DIY change the hands on your watch!

[OldeCrow]

First I want to stress that I am not professionally trained. That means I may teach you lots of bad habits when it comes to DIY watch repairs but these methods are methods that I figured out on my own with the materials that I had at hand.

The Tools

Rolex style Case wrench and bits on the left.
Lame Jaxxa type wrench on the right.
The LG Master Hand Wrench is far better in quality than the Generic Jaxxa type wrenches just get the LG Master Hand Wrench to start out with you won't be sorry!

Screwdrivers

very expensive blue "post it" dial protector,
hand puller, swiss army tweezers,
smooth jaw needle nose, side cutters
shiny spring bar tool above the rest of the tools

Powderless latex or nitrile glooves!
you really only need to wear one gloove on the hand you hold the watch with. the hand you use tools with you really don't need a gloove on.

The Watch

the dial and movement in a plastic movement holder with the offending hands that will be replaced!

Uber expensive dial protector installed to prevent the hand remover from goobering the dial.

Hand remover tool in place ready to remove all the hands in one motion.

The hands are off and sitting on the cover to the left.

Now select your new hands, don't touch the hands with your skin you will leave noticable marks that are difficult to clean off!

Hour hand first, place loosly over the hour wheel and useing a soft hollow material like a ball point pen ink tube gently seat the hand enough that it will stay on the hour wheel. then adjust the time with the crown untill the date flips over and adjust the hour hand to the 12 o-clock position. and seat the hand down with the pen tube, repeat for the minute hand. Then install the second hand I prefer to get it started by placing the second hand on the pinion with tweezers and then seating it with a push pin.

The finished product, one of my custom mil-spec's with broad arrow hands!

comments, ammendments, corrections, requests for more photos all welcomed!

some tips and ramblings in the next post!

 

[OldeCrow]

There are some subtle tricks to working with the hands. When installing the hands you don't usually need to be forceful. be sure that the hands don't drag on the dial or drag against each other. you should be able to see air between the hands as they pass each other by!
setting the hands to 12 o-clock when the date wheel flips isn't as hard as it sounds. Set the hour hand first, when you are sure that it is right at 12 o-clock when the date flips then move on to the minute hand. This doesn't have to be an exact science as long as its close to midnight it will be fine but I find it an amusing exercise to see how close I can get it.
The only thing I am always really anal retentive about is the second hand! Be sure you get it seated right on a second mark on the dial! It may not be as important if there are only second marks on the dial but when there are quarter second marks or finer still it becomes important. And it's a good habit to develope for when you work on a Quartz watch!
Yes they make a cute little hand press tool that you can find on Ebay and other places. I think that tool is a great way for a DIY project to go horribly wrong! It might be harder to install hands by hand but you can at least see and feel what you are doing, with the press tool you are far more likely to push too hard and ruin something.
The press tool also uses metal bits so if your using painted hands you will probably scrape the paint off the hands. This is another reason I really like the plastic ink tubes from a ball point pen!
I am always on the lookout for interesting pens, mechanical pencils, and other things that may turn out to be useful DIY tools.
After installing each hand you can use a q-tip to wipe off any marks on the hand. Don't use a cotton q-tip! Find the foam ones, the cotton q-tips will leave cotton fibers behind that are very small and hard to see so once they have wrapped themselves up in the movement and stopped it you won't be able to find it to remove it!
If you have to use a cotton q-tip make sure you have a lupe or other magnifing glass to look for stray fibers when you are done.

comments, ammendments, corrections, requests for more photos all welcomed!

 

[philippe]

thanks Oldecrow! [smilie=icon_thumright.gif] i will try do to the same thing this evening with a spare dial and hands.

 

[ryaku]

Awesome thread OldeCrowe :shock:
I'm gonna save it on my hard drive.

I immediately have to buy a watch tool on ebay.

Thank you

 

[pugwash]

Fantastic. I'll not be trying that just yet, though ...

 

[d4m.test]

Great post Oldcrowe...I can use all the tips/tricks I can get.

I like the way you use useful items around the house..the Ball point pen pusher is a great idea..beats my pusher tool..