Crystal tension ring stuck in case

[BrehmerR]

Hello everyone!

i have backed myself into a really tight corner here.

i was taking off a tension ring crystal on my Omega Constellation when it suddenly cracked on me and left the tension ring and a ring of plastic left in the case. Does anyone know how I can fix this without ruining the dial?

huge thanks in beforehand!

 

I also forgot to mention that there is no caseback

[oldhippy]

Remove the movement from the case,by doing this you have no fears of causing damage to the dial or movement. You should be able to use a small screwdriver blade just under the ring and gently ease the ring out, or a very thin type of blade. 

[JohnR725]

16 minutes ago, BrehmerR said:

i was taking off a tension ring crystal on my Omega Constellation

Using the Claw type crystal Lift is not recommended on tension ring crystals As you've discovered the tension ring does not compress and the crystal will break their.

5 minutes ago, oldhippy said:

Remove the movement from the case,by doing this you have no fears of causing damage to the dial or movement. You should be able to use a small screwdriver blade just under the ring and gently ease the ring out, or a very thin type of blade. 

Can't tell from your picture whether this is a watch that comes out the front or the back. Because of you can't take it out the back you will have to take what's left of the crystal out first. Look carefully at the metal ring there should be a crack someplace as it's usually not a solid ring. It almost looks like at the 12 o'clock position perhaps? So you can find with a crack is it's easier you can put something on the backside between the ring in the crystal and gently try to pry it out of the way. But it really would be preferred if you could remove the entire watch first.

Then you also want to try to save the ring because the original Omega rings tend to fit better than the Some aftermarket rings

[BrehmerR]

56 minutes ago, JohnR725 said:

Using the Claw type crystal Lift is not recommended on tension ring crystals As you've discovered the tension ring does not compress and the crystal will break their.

Can't tell from your picture whether this is a watch that comes out the front or the back. Because of you can't take it out the back you will have to take what's left of the crystal out first. Look carefully at the metal ring there should be a crack someplace as it's usually not a solid ring. It almost looks like at the 12 o'clock position perhaps? So you can find with a crack is it's easier you can put something on the backside between the ring in the crystal and gently try to pry it out of the way. But it really would be preferred if you could remove the entire watch first.

Then you also want to try to save the ring because the original Omega rings tend to fit better than the Some aftermarket rings

It’s a solid caseback so I can’t remove the movement from the case. The little crack is at the 9 o clock position so I’ll try to see if I can pry on it there.

[JohnR725]

8 hours ago, BrehmerR said:

t’s a solid caseback so I can’t remove the movement from the case.

It's hard to tell in your picture but look carefully and see if you have a Bezel ring on the front which is actually holding the crystal in place. Because usually the Omega tension ring frontloading cases had a separate bezel ring that held all of this together. In other words you remove the bezel ring and the crystal comes off.

[BrehmerR]

4 hours ago, JohnR725 said:

It's hard to tell in your picture but look carefully and see if you have a Bezel ring on the front which is actually holding the crystal in place. Because usually the Omega tension ring frontloading cases had a separate bezel ring that held all of this together. In other words you remove the bezel ring and the crystal comes off.

Definitely no tension bezel ring. I have tried filing away as much excess crystal as possible but I just can't get enything between the crystal and tension ring. It seems impossible. And I definitely wouldn't be able to pry on the tension ring from behind without damaging the dial. 

I know that these armored crystals aren't removed with crystal lifts. I have however, had success with that multiple times before since I don't have anything else. I usually squeeze pretty tight and then try to turn and pull upwards at the same time. Are you supposed to use an air compressor instead?

[watchweasol]

Hi The use of compressed air requires the stem to be removed and as your watch is a front loader, (no removeable case back).  The stem will in all probabillity be a split stem allowing you the remove the outer portion enabling you to fit the pump/syringe and pump the air in. Now comes the rub, removing the stem portion (if it is a split stem) requires a vertical pull to separate the two parts. In a normal scenario the bezel will have been removed along with the crystal the stem turned so that the split is dial up allowing the movement to drop out and the stem to seperate naturally without force. Have you checked tha the bezel is removable or not. Look for a slight indent around the periphery of the bezel for a case knife or bezel tool.

[JohnR725]

5 hours ago, BrehmerR said:

Definitely no tension bezel ring

What is the back of the case look like? In other words does it have any words on it like use a special tool or something? Because normally the crystals that have a tension ring would have an outer bezel ring the whole the whole thing in place which you don't have? That may mean that you're supposed to use a special tool and they usually tell you that on the outside of the case.

In any case at some point in time when you get inside you can give me the case number I'll look up something

okay if you're really careful keyed up a really tiny screwdriver tip or some other piece of metal and you should build a shove it between or through the crystal in other words you can melt the crystal just be careful then once you get your tool in far enough you should build a pop the inside ring out. Just try not to go to deepen scratch the dial but I don't think you'll do that and no I don't remember where I've seen this or why even remember this but if you heat up something the crystal should melt you should build a shove it in words right now the crystals under a lot of tension and it's really hard and as you found out nothing shoves in.

[BrehmerR]

On 12/4/2022 at 5:55 PM, JohnR725 said:

What is the back of the case look like? In other words does it have any words on it like use a special tool or something? Because normally the crystals that have a tension ring would have an outer bezel ring the whole the whole thing in place which you don't have? That may mean that you're supposed to use a special tool and they usually tell you that on the outside of the case.

In any case at some point in time when you get inside you can give me the case number I'll look up something

okay if you're really careful keyed up a really tiny screwdriver tip or some other piece of metal and you should build a shove it between or through the crystal in other words you can melt the crystal just be careful then once you get your tool in far enough you should build a pop the inside ring out. Just try not to go to deepen scratch the dial but I don't think you'll do that and no I don't remember where I've seen this or why even remember this but if you heat up something the crystal should melt you should build a shove it in words right now the crystals under a lot of tension and it's really hard and as you found out nothing shoves in.

This is what I was thinking about doing too. I have some really small drill bits too. Either try to drill the crystal into pieces behind the crystal tension ring or melt it with a hot screwdriver or whatever. I'll try to take the hands off and put plastic all over the dial. 
I have the case number by the way. I have already serviced the watch. I just noticed that the hands were a little off so I decided to take the crystal off like i've done like 4 times before already but that's when it snapped. 

Case number is 168.025