How To: Moddifying your Rolex DSSD V3 to V4, quick & easy! :)

[gioarmani]

I recently acquired my first rep since November of '07; the 3rd version of Rolex's DeepSea SeaDweller. After a visit (or three) to Mayor's--my local AD--I decided to give the rep a try.

I know due to a personally horrible 2008, it's been ages since I contributed anything worthwhile to the board, so hopefully this will make up for lost time.

The V1 was a comedy skit, the V2 much improved but still too far behind the gen to even consider seriously, the V3 seemed pretty impressively close to the real thing, and other than the gloss dial and bezel issues, there seemed no reason not to take the V3 to it's logical, modified conclusion.

And, after shelling out for the V3, waiting for the release of the V4 (or V4.1 ; whatever they're working on now...) doesn't seem like money or time well spent, in my opinion; judging by past experience with Chinese rep makers, they seem to take two steps forward, one step back, and then one step to the side. (while two issues might get addressed, a third is created in the process)

So, based on some ideas bounced about on this, and other forums--including the other modding tutorials I've created in the past--I decided to take my V3 up a notch. Arguably "minor" details, of course, but even compounding minor details can make a world of difference to anything.

To get started, here's what you'll need (besides the obvious DSSD V3):

1) A jewelers/watchmakers screwdriver kit:

http://www.amazon.com/FULLER-135-0916-16-P...9527&sr=8-1

2) A caseback opener:

http://www.amazon.com/Watch-Pavilion-Profe...9595&sr=8-1

3) Some 2-ply, waterproof marine epoxy

4) Flat black & flat white enamel modeling paint

5) A can of aerosol dust-remover

6) A can of spray Matte varnish

7) Silicon grease & a brush to apply it

8 ) Some toothpicks

9) A fine, short-haired brush (I used a 20/2)

10) An old cotton t-shirt

11) Nail polish remover & a hair-dryer

First, let's start with the marine epoxy, since it's going to take longer to dry than the paint.

The HEVs on reps are rarely functional and generally a perfect spot for leaks to destroy the movement, so this one we'll seal up right away.

Here's a few macros of my HEV, from the inside (after the movement was out):

Normal/resting position:

When depressed:

You can easily see what a liability this will be for the movement when submerged.

Since we need to remove the movement in order to seal it, we can actually kill two birds with one stone and spray the dial matte while the epoxy sets up.

Use your caseback opener to remove the ring:

Then lift off the second caseback guard underneath:

NOTE: This second piece that comprises the majority of the caseback is NOT titanium, but merely a piece of steel painted gray. Be careful not to scratch or get nail polish remover on this, as it will remove the paint.

Once these are off, you're ready to remove the movement. First, pull out the crown to the time-set position. Then, use your 1.2MM screwdriver to slightly depress the release mechanism for the crown-stem.

(I know the next two pics are of my SSD V2, not the DSSD, but you get the idea)

Now gently remove the stem:

Personally, I can't stand these ridiculous rotor overlay decals...

...as they tend to peel off a lot of the time when removing the rotor anyway, so I prefer to simply remove them. There's no way anyone with half a braincell is going to believe this is a gen movement once they've opened the back, so let's just trash the overlay.

That looks better.

Now simply use your screwdriver & remove the rotor:

Once this is done, simply remove the screws holding the spacer-ring to the case and remove the spacer-ring & movement. Now you've got you're empty case:

It's nice to see the manufactures/dealers kept their word by making this a true, triple-lock crown system, just like the gen:

Now let's start to seal that HEV from the inside by mixing up a bit of equal portions of the marine epoxy:

Use your toothpick to carefully apply it to the inside of the case, covering both the HEV's hole, and spreading it over a bit of the case to blend it:

While that's set aside to let the epoxy start drying/curing (i.e. "setting up"), go ahead and remove the hands from your movement; feel free to leave the dial on.

Once the hands are off, you can GENTLY spray the dial with the matte spray to reduce the gloss. Hold the can about 18 to 20 inches above the dial at an angle and using short, quick bursts to dust it, move the can back and forth while spaying, so that the falling matte particles are applied smoothly and evenly. I highly suggest practicing this on a sheet of colored poster-board or even an old dial, so you can get a proper feel for it. Please make sure to pay attention to rate and strength at which it's spraying--you don't want to coat the dial too thick, otherwise it'll wind up hiding the raised dial print and dulling the reflectivity on the silver edge of the hour-markers. Keep in mind if you do spray too thickly, don't try to remove the matte finish with nail polish remover, as you'll only take the dial paint off with it!!

Allow this a good hour to dry before handling it to put the hands back on. Once this is done, you can see the glare & gloss have been eliminated (below) from the picture of the movement above:

Now, let's turn our attention back to those slightly small and dull looking numbers on the bezel insert; the nice thing about making them brighter & whiter is that the optical illusion given off by the new color will make the numbers look slightly bigger and/or wider.

The reason I chose to do it this way--instead of using a spray paint, was to not only save time by not having to mask off the rest of the watch, but too have better control and not worry about over-spray winding up between the insert & the bezel, or worse, between the crystal and the insert. This way, you're not really taking any chances and saving a redundant step.

Start by using your fine, short-hair brush and apply a little of the flat, white model paint to the tip. Paint the engraved markings on the bezel:

Make sure not to get too much on your brush--you only want to apply a thin layer, not glob it on--and be careful to not get any paint on the lip of the insert, whether it's the lip near the crystal or the bezel.

Once this is done, you can hit it with a hair-dryer on warm/low for a minute or two to get the paint to dry:

Now that the paint is dry, stretch a portion of a cotton t-shirt over your finger and apply a small amount of nail polish remover directly to the t-shirt:

Make sure the shirt is only damp with the remover, not soaked, you don;t want to bleed all the paint out of the markings. Gently wipe the excess paint off the insert markings using straight--not circular--motions, moving from the inside of the insert to the outside:

Make sure you gently & carefully clean around the pearl.

You'll notice there is still a bit of film/residue on the insert & crystal; don't worry, it's normal:

Dry it again with the hair-dryer for another minute or two.

Since my SSD had a problem with losing the paint on the casebcack, I'm going to repeat the same process on the back, with the flat black enamel paint, as an assurance that it won't be chipping or fading any time soon:

Before:

After:

Now grab your polishing cloth; NOT Cape Cod, or any other sort of treated cloth--make sure it's dry and not abrasive--I use a gen Rolex polishing cloth that came with the box set:

Now firmly wipe off the excess, dried film from the bezel using a circular motion, as shown:

Let's look at how much better the physical appearance is already between the before and after:

Dull and thin:

Now it looks wider and more brilliant:

Much better!

Now it's time to waterproof the gaskets, using the silicone grease and a small, flat brush:

Apply a small amount of the silicone grease to the tip of your brush and apply an even coat to all rubber gaskets.

The first is inside the crown:

The second is on the outside of the crown-tube, and the third is on the inside of the tube:

The fourth & last is the gasket that surrounds the 2nd caseback piece. If you can, peel it off gently--making sure not to damage or stretch it--and apply the silicon grease to both sides of the gasket, then reattach the gasket to the caseback:

Once you've completed this, you can go ahead and place the movement and spacer-ring back inside the case, making sure to properly align the dial with the ring-lock and bezel on the front (by holding the movement steady while looking through the front crystal), before securely screwing them in.

Make sure you blow the dust out of the case before reassembling it:

NOTE: Getting these in & out of the case was a bit of a pain in the ass for me, not having any experience in disassembling a DSSD before. On mine, the screws had a beveled edge and the trick was--unlike other spacer rings (e.g. a 2836-2 Submariner)--you screwed them down firmly to the spacer ring BEFORE putting them back in the case. The beveled edges had to line up with the case, as if they overlapped, you couldn't get the spacer ring seated down far enough, properly. On my Submariner, for instance, you would seat the spacer-ring first, THEN screw them in tightly. On this model, you back the screws out a bit AFTER the spacer-ring is seated. Backing the screws out on this will actually fill in the space between the tops of the screws and the case, thus pushing the spacer-ring down against the movement and firmly securing it where it belongs.

Once that's done, you simply push the crown-stem back into place and it should look just as it did before disassembly.

Your piece should look much closer to the gen DSSD now. And you've spared yourself fretting over what mistakes need to be corrected on the next release of this model, not to mention saving your money.

Here's the final product--compared with the bezel-insert marking on the gen:

Rep:

Gen:

And one last shot, set aside to completely cure, inside and out, overnight:

I hope this is of some help to you guys who were either worrying if they should do with their current model or wait for the next release. Feel free to post any comments or questions.

Enjoy!

Edited March 22, 2009 by gioarmani

[Toadtorrent]

Smokin'!! Great tutorial...and WELCOME BACK to the uber-posting!!

[gioarmani]

Thank you.

[Ztech]

Awesome write up. Thanks for taking the time to share it with us.

[bosk]

Awesome write up. Thanks for taking the time to share it with us.

Very cool tip...thanks for sharing with that great tutorial.

[polexpete]

Wow! great effort, takes a lot of work to put these tutorials together. Thanks for sharing...

P.

[dluddy]

Wow Gio, first off welcome back and secondly, awesome contribution. It must have taken all day to assemble that post

[DaniM4]

Thank you very much for that great tutorial.

Now my only problem is, i've got a 21J movement.

anyways, i'll just try to remove it.

thanks

[gioarmani]

Thanks again.

The Asian 21J should remove easier, as it's secured differently (see below). To my knowledge the only difference would be the crown-stem release; if memory serves, it has to be depressed upon both removal and insertion.

[DaniM4]

Copy.

i'll try it now.

Thanks again

[Shundi]

That looks so awesome...thanks!!!!

[Shundi]

Oh one additional question- I don't have a DS but wouldn't spraying the matte spray on the datewheel be a potential cause for concern? I mean...considering you're coating the dial?

[ThinkBachs]

Perfect timing with this, I've got some tools coming in and plan to do this myself. You also answered a question I had about the HEV, where on another thread someone pointed out they could press theirs in. Filling this with the epoxy will help me fee much better about getting the watch wet- how much sense does it make to have a DSSD that you have to take off before going in a pool? Thanks for taking the time to walk through this with us.

Question for the serious watch movement guys:

While the back is off, is there anything that can/should be done as far as oiling that can be done without taking more of the movement apart?

[ThinkBachs]

Oh one additional question- I don't have a DS but wouldn't spraying the matte spray on the datewheel be a potential cause for concern? I mean...considering you're coating the dial?

I'm sorry, did you say something?

[asf]

sweeeet tutorial!

makes me not like my V2

[baglc1]

Every photo i look at on the new seadweller why is it that the bezel numbers never seem to line upin the centre. Example 4-20, 6-30, the pearl seems ok then they all start running out of line. Even millertimes post below, his rep looks odd compared with the Gen photos he has posted.

Edited March 22, 2009 by baglc1

[Watchmeister]

Fabulous tutorial. That bezel looks significantly better. The other issue on the DSSD v2 is the lack of height that the crystal sits above the bezel insert. I was curious as to whether you ever thought about removing the bezel insert, taking off some interior metal to lower the insert so that the crystal "sits" higher. I know it has been done on some earlier MBW SD's way back when.

[baglc1]

Good tutorial by the way.

[kbh]

A lot of good ideas here. I just have one question. One a previous tutorial the bezel was painted in silver paint and you are using flat white. Not having seen the gen, I don't really know which is correct. The picture of the gen really seems more silver than white.

Anybody confirm one or the other?

[gioarmani]

From the gen I handled (and the gen pictured here) the markings were definitely flat white.

[gioarmani]

Fabulous tutorial. That bezel looks significantly better. The other issue on the DSSD v2 is the lack of height that the crystal sits above the bezel insert. I was curious as to whether you ever thought about removing the bezel insert, taking off some interior metal to lower the insert so that the crystal "sits" higher. I know it has been done on some earlier MBW SD's way back when.

I did sand out the underside of the insert on my SSD and it did the job nicely, with respect to the crystal height, but with this tutorial I was aiming to make it a bit less involved. Inserts for this piece are hard ot come by, so I didn't want to risk anyone damaging theirs by attempting to remove it. I have a new insert coming from one of the dealers in two weeks, so if I can manage to replicate the same with it that I did with my SSD insert, I'll post the tutorial for that as well.

[morlock]

Great step-by-step tutorial. Thanks for the effort.

[hiker01]

Hi G!

Thanks! Excelletn tutorial, but I don't have the guts to do the dial! I'll leave that to the experts!

I did just the bezel! I'll post some pics when I get done!

Hike

[kbh]

From the gen I handled (and the gen pictured here) the markings were definitely flat white.

Thanks Gio,

Flat white it will be.

[gioarmani]

For posterity's sake, here are a few bezel shots of the gen for shape & color comparison:

And a few more in natural light. At first, I thought my HEV might have looked a little oddly shaped or set wrong, but it appears to be spot on with the gen.

Edited March 22, 2009 by gioarmani