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ok Richard Carver, you are definitely an adventurous chap. i appreciate that.
but you are (potentially) very much in the weeds here, my friend. there are tools for this kind of thing. Specialized, expensive tools. Designed to save you from lots of headaches and heartaches. Tools that i very much wish i could show and share with you right now.
First off, i'd like to know how you removed the original bezel. i hope it wasn't with ye olde kitchen knife. a bezel remover applying equal pressure from all sides is the thing--it's quite easy to damage the bezel in the removal process if you're using some sort of sharp hand tool. I know you won't be putting that bezel back on now, but you might want to in the future.
Anyway. as stated by others, you'll definitely want to fit the crystal with gasket onto the case frame first, then press the aftermarket ring on. But oh, the trouble you can get into here. You want to use a bezel press die that fits that aftermarket bezel thingy as close as possible in terms of diameter. ideally you'd want one that presses on the inner diameter of the ring and not the outer diameter. otherwise you risk distorting the ring. There's a Rolex tool for that, of course.
oh, and you'll want to make sure you press down the ring on evenly--if it starts going down at an angle, you're sunk. A special rolex jig allows you to press the bezel or bezel ring down flush to the top of the crystal just to make sure you're flat. Once you remove that piece, you then push the crystal securing ring down the rest of the way and it's therefore impossible to get off at an angle. Of course you don't have the jig or the correct bezel press die so, just trust me, make sure you're pressing that ring down flatly and evenly.
i highly recommend that, for all these shenannigans, you have the movement out of the case and are just dealing with the case frame. There's no reason to put the dial and hands at risk in the event something goes wrong. Go ahead and take the movement out now, because if you don't, you'll have to do it later, because i promise you there WILL be lint and specks between the dial and the crystal, and you absolutely have to get rid of it or it will drive you crazy. And the best way to do that is to clean the underside of the crystal after you've installed it onto the case frame. Which means, you guessed it, the movement will have to be out of the case.
i wish you the very best of luck. let us know how it goes!
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