PO bracelet sizing tutorial

[tommy_boy]

I bought the red metal pin pusher from amazon and it looks like it should work better than those junky plastic ones. The blue plastic one will skip out and gouge into the bracelet. I didn't like that. Hopefully the red one works. I haven't tried it yet. It appears to need some red lock tite on the threads that hold the knob onto it.

All of the pin pushing tools available are, imho, junk. I wonder what the better AD dealers use to push the pins. I'm almost certain they have professional tools there. I'm mainly talking about the more established dealers. I couldn't seem to find a tool on ofrei.


My question is though. What is the best way to push the pins back in? These pin pushers don't come with a larger pusher to shove the pin back in. That was causing most of the skip over and gouging with the blue plastic tool for me. Maybe one is suppose to use one of those small watch hammers which I don't have. Or maybe I can pull out a small vice and try that.

You are better off getting a hammer and a small enough steel pin that will drive the bracelet pin all the way out. If you look here http://forum.replica-watch.info/vb/showthread.php/tutorial-sizing-planet-ocean-bracelet-41328 you will find more info. Best of luck.

 

[Bunkie111]

I used one of those watch hammers you referenced. It took a little bit of effort, but no damage to the bracelet.

I bought the red metal pin pusher from amazon and it looks like it should work better than those junky plastic ones. The blue plastic one will skip out and gouge into the bracelet. I didn't like that. Hopefully the red one works. I haven't tried it yet. It appears to need some red lock tite on the threads that hold the knob onto it.

All of the pin pushing tools available are, imho, junk. I wonder what the better AD dealers use to push the pins. I'm almost certain they have professional tools there. I'm mainly talking about the more established dealers. I couldn't seem to find a tool on ofrei.


My question is though. What is the best way to push the pins back in? These pin pushers don't come with a larger pusher to shove the pin back in. That was causing most of the skip over and gouging with the blue plastic tool for me. Maybe one is suppose to use one of those small watch hammers which I don't have. Or maybe I can pull out a small vice and try that.

 

[tommy_boy]

I used one of those watch hammers you referenced. It took a little bit of effort, but no damage to the bracelet.

The pins in my bracelet were at peril more than the bracelet itself! :biglaugh:
I bent several of the poor things!

 

[Yannou]

and if anyone has 2 spare links for the PO 45.5....please let me know....

 

[Yannou]

and if anyone has 2 spare links for the PO 45.5....please let me know....

+1:wacko:

 

[brandwatch]

nice information, great help to me!

 

[WatchDoc]

3 years after this post was written and I muddled through resizing my PO bracelet, THEN I find this post. Stupid me for not searching earlier. I've resized other bracelets so didn't think it'll be a challenge. Like anyone new to a task/hobby, I've now learned to search first, then march forward.

2nd post: just looked around some more. Given all of the stress that these bracelets have caused, I'll PM all the admins and lobby for a "PO Resizing Support Group" on RWI. Seems many of us have been traumatized by the experience.

 

[markh]

I just re-sized my PO bracelet and it went great. This thread helped in that it gave me the basics of what needed to be done. I took out 1 full link and one of the small half links. Put it all back together and only bent 1 pin. That happened when I was trying to put it back in, not take it out.

I used the stand to hold the bracelet. Used the pin pusher tool with the small hammer to push the pins out. They didn't come all the way out so I used the small flat nosed pliers to pull them the rest of the way out. Just be careful and they come out fine.

Here are the tools I used...

 

[pilworx]

just did this...almost 3 hours.
what an effin nightmare. used a combination of pin pusher tool and hammer and block. a high quality pin pusher tool sure would have helped. i have 2 cheap plastic ones and actually destroyed the bigger of the two in this process.

putting the pins back in is the trickiest part, bent 2 and had to remove and start all over again, luckily because i was removing so many links i had the spares. it's really unfortunate the PO bracelet does not have any fine adjustment capability beyond the diver extension. gotta love that Rolex glidelock, it's brilliant.

HINT: take the bracelet off the watch before resizing

 

[Snpr9696]

Great tip but I still had tons of problems. Still not sized all the way and bent two pins. Also bent two sizing pins. Does any one have a method to reinstall them smoother? Does anyone have extra pins. I can send ya a few bucks for them? Thanks all. At least I have the UPO on the rubber for now so I can still wear it.

 

[funnyfrog]

Great tutorial... I will be getting a PO 42 mm soon and will need to do this adjustment myself

 

[pilworx]

prepare for pain.

 

[Mr. Pap]

I was prepared for some mesh having read all the posts, but one word suits the case... The Horror!!! Oh my God, several broken ,twisted joins and tubes. A lot of cursing and fingers with pain. You have my word i won't do that again. Go go rubber strap!!!

 

[TommyW]

just resized my new UPO, bloody hell, that was traumatic!

 

[Fortey]

I shattered my nailclipper as soon as I tried to clip off the extra pin. This is not going to be fun, I see.

 

[teoulennon]

:wacko: I just ordered a planet ocean and already have a headache
I'm going to print out the pics and take them to a local jewler

 

[Nightshift]

Great info here on resizing. I just got 2 Seamasters and resized them both in an hour or so. I didn't have any watch tools, but successfully tapped out the pins with modified tools I made from an old mini screwdriver and a pin punch. Took 3 links out of each watch without breaking any pins or damaging any tubes (thanks to the details in this thread). This was enough of a challenge though that I decided today to order some basic watch tools to make things easier in the future. Just wanted folks to know that even the PO can be resized if you understand what to do without special watch tools. Cheers, Bill

 

[appled]

I would warn there are a couple of other stages that I had to go through, and so will you probably:
1) half way through getting the first pin out (ie after about an hour) you will suddenly think "hang on, do the little arrows point the direction to take the pins OUT, or push them IN??
2) once you have snapped a number of pins equal to the number of links you remove, you will remember how cool NATO straps look.

My 2p worth of hints:
- definitely use a pusher to get the pins out, and an extra bar or pliers to finish the job
- if you remove pins from both sides at once, don't forget to check you have replaced the catch the right way up
- don't forget to put the inner sleeve back before the pin
- I found a hammer actually broke less pins when I was putting them back in, than the pusher or pliers did.

 

[WatchDoc]

So, as stated above, I manged to resize my PO almost by accident and it fit perfectly!. Now it's June/July on the east coast, last night it was humid while I was out to dinner, my wrist got a bit bigger and then my fingers turned white, then blue. Why could that be? Any doctors around?

Yeah, that 5mm rolex clasp adjuster on the GMTII and Gen Milgauss is friggin sweet. The divers extension on the PO allows it to fall off. Given the luck I had without totally destroying the pins, I'm very reluctant to add a link back in just for the summer.

 

[lucasnsw]

That helped me a lot, even though i dont have a pin remover. had to use some luck and whatever i had around!

Thanks for this tutorial.