Adding a rotating bezel

[no_sauce_man 14]

It's 12:30 AM here and I've had a bit too much to drink. I've had an idea bouncing around for the last couple of weeks about adding a rotating, dive or countdown style bezel to a chronograph. It's an odd kink I have, I know. There's not enough modern examples IMO. The regular Daytona case has the crystal attached to the tach bezel. However, the Speedmaster pro case has a seperate bezel ring. My question is, would it be possible to put the case in a lathe, and cut a ledge into it where the tach would usually press on? I'm thinking you could drill a small hole at 11 for a click spring, and add a retaining spring to catch the ledge, similar to how Invicta divers are set up. Would this be possible, or am I jusy crazy?

Edited January 25, 2021 by no_sauce_man
Added picture

[GingerApple 7,304]

The end result looks quite cool so I hope it is possible. Get drilling!

[deju 1,886]

Forgive me as the listing won't show up on my DHgate anymore, but I had this in my favourites, and was very much on the lines of what you are thinking, I found it while looking at Tudor heritage watches

[Theduke.williams 1,041]

5 hours ago, no_sauce_man said:

 I've had an idea bouncing around for the last couple of weeks about adding a rotating, dive or countdown style bezel to a chronograph. It's an odd kink I have, I know. There's not enough modern examples IMO.

I'm of a similar school of thought.

I like the outer bezel to be functional, not just decorative, so I really am not a fan of fixed bezels, even Tachymeter ones! 

Another pet hate is the number of quartz chronographs, that have a sub dial for the chrono seconds, with the big seconds hand constantly running - then they stick a bloody tachymeter bezel on! FFS! 

Not sure how easy it'll be to set the body up in a lathe so that the existing face has zero run-off, my thought is this would be a nightmare, but hey, what do I know.

Some of my chronograph watches with rotating outer bezels;

 

Good luck in your endeavour, and please, keep us updated with any progress!

[Dr Fun Socks 76]

@Theduke.williams it wouldn’t be hard to set it up square, just use the internal jaws on a lathe to hold inside the case where the movement was. 
 

Could be hard to get the bezel to rotate well with just a click spring at 11 though. Surely you would need a couple of other springs at say 7 and 3 so the bezel doesnt sit on the piss? Like a submariner?