Okay, so I’ve been eyeing this Rolex GMT-Master II Batman for a while now. It’s a beauty, right? But let’s be real, the price tag is, uh, a bit much. I mean, $14,750? That’s like a small car! So, I started thinking, why not try to make my own? Not the whole watch, mind you, just the bezel. The Batman bezel. That blue and black ceramic is just too cool.
First, I had to find some parts. After a lot of digging, I went to look for similar items, like Amazon. I managed to find some decent quality watches with ceramic bezels that I could potentially use. They weren’t exactly Rolex quality, but hey, we’re going for a “budget” version here. I picked up a couple of different ones, just to see which one would work best. A Timex one caught my eye since I’ve had good luck with that brand before, and its price wasn’t too bad.
Next up, the scary part: taking apart the watches. I grabbed my trusty little screwdriver and got to work. Let me tell you, those little screws are tiny! I almost lost a couple, but thankfully, I managed to keep them all safe. I carefully removed the bezels from the donor watches, making sure not to scratch or damage them.
Experiment time
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First try: I tried to fit the bezel from the first watch onto my base watch. Nope. Didn’t fit at all. Wrong size, wrong shape, everything was off.
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Second try: The Timex one looked promising. I carefully tried to attach it, and… it kinda worked! It wasn’t a perfect fit, but it was close enough. I had to do a bit of filing and sanding to get it to sit right, but eventually, it snapped into place.
Now, it wasn’t exactly the Batman colors. One was all black, and the Timex was more of a dark gray and blue. So, I had to get creative. I did some research online and found that you can actually dye ceramic with special dyes. Who knew? I ordered some blue and black dye and got to work. It was a messy process, let me tell you. I had to soak the bezel in the dye for hours, and even then, the color wasn’t quite as vibrant as I wanted. But, after a few tries, I managed to get a decent blue and black color.
Finally, I put everything back together. My base watch with the new, custom-dyed, high imitation Batman bezel. It wasn’t perfect, but you know what? I was pretty darn proud of it. It looked cool, it told time, and it didn’t cost me an arm and a leg. Plus, I learned a lot along the way. It was a fun little project, and now I have a unique watch that I can show off. Not too shabby, right? This whole project taught me that sometimes, you just gotta get your hands dirty and try things out. It might not be a real Rolex, but it’s my Rolex, and that’s what counts.
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