It’s easy to become overwhelmed or carried away when confronted with the dizzying array of watchmaking and repair equipment available today. We thought it could be useful to compile a short list of the most fundamental watch tools and repair equipment that each dedicated horologist should have in their arsenal.
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Trial Opener
The back and/or front of a watch must be removed before the interior may be inspected for potential problems or for routine maintenance. To remove the watch’s battery, you may need to unscrew the rear or lever off the back and face, respectively.
To remove the screw back of a watch, you need a specific tool, such as an adjustable Jaxa tool or the manufacturer-supplied tool. A case opening knife is all that is needed to remove snap-on front and rear watches. To remove a case back, just slip a small, blunt knife into the chamfer, turn it counter-clockwise, and the blade will come out.
Some of these case knives are equipped with a sharp blade on one end and a case knife on the other. You may use them to sharpen and shape your Pegwood, in addition to using them to open watch cases.
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Instruments for Adjusting Watches
Once the back of the watch has been removed, the stem and the screws holding the case together must be undone so that the watch may be taken out of its housing. The second component of your watch repair kit should be a collection of watchmakers’ screwdrivers.
Investing in a high-quality pair of watchmakers’ screwdrivers is a must. Take care of your screwdrivers and they will serve you well for many years.
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Tools for Repairing Watches
Once a screw has been removed with the screwdriver, a pair of tweezers is used to retrieve the screw, as well as to relocate and restore the watch’s various components. An additional piece of equipment you must have in your watch repair kit. Tweezers used by watchmakers are very different than those used in the beauty industry. They’re simple to use and have finely tuned ends that fit snugly when closed.
Choose non-magnetic tweezers to avoid the frustration of having watch screws cling to your tools. Holding the tweezers between your thumb and first two fingers, as if you were holding a pen, will allow you to spin them around 360 degrees while holding your watch pieces.
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Eyewear, such as Glasses or a Loupe
You already know that watch screws and other components are little. In order to see well, you should include a pair of eyeglasses or a loupe in your watch repair kit. For the most part, you can take apart and reassemble your watch using only your regular pair of eyeglasses. The inspection eyeglass is seldom utilized unless when a closer look at certain pivots or jewels is required. No. 1, No. 2.5, etc. denote a pair of high-quality spectacles. Focusing at distances of 1 inch with a No. 1 lens, or 2.5 inches with a No. 2.5 lens, is possible since these numbers indicate the focal length. If you want to avoid eye strain, it’s preferable to keep your distance from the thing you’re working on as much as possible.
A wire eyeglass holder might be useful if you have trouble keeping your glasses in place. You’ll find them straightforward to use; they’ll keep your glasses from falling into your work and serve as a convenient holder while you’re in between tasks.
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Keep an Eye on the Hoisting Handles
Include watch hand lifting levers in your watch repair kit if you plan on removing the hands before the dial. Hand Lifting Levers and the Presto Automatic Hand Lifting Tool are two gadgets that may help you with this.
Care should be taken to avoid breaking the hands or the dial while removing them. The Hand Lifting Levers work wonderfully to remove the hands in a vertical direction by swaying on their slanted surfaces to propel the hands higher. To prevent damage, most people place a dial guard or a thin plastic sealy bag over the dial.
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Change-Of-Possession Holder
You shouldn’t touch the watch movement once you take it out of the case; instead, use a movement holder to keep it in place while you work on it. A normal holder, nevertheless, is reversible so that it can accommodate both tiny and bigger motions. Keep an eye out for a wide variety of unusual forms, such as bamboo ones, as movement holds, since certain speciality watch brands often create them for themselves. A watch movement holder is an essential component of every watch repair kit.
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Parts Container
Utilizing dedicated component containers facilitates clean, efficient disassembly and reassembly of the watch. However, when the pieces have been removed and cleaned, they should be protected from dust and debris with a cover. You can get one of these for cheap, so there’s no use in splurging on a fancy container to store your spare components. They aren’t required in your watch repair kit, but they really help ease things.
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Pegwood
Pegwood, which is of a hard wood, is uniform in size and form. Add some Pegwood to your watch repair pack; many people attempt to improvise by using toothpicks or wooden kebab skewers, but they are too soft and don’t keep their shape.
The watch repair industry makes extensive use of pegwood for a variety of purposes, the most common of which include cleaning out jewel holes and watch components before cleaning them with chemicals and holding down parts and springs during assembly and reassembly. Pegwood ends are typically dressed into one of two shapes—a point or a flat—using a sharp knife.
The Sofly watch parts brand was founded in China and is being run by the same family three generations later. The organization is devoted to becoming the world’s primary source for a comprehensive offering of low-cost watch components. Because they have a large inventory of parts and tools for many well-known watch and tool manufacturers—including Rolex, Omega, Cartiers, etc.—they are able to provide you with the best possible value.
