# Alpina - easy to change bezels?



## Payner (Apr 17, 2010)

Good day, first time posting on this forum but I've been looking into Alpina watches for quite some time now.

I love the Alpina design aesthetic but the functions I wantare not quite there so, a question.

Is it possible/easy to change an Alpina compass bezel for a similardive timer bezel? I'm in love with theAlpiner 4 GMT but find the compass bezel useless for my lifestyle (already havea Pathfinder ?) but use the timing bezel on my old SKXliterally several times per day. Ideally, I could pick up an Alpiner 4 GMT, swap the bezel or bezel insert and then startsaving up for the Alpiner 4 Chrono!

Thoughts?


----------



## PJR (Apr 25, 2012)

I have asked Alpina about this. I am interested in an Alpina 4 chronograph but the compass bezel is of no use to me. What I'd prefer is a 12 hour bezel to use as a second time zone. I will post whatever reply I receive from Alpina.


----------



## grimmy (Feb 4, 2018)

The hard part may be ordering the bezel. 

An exerpt from the Canadian repair facility regarding the bezel marker, and replacing the bezel on an Alpiner 4.

"For AL525BS5AQ6, the marker at 12 on the bezel is not a piece we can order separately. In fact, for Alpina watches we cannot order the bezel either, only the complete case. The case for this model is ref# CAAL525XAQ6 and it retails for $400.00. It is unfortunate that we cannot order the bezel only, but that is one of the limitations of the available parts from Alpina. "

Which may be different for other countries, but isn't promising news for Canadians at the least, and if is a stance they take for parts, it's not great..


----------



## PJR (Apr 25, 2012)

The answer from Alpina is:

_



Thank you for your interest in our products.

Unfortunately I cannot reply positively to your request, as we don't do custom modifications to our watches.

At your service,

Willow 
Customer Service Coordinator

Frédérique Constant S.A.
Alpina Watch International S.A.
Les Ateliers deMonaco Sàrl
32, Chemin du Champ des Filles
CH - 1228 Plan les Ouates, Genève
Switzerland

Click to expand...

_The policy seem a bit ridiculous when they have a model with a 12 hour bezel and another with a 360 bezel on cases that are the same diameter. So much for Alpina.


----------



## Cndags (Apr 12, 2017)

I have emailed Frédérique constant Singapore regarding this 2 years back, and they also said that the bezel comes together with the case.

Has anyone been successful in custom making a bezel insert for this instead? I would love to put a 60 minute timer bezel on my GMT.

Maybe can point to a few mods out there that can do this?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## PixlPutterMan (Aug 5, 2017)

I recently was able to get a 12 hour bezel to replace my compass bezel. It was NOT NOT NOT NOT easy to get the bezel off. In fact I ruined the bezel and was lucky the insert they sent me came with a bezel. They are such a tight fit (in a good way) I could not get anything under the bezel to pop it off.

I had to remove the insert and stick very thin razor blades in the top of the bezel to press out the wire retainer.

I can also verify the inner shape of the bezel is not the same and I had to spend days and a lot of patience with a dremel grinding the underside of the insert to get it to fit.

It was a huge pain in the rear, but now the watch is perfect to me.

I have the email address of a very helpful person there if you wish to PM me I will share it


----------

