How to Protect your precious watch

How to Protect your Precious Watch.

PUT A SCREEN PROTECTOR ON IT, that's how!

Featured watch is the Citizen 300m saturation divers watch model: Citizen BN 0176-08E

Movement made in Japan painted on the watch face E168 solar ECO Drive

This is the USA model as the USA model shows Movt. Japan; S144308 Y1

 Other country models do not show this on the watch face only on the back casing. By the way, this model also shows these details on the back casing.

Size comparison with my SEIKO Prospex 200 air divers watch.  Basically these watches are of similar size, the Citizen BN 0176-08E is slightly thicker but not much. I have put the SEIKO several minutes fast .

Start by purchasing a quality tablet screen protector but NOT a glass one. It must be plastic. In this tutorial  I'm using the follow brand: Clearskin (Super clear screen guard).

The tablet screen will come with stickers indicating which surface is which. Do not remove them but use other regions of the screen protector and mark them separately with a waterproof marker pen.

Cut out a small region (you will have lots left over for multiple screen guards in the future). Make sure you not which surface i which and DO NOT confuse the actual adhesive surface with the upper most face surface, as it is virtually impossible to tell unless touched and once touched the screen protector will not stick properly to the watch crystal.

I used a waterproof marker to do this.



For this particular watch I used a suitable coin for which it's diameter was very close to that of the BN 0176-08E face. In this case it was an English Pound coin! But any round object of similar size will do for a template.
Using a disposable surgical scalpel (#22), I carefully partially cut around the coin in question.

Be sure to mart the correct surfaces (only need to mark the upper surface, ie the surface which will be facing the environment.

Next using isopropyl alcohol, and an optical grade microfibre wipe, I carefully cleaned the crystal surface-to rid it of any oily contamination. 

I used a quality electronic grade ISOPROPYL alcohol to clean the watch crystal prior fitting the screen protective cover.

Use a quality microfibre cloth to clean the crystal surface

Checking the fit before attaching; note the red marker pen, so it's impossible to confuse surfaces of the protective screen

Using jeweller's forceps (to avoid finger grease) place the screen protector onto the crystal. Obviously make sure you have removed the correct protective film, ie from the surface with the adhesive!

Using the same forceps/tweezers, remove the upper protective film away from the screen protector.

The Citizen BN 0176-08E 300m saturation divers ECO Drive watch features super bright chunky luminous markers. They are not despite their size better than that of SEIKO's Lumibrite phosphors. But none the less super bright and easy to read.

If you have done a good job of sticking your "custom" crystal protector upon your watch face then you will not easily notice it and the the watch crystal will now be protected against scratches.

So how good are these protectors I made from Clearskin's product?

Answer VERY VERY Good! I installed on on my SEIKO PROSPEX 200m divers watch and it has seen diving, swimming, sand and surf and the screen itself has remained unscratched and of course it has given excellent protection the watch crystal. I even have been caving with that SEIKO; so I have no reason to doubt that this screen I installed for my Citizen BN 0176-08E 300 Helium Saturation divers watch, will perform any less better.

Go do it, it's far cheaper than buying ready made screen protectors and one can choose the brand and model of screen protector/quality themselves and get some satisfaction from doing it yourself!