SWATCH Group Bezel Action

Hey Crunchers!

Bezel action issues is something that seems to plague me from the SWATCH Group… Within the past three years, I’ve had a Tissot Seastar, Longines Hydroconquest, and two Mido Ocean Stars.

Out of the four watches, three of them developed a loose bezel within two weeks of ownership. My Hydroconquest, Seastar, and my most recent Mido Ocean Star Tribute started off with very stiff bezels, which concerned me right away, as I questioning the strength of the click spring tabs.

If the tabs on the click spring are bent up too far, there will be a stiff bezel action, but could also stress the tabs to the point of breaking. While I’m not a watchmaker, I’ve had a decent enough amount of experience with watch repair and basic servicing of my own watches, so the first thing I did when I noticed the bezel feeling loose is remove the bezel and inspect the spring.

Sure enough, one tab broken and two other weak tabs. Now, I am NOT rough with my bezels, nor do I use them as fidget spinners, but I do use them to time random things throughout the day. I don’t push down on my bezels or spin them fast enough for them to take orbit around earth (like so many YouTubers 😖)

The general “fix” for something like this is by removing the broken tab and bending the remaining ones back up, but this only lasts until the other tabs break.

I could send my Ocean Star back to Mido for a warranty repair and get a new (but probably also junk) click spring, or I could try and find something better…

With the Ocean Star Tribute, I found that a standard Seiko Turtle click spring will fit with a couple small modifications, and if you source a high quality aftermarket one (like one from TokeiLab) then it should be of very high quality. I’ve been using modified aftermarket Seiko click springs in a few of my watches now for a good while with no issues… it has also significantly improved the bezel feel of my Mido took out most of the play.

As far as the retention spring goes, I haven’t had any issues, but I usually replace those with something with the same diameter and spring temper. As a guitarist and luthier by trade, I use a plain (unwound) guitar string of the same diameter, and save myself $24. Plus a single E string can provide springs for 3 or 4 watches 😎

So there it is, my issues with SWATCH Group’s bezel quality, and my backyard hillbilly solution. I’ll be working on a “how to make a bezel retention spring for $2) thread soon 😁