Saturday, 15 October 2011
Watch Band Remover - watch case opener, watch tools
When I bought this little kit I was amazed by the price. So many little tools at such a low price is great--unless you can only use them once before your kit has a few broken tools! The only tool in my kit worth owning is probably the hammer; the pin tools for removing band pins are incredibly cheap and slightly oversized for most of the pin holes on my bands. All of my pin tools are now either bent or broken (the blue plastic pin remover is also broken). Unfortunately the list goes on...the knife is very soft metal and burred after a few watches. The screwdrivers are a joke as is the tweezer, the spring bar remover looks like a child ground the 'U'-end so it doesn't grab the bar properly. It's much easier to go to a good hardware store and buy some small drill bits and make your own pin tools---just use hardwood dowels for the handles--and buy some good tweezers, screwdrives, and some new smooth pliers, and you'll have a far better set of tools than this junk! 16 PCS Watch Tool Kit
These tools look just like the higher quality tools available from various watch manufactures and retailers, but they are not just like the higher quality tools.
Very cheaply made. Barely usable to size a band.
The micro Phillips screwdriver stripped out on the first attempt to use.
One of the pin punches bent double on the first attempt to use it. Lucky there are three of them.
Don't let the low price fool you, pay the extra $10 for the real professional watch tool set.
I had actually only ordered the kit for the plastic watch band link remover. I have a Invicta Diver's Watch Model #5017 which closely resembles the Rolex model. I really take my time at doing things slowly and correctly. However, it took me less than ten minutes to push out four link pins with the link removal tool. It is that easy. Simply, line up the top of the pins with the pin remover and carefully turn maybe about three revolutions and instantly it comes out. Note that this Invicta watch had pins with fake screw slots on one side which made me even more careful. However, this proved to be for decorative purposes only since the pins themselves resembled tiny cotter pins which is essentially a piece of wire folded in the middle. I even used the knife case opener on my wife's twenty year old seiko with equal success. Again, this stuff is not Swiss made but in my opinion is a good starter kit which gets the work done correctly. The money I saved can be used for more expensive tools should I decide to choose watch repair as a second career. Also check out the microtools website. You will be amazed with their extensive product line and offerings.
The product arrived promptly. Ordered on Sunday was surprised to see it in mailbox on Wednesday. Already opened two watches for battery replacement and shortened two chainlinks. The watch replacement and chain-link fixing is at least five each in our neighborhood. So I think the tool has already paid for itself and saved the trouble to go to the stores. The nearby Meijer store used to replace the battery at no charge but has stopped doing that lately. I do not have any expensive waterproof watches with screwed backs so I have not used that tool. But all the other tools came in very handy.
The tool quality seems fine. No instructions. So I had to figure out. I guess these tools are meant for people who know what they are doing. Learning was not difficult. By the time I reached the third watch, I knew fairly well how to use them. May be I am a slow learner.
I wish the tools had a storage box that came along, but no big deal. Next trip to Dollar Tree should solve that.
The candies were included in my shipment too like an earlier review had mentioned. Kind of reminded me of the old time neighborhood stores. Rather pleasant.
I bought this to try to change the battery of two men's watches. The back of these watches has 6-notch on the back, so I need the special tool to open it. The product description was not clear if this tool set will do the job. I am happy to report that it works very well. With the tool, it is easy to open the back of these watches. I was actually worry that it wouldn't work, and bought another tool along with this. Now, I don't need to use the other one.
As others have mentioned, it doesn't come with any instruction, but it is easy to figure out. The invoice does include an URL of an online assistance web site.
I wish the tool comes with a brush, a scratch removal tool, and a plastic tweezer.
The 16 piece watch kit is well worth the money. A local jeweler wanted 20.00 to replace a watch battery. With the spanner wrench included in this kit I was able to remove the back and replace the battery myself for about 4.00. Be advised that these are not super high grade watch repair tools - I saw a spanner wrench on the net that listed for 40.00 - but these tools are great for the occasional band change, battery replacement, etc.
It works.
What else do you want to know?
It's cheap, made in china, and costs $11.00 there isnt much more to say.
It may be very cheaply made, but it does what you want it to do and costs LOADS less than a jeweler would charge you to remove links from your watch. The metal pegs were too big for my Tissot watch band, but the little plastic and metal screw peg remover worked like a charm and it took less than 10 min to remove 3 links and have the watch on my wrist securely.
Very much worth the buy.
My family used to own a jewelry store. Naturally, I worked there quite a bit to help out my folks. I'm a tinkerer, always messing around with tools and stuff so I was always playing around with the toys (tools) and taking apart old watches, etc.
I had my skepticism when I ordered this $10 set. I ordered them because I had to adjust a nice and expensive watch that my brother got me for my birthday. If these tools were of poor quality, I wasn't going to use them on the watch just in case the watch got damaged.
It worked quite nicely. The reason that I mentioned the jewelry store above is for comparison of the tools. While these are nowhere near the quality of the expensive tools that my folks used at the store, they got the job done. Nothing broke. Some of the pieces in this set can be used around the house for other purposes, too.
For $10, I think it's a great value. - Watch Case Opener - Watch Band Remover - Watch Tools - Watch Repair Kit'
Detail Products
Detail Reviews
Click here for more information