Bezel Swaps For Luxury Watches — Examples We Love From Omega
It was one of those idle moments when I was scrolling through my Instagram feed. That feed is 100% watches, so I usually scroll through quite quickly while tapping twice every once in a while. But suddenly, I saw something I hadn’t seen before. In a way, the Omega Seamaster Diver 300M in the photo looked very familiar…yet also very different. I scrolled back up to the picture and took a second look. And then it struck me: the guy had swapped the bezel on his Seamaster 300M, exchanging its original black one for a blue one — and it looked fantastic!
That guy is Watch.Tommy, an avid watch enthusiast and poster of fine watch photography on Instagram. I had chatted with him about watches before, of course, but also about photography. I congratulated him on the idea that he’d had and told him it looked great. But I also realized that swapping parts to make your luxury watch look different isn’t an all-too-common practice. So I thought we’d look at a few examples of other bezel swaps today and see if you Fratelli have any examples of your own.
Image: @watch.tommy
Swapping a black bezel for a blue one on an Omega Seamaster Diver 300M
Let’s take a closer look at that Seamaster 300M first. Tommy told me he really likes black-dialed watches, so he has a lot of those in the collection, including this Seamaster. But he was thinking about spicing it up a little bit for the summer months. He remembered a Seiko 5 mod that he used to have, which had a black dial and a blue bezel. He liked that combination very much and thought it could work nicely for the Seamaster 300M as well, so he searched for an original blue bezel and changed it out. Luckily, it worked just as great as it had for that Seiko 5.
Image: Shane Lin (ASRSPR on WatchUSeek)
An Omega Planet Ocean bezel on a Seamaster 300M
The next example is also an Omega Seamaster 300M, but this time, it’s the older Professional reference 2254.50. And instead of changing the color of the bezel, a WatchUSeek user named Shane swapped the original bezel for a Planet Ocean bezel, among other things. Apart from the fact that I think it’s a very good-looking combination, he also says the new bezel is much easier to turn than the original SMP bezel. It’s funny how much the character of a watch can change by “simply” swapping the bezel.
Image: Shane Lin
A pulsation bezel on a pre-Moon Omega Speedmaster
Another example of an Omega bezel swap is this highly modded Speedmaster reference 3570.50. This one was also modded by Shane — yes, the very same guy, who has a super cool album of his modded watches here. Anyway, just like him, I’m also very fond of the asymmetrical looks of the Speedmaster Pulsations bezel insert. There’s something about the combination of the big text on the left, the numerals on the right, and the open space in between that really speaks to me. And the good thing is that it’s not even that hard to change out those inserts, so if you feel like swapping it, you can quickly do it yourself (if you dare).
What I love about Shane’s Speedmaster story is how he says that he rediscovered the joy of watch collecting through his modding projects. He now better understands how the smallest adjustments can make a big difference, and he appreciates his watches more now than before, even the ones he didn’t mod. I can very well imagine that this happens after you start fiddling with your watches a bit more. However, I’m still a bit hesitant about starting to modify mine.
Image: @watch.tommy
Are you a modder?
Some of my watches are still under warranty, and others I just like for the way they look right now. The closest I get to modding at the moment is changing straps. But I have been inspired by looking at these other mods and reading about how they came to be. As many before me have done, I might just pick up an older Seiko 5 watch and start modifying it a bit. It could be a nice start, and then, who knows? In the end, I might even dare to touch one of my other watches!
Image: @watch.tommy
What about you? Are you a “modder”? Have you altered anything about the way your watches look or function? Perhaps you’ve made a bezel swap like the ones highlighted in this article, or you’ve done something completely different to your watch(es). I’d be curious to see some more examples, so if you’re willing to share and think you’ve made something special, please email me at [email protected] with a picture or two and a few sentences on how the mod came about. I’ll then pick some of my favorites and share them in another article.
You can also, of course, share your stories in the comments below!
