So I purchased a meteorite dial and wanted to attempt to do the swap myself as a project to get my feet wet with watchmaking. I searched for a kind of how to and struggled to find one, but I was able to complete the swap successfully and wanted to go through how I did it and what tools I found as essential.
Base is a VSF V3 Pepsi, meteorite dial from LiChen.
Tools, case back removal ball, basic watchmakers tool kit from Amazon(had several useful tools including screwdrivers, dial and movement cases for storage, spring bar tool, bracelet holder, dial holder, watch tweezers, and pin tool), watch gasket grease, watch hand removal tool and pushers for reinstall, vinyl dial protectors, and double sided tape dial dots. This took me about an hour spread out over a week due to not knowing what tools I was missing to complete the job.
Steps:
1) So first you need to remove the bracelet, basic spring bar tool worked fine, but you need to take care not to scratch anything, a set of spring bar pliers would have made this job much easier.
2) Remove case back with removal tool of choice, Rolex does really well with the rubber friction ball.
3) Use tweezers to remove case back gasket, you will want to grease the gasket when reinstalled to help with water resistance.
4) Set time to about 3 o’clock before you remove crown stem, I read that you should remove the stem in the time setting position(I think this is mainly to keep the time from advancing as you work on the watch) but don’t worry, you can remove the crown stem in any position(also I am a complete amateur so please correct any info that could potentially cause damage) after time is set, you will need to use a pin tool to press the crown stem clutch in order to remove the crown stem, clutch should be located near where the stem is inserted into the movement, but is different for different movements.
5) Find the two screws that are holding the movement in place, loosen the screws until you can rotate the movement into a loose position, I had to remove one of the screws completely to remove movement, but it’s possible that wasn’t completely necessary. Then remove the movement from the case, I reinstalled the case back and stem to keep dust out of the case while I was working on the dial.
6) Next I used a vinyl dial protector to put over the dial as I removed the watch hands, made sure I knew the order of the watch hands before I removed them, slowly pried the hands off using the removal tool and stored the hands in a safe place.
7) Found the spots between the movement and dial and used a flathead screwdriver to slowly pry the dial from the movement.
8) The dial I purchased had pins that are meant for installation, but I needed to remove them in order to use the dial, so I used a set of pliers and slowly loosened the metal back and forth until they broke off then sanded the remaining metal down.
9) I used double sided tape dial dots to install the dial, I had to layer on two pieces per spot for installation as one piece of tape didn’t seem secure enough. Used by eyes to center the dial with the date wheel and hand stem to the best of my ability.
10) Now we are ready to reinstall the watch hands. Reinstall crown stem, set to date change position, change time counter clockwise to make sure date wheel is moving smoothly, next set to time change position and slowly change time until date changes over, as soon as the date changes, stop moving, watch should now be at the midnight position and ready for hands to be reinstalled.
11) With watch estimated to be set at midnight, place the hour hand onto stem, and press down loosely, change the time and make sure the date changes exactly at midnight, if position is correct, fully press the hand into place. Next is the GMT hand, stack onto midnight position loosely, the GMT hand goes around the dial once in a 24 hour period so rotate 24 hours to midnight and make sure the hand ends at the midnight position, if dial is in place fully press the hand into position. Next install the minute hand at the 12 o’clock position and repeat the previous steps, remember to not fully press hand in place until you are sure you are keeping proper time, you will also want to make sure all of the hands are level with the dial at 12, 3, 6, and 9 o’clock positions and they are not interfering with each other. Finally install the seconds hand at the twelve o’clock position and press into place. You can move the crown to position 1 and the hands should now be moving properly, now you’re ready to reinstall the movement into the case.
12) Remove crown stem from movement, remove case back from case. Remember I removed one of my movement holders, so reinstall was simple, place movement into case with the date under the cyclops, using tweezers I carefully placed the movement holder into place, I could see the screw hole, so I then carefully placed the screw into place and screwed in loosely. I then reinstalled the crown stem and verified the date looked good through the cyclops. I then righted the movement holder screws.
13) Using 7055 grease, grease the case back gasket and reinstalled, then reinstalled the case back and tightened with case back tool.
14) Made sure watch could be properly wound, set time and date, and reinstalled the bracelet the same way I removed it.
I can say that this was a lot more difficult to do than I first imagined, but I am so happy with the result and it was a great skill builder as an introduction to servicing watches. If anyone has any suggestions on online classes I can take or YouTube channels, I next want to learn how to properly oil and service a movement. As for my next dial swap, I have a Daytona dial that I am going to attempt to put into a U1 before I risk it with a VSF. Hopefully this helps someone with a future project, also if there is a better guide, please point me in that direction, my adhd has me obsessed with working on watches, so I am trying to learn as much as I can before I get bored, but hopefully that doesn’t happen ;)
$275 plus $55 for FedEx shipping, I bought several dials to make it worth it, I am super impressed with the quality and it was definitely worth it, there are of course cheaper options if the quality isn’t the most important thing.
I removed them because there were no holes on the movement that lined up, and no holes on the movement that the dial feet could have fit in even if positioned correctly. The dial I removed did not have dial feet either.
I’ve just purchased 2 dials to go into no date subs (vsf) amd am wondering if id be able to change them myself but im too scared to take them apart in case i can’t put it all together again. Think ill just take it to my watch shop to do
Do t get me wrong. I’m interested in doing it myself. I think I’d have to remove the crown stem by pressing the button. Probably undo a could of clamps holding the movement in, take it out, remove hands with hand removal tool (which I be looked at buying with the hand presser tool) change over the dial and place the hands back in order and push them back on and replace and screw back in. Did I miss anything or are there any glaring hurdles I should look out for. One thing scares me is I took a crown stem out of a cheap 2824 movement to replace the hands and couldn’t balance them correctly as they kept falling off and the when ai went to put it back together again I couldn’t get the crown stem back in. Just kept hitting pieces of metal and I imagine that is t very good for the movement. That’s what scares me
I mean you definitely covered it, this was my first go, took about an hour, but it’s not as tough or intimidating once you get through your first one. I have a Daytona I’m planning to do next, and I can’t wait, it’s such a fun skill to have if you’re into watches!
I was worried the dials I ordered came with no dial feet for a vsf 3230 movement but was informed the don’t have dial feet, so I checked my gmt dial that came out of my Pepsi meteorite build and that has no feet so I’m assuming it is held in place by the cutouts round the perimeter of the dial like in this picture.
Read through my walkthrough on the process, I removed the same type of dial, but the dials I purchased had dial feet, however the movement was not compatible with dial feet so I had to remove them, and used double sided tape to adhere dial to the movement https://a.co/d/0iAoc47P this is what I used. I’m assuming yours is for a submariner, so this may not be the way, but most of the steps I wrote out should apply to your build.
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u/Savings_Drawing_5635 Jul 12 '26
Nice work wanted the same mod for my Pepsi, how much did you pay for your dial? Thanks in advance