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How to remove a riveted link from a bracelet (Rolex)

egroegart

Put Some Respect On My Name
1/7/13
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I received this new version of the vintage riveted bracelet the other day. I love the looks of it being a vintage style. Although with this bracelet you are kind of limited with not too many easy adjustments to make it smaller to fit your wrists. All the links are riveted except for two.. Two of the links have a slotted screw head so that you can take those links out. there is also an adjustment on the clasp with 6 holes that you can choose from to set your pins in to make the bracelet diameter larger or smaller depending on what you need.

After I took out the two links, I then had the pin in the very last hole in the clasp to make it fit my wrist comfortably. Having to use the last hole in the clasp meant that there were about one and a half links inside the clasp now, which made the bracelet uneven. Even though I had the same number of links on both sides of the bracelet, the two that were hidden in the claspt made the one side much shorter Therefore making the watch not sit in the right place on my wrist. For the last two days i have spent a lot of time sliding the watch head back to the middle of my wrist, and it has been annoying , because it will end up in just a couple minutes sliding over to the ball side of my wrist, making it uncomfortable to wear and also not looking right.

I thought that I may be sending this in to get it ajusted and having a link taken out But tonight I decided to try it myself. I knew that the rivents were pressed on, So I was able to pop them off and remove one link and then relocate the pin in the clasp to the second hole instead of the 6th hole.

Here is how I did it, and I took pics along the way. I thought this might be a good tutorial especially since we have a lot of guys here with smaller wrists. Mine are 7.25" and I ended up removing 3 links. I'm sure some of you with smaller wrists will hae to remove more links. So here goes.

This is what my watch looked like on my wrist for most of the day. Off to the side, and not sitting in the center of my wrist where it should have been.You can see that it was so far over that even part of the lugs were over the edges of my wrist.

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Here's what it looked like under my wrist where the clasp was. You can see that the end of the clasp with the rolex logo is right in the middle of my wrist, when actually the middle of the clasp should have been in the center of my wrist. So it was amost 3/4 of an inch off.

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You can see in this picture the links are all the way to the last hole in the clasp, and this was the problem because those two links made that side of the bracelet smaller even though there were the same amount of links on both sides of the bracelet.

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the root of the problem was that there were just too many links in the bracelet, so I decided to tackle the project and try to remove them myself. The riveted plates on the side of the links are pretty tight against the link, but I first started using an xacto knive to start to separate the plate from the link. I was able to very very carefully work the blade in between the plate and link and using a back and forth motion with the knife create a large enough gap that I could then get one of my small jeweler's screwdrivers in there and start prying them apart. Remember there are two rivets on each side of a link so work on getting a little bit of a gap on one end and then work on the other rivet on the same side to try and get them to come out evenly and at the same time, so nothing gets binded or bent.

See if you can find the Benji hair. lol

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Then work on the other rivet on the same side so that it is done evenly.

I kept alternating working on both ends with the screwdriver and the rivets started to come out slowly. They are pressed in there pretty good, so it does take some pressure. Also, it is very important to do this where the rivet isn't going to pop off and fly across the room, because you will never find it. I had a towel set up to block any misfires. lol. and actually if you do it the way I described here, just slowly working on one end and the other it shouldn't fly out.

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And they finally broke loose at the same time, which is what you want to happen. You can see there are some slight marks on the side of the link where the screw driver was prying, but a little fine grinding and then buffing will take care of this But since this link is being removed. I just have it and the rivets and plate in a small container just in case I would ever need it.

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Then the other side has to be carefully taken out. It slides but there is some resistance at first. but comes out fairly easily.

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All the parts out. 2 tiny rivets, the rivet plate, and the two long bars that go through the link.

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All the parts in my hand. they are tiny. So being careful not to lose any is very important.

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Kind of hard to show the size of these, but I had to pick them up with tweezers That's how small they are

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Once you have removed the amount of links needed to size your bracelet correctly, then put it back together. After putting my bracelet back together I was able to move from the 6th hole in the clasp down to the 2nd hole which means instead of having 2 links buried inside that clasp making the bracelet uneven there is only a very slight part of one inside the clasp now which fixed the issue I was having with my watch being off to one side of my wrist.

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You can now see that the clasp sits in the center of my wrist instead of off to the side.

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You can also see that the watch now sits on top of my wrist in the center of my wrist where it is supposed to be also.

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I hope this has been informative to those of you thinking of getting a riveted bracelet. I though for sure that I would have to have it sent away when I first got it to be adjusted correctly, but I'm glad I decided to tackle it myself. I am very happy with it now, and it is staying right where it should on my wrist. Thanks for reading.
 

egroegart

Put Some Respect On My Name
1/7/13
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Thanks Rob and Joe. I'm very happy with this bracelet. It's really giving me the itch to get a vintage watch now too.
 

davebk

You're Saying I Can Sell?
31/12/15
51
7
8
Great tutorial! Just used this recently to do the same thing, and it's a perfect fit.
 

bobandshawn

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29/10/13
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Florida
Sad seeing this out of the blue. Rest in Peace Benji. Friends loved you...

Bob
 

AntonioT

Banned member, the goat does not approve
Banned
29/8/15
340
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British Columbia
Now I ask: can you reassemble that link together? or once the rivets are pried off they dont work anymore?
 

sfgerl

Renowned Member
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Certified
25/10/18
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Is there a trick to removing the links with the slotted screw heads? Fortunately, I have a bracelet that has several links with a slotted screw at each end of the same pin; I am using a tiny screwdriver and it seems to just rotate the pin without anything coming loose. Any help appreciated.
 

sfgerl

Renowned Member
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25/10/18
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I'm wondering the same thing.
 

bc1221

Put Some Respect On My Name
30/4/14
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I'm wondering the same thing.

This post is over a year old. Plus, it sounds like the guy passed away reading Bob’s comment.

Those riveted links are PITA. Gen ones are worse. I have a gen cosmograph rivet bracelet. The only way to remove the links is to basically bend the metal on the center link to pry them off.

As for this version, I’m pretty sure they pressure fit. You just have to have a lot of pressure putting them back on. Or you can go to easy route and superglue them.


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