the bezel won't turn at all any more, and my fingers look like raw hamburger.
Oh - and the text in the date window is so small it's actually quite hard to read.
Anybody know how to attach a cyclops?
Xtriple129 said:
I 'heard' that the correct way to get the Cyclops off is to... use a hammer and a SHARP chisel! Seriously, the word is, one tap and it just flies off.
Not brave enough myself...
It works on Subs, at least - I did it to one of mine, with spare crystal ready to go, just in case!Not brave enough myself...
I would, knowing what I know now, just get a Sub no-date crystal and put that in! I hate cyclops crystals.
My ancient Air King Date 5700 has a Perspex crystal (with cyclops) so not sure how well that would work - but I've just ordered a plain Air King 5500 crystal (no cyclops of course) for the princely sum of £15 (non genuine of course).
I might even give the old fella it's first service in 25-odd years while I'm at it - and possibly even treat it to a drop of new oil, rather than scraping off and re-using the old stuff...
Ernst westphal is yer man for crystals etc. - website here. https://watchparts24.de
Edited by guindilias on Monday 11th February 15:28
OP - here is a nice new cyclops for you!
Could I suggest silicone sealant to stick it on, in case you ever want to take it off again?
https://watchparts24.de/Date-magnifying-lens-59-x-...
Could I suggest silicone sealant to stick it on, in case you ever want to take it off again?
https://watchparts24.de/Date-magnifying-lens-59-x-...
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