"H Huntzinger" wrote in message news:{NOSPAM-rm_to_reply} snipped-for-privacy@news.giganews.com...
Corollary #1a of USENET: You had just better hope that everyone in the world doesn't answer.
And 53% of all statistics are made up according to my dogcatcher's cousin who once thought about signing up for a statistics course.
In searching how to adjust your Costco Wenger Swiss Military watch band, I found these references which may help you out.
These work for other watches, but I didn't find any references to the tool that is actually needed for your watch.
Where can I get a tool to OPEN THE BACK of the watch?
I recently took my watch to a local jewelry store who quoted $8 dollars to adjust the steel band but who actually charged me $16 dollars because it was 8 dollars PER SIDE! When I asked why, he said he had to take a link out of each side so he charged double the quote!
If I knew that it would cost me that much (half the price of the watch) I would have purchased a kit to do it myself. Does anyone have a good reference for a watch kit that will also open up the back of the watch (it has a six dents equally spaced in the back of the watch for whatever tool goes there).
BTW, the actual links are really a half-round pin, folded over, flat sides touching, so that it looks like a slotted flathead screwdriver on the side it comes out and it looks like a round head on the side you punch but it's really just a half-round doubled over length of metal pin acting like a spring because it's bent over in half.
Now that the band is fixed, I've learned my do-it-yourself lesson the hard way.
But, where can I get a tool to OPEN THE BACK of the watch?
Well, we finally adjusted the Wenger Swiss Military watch band!
After googling & froogling for "watch band link remover adjustment", we realized for ten to twenty bucks we could buy the needed metal watch band link adjustment tool.
I also stopped off at another jeweler who said he'd adjust the watch band for fifteen bucks which was more than some of the tools so I respectfully declined.
We ended up pushing the pins out with a bent steel pin and removing a link on each side by removing four pins total and putting back two of them. Leftovers were two links and two cotter pins as shown in the photos I just hosted here
If anyone wants me to, I can measure the diameter of the pin with a micrometer that the boys at work have if you need that data. The hardest part my son said was he kept losing the pins on the garage floor and it took him a while to find a thin enough pin pushing tool - he eventually used what is shown in the photos.
VCS
Q: Which of the tools removes the Rolex Oyster Perpetual back cover?
Fifteen years ago I bought a second-hand steel/gold Rolex Oyster Perpetual (pre sapphire crystal) date adjust watch (just the numers, not the day of the week) for about $1800 if I remember correctly.
replacement, watch band deterioration, and winding battery-less watches; so, from that standpoint, it was a bargain in that this watch is self winding, the gold/steel band is practically indestructable, and, of course, no batteries!
However, the first "adjustment" cost $300; the first major overhaul cost $800, and now it's broken again (my kids dropped it on the cement and it stopped working instantly). So, from a frugality & reliablity standpoint, this watch has been a bust (it's just sitting in my "things to fix" drawer).
I'm done taking it to a watchsmith (see why above). Now I just want to see if I can visually see what is broken inside. Maybe it's something simple that I can get fixed for less than $800.
Therefore, I just want to take off the back plate, Q: Which of the tools would you recommend to open the Rolex Oyster Perpetual?
Yes. That Rolex is absolutely BEAUTIFUL INSIDE (from a metalworking standpoint)!
When I first bought this used Rolex, it didn't keep good time (losing perhaps a minute a day). I opened the back simply by using a small flathead screwdriver in the notches, twisting out the normal way. I was AMAZED at how BEAUTIFUL it was inside! Honed out of a single block of stainless steel & gold, it seemed. There was a fine gold coiled spring, with a big counterweight, and what looked like a solid silver backplate, and a red stone in the middle of the spring and a very easy to adjust adjustment lever with a few alignment marks on that spring. The entire inside was an absolutely beautiful sight. I adjusted it for a few weeks until I got it down to a loss of about 20 seconds a day but I never did get the timing exact. (Maybe there are other not-so-obvious adjustments?)
I closed it up each day as tightly as that screwdriver would allow me to.
Then one summer, I went swimming in a volcano in Greece (Thira) and the sulphur got inside somehow and gummed it all up. That's when I had the $800 repair. I haven't opened it since then because I'm told it's been sealed with Argon gas. Is that true?
My point is, the case can be opened with a screwdriver but I prefer to use the correct tool (so I'll check out the wonderful link you provided above); but I'm asking an ancilliary question of alt.horology ... which is...
Once opened ... Q: Does the Rolex need to be sealed in a special gas environment?
P.S. Removed scuba as this no longer applies to scuba diving ...
"Noah Little" wrote in message news:dbh5vi$5gl$ snipped-for-privacy@n4vu2.nvu.com...
That 8 bucks a side is a rip off. Those pushpins are generally easy as pie to knock out and back in. 10 bucks(Aussie) would have been a fair price. And you'd be paying for my time(all 3 minutes of it) and my knowledge(we'll assume i'm good at what i do). :)
Here is one that should do the job. It's cheap enough to try.
How much is the scrap value?
In other words, less than the 10k price for new.
But, we who dont need a 10k watch already knew.
I am a machninst by trade, and fully appreciate the craftsmanship that goes into a Rolex.
At the same time I realize that Rolex trades in a name and a brand that rich people think put feathers in their hat.
It is a very inportant issue to have the image a Rolex on your wrist (Chinese rip off or otherwise) to many people, becuase they feel they have rub their wealt up against others with wealth.
It can be the biggest chunk of shit ever made, but what sells it is the perception of exclusivity.
After all, only the elite and wealthy can afford and appreciate a ten thousand dollar watch, that is an overpriced chunk of shit.
You're not going to open a properly pressure sealed watch with a screwdriver unless you have super human powers. Is your real name Clark Kent?
I was
Really? Beautiful? Rolex finish is workman like but nothing more. Looks like crap compared to this.
Honed out of a single block of
Where was the gold? Looks like rhodium plated brass to me.
There was a fine gold coiled spring,
Sounds like a fake Rolex. There's no regulator lever on a datejust movement! You got taken 3 times over!
Or
YOU'RE A TROLL1111111
Richard "TROLL! TROLL! RUN AWAY! TROLL! TROLL!!!" F
And, Rusty, when you're finished with your DIY repair, I'll give you $100 for the watch.
Yep, they are quite common and are easy to remove as long as you do have a small and hard enough pin. When i say pin, it should be a flat top punch. Pins will just damage the band's pin and it may never come out.
Here are some band tools if anyone else is in need:
An old ground flat 0.70-.80 screwdriver does wonderfully well.. :-)
I took my Grandad's pocket watch in for repair and the watchmaker was unable to open it so I brought it home. That evening, I ran a bead of silicone caulking around, inside the rim of a 2" pulley. Next morning I used this "gripper" to unscrew the cover, after which I went back and showed the watchmaker how I had done it and explained that I had probably succeeded because it was my watch and I didn't have to worry about explaining to a customer how I had messed up his antique watch. Gerry :-)} London, Canada
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Hi Frank,
I looked up your posts and you're a legit guy so I respect your advice.
I'm glad you've said the Rolex isn't filled with an inert gas as I always wondered about that particular detail.
The funny thing is, and this is wierd, I pulled the watch out of the drawer this morning because I wanted to find the serial number and then I shook it feverishly to wind it up and then banged it a few times against the bedpost (pretty hard, with about the force we throw a baseball into a mitt) and lo and behold ... that old Rolex started ticking again!
Sweet! That barely audible fast-paced tickit tickit tickit tickit sound I haven't heard in years! Within a minute, it stopped once and I banged it again. That sweetly revived Rolex has been ticking for about 6 hours now without stopping (I'm wearing it on my wrist right now, to keep it wound).
The only problem is my wrist must've grown in the intervening years as the band is a bit too tight nowadays. I remember having links removed years ago so I will try to dig them up as I'm pretty sure the jeweler gave them back to me (they are partially gold, after all). I hope I saved them in the original box which, since I moved a few times, is buried somewhere in my old stuff in the basement.
Thanks for your advice. I moved the main questions about the serial number over to a separate thread as this really has nothing to do with adjusting the band on a Swiss watch (although the gold-plated silver face does say "T Swiss Made T", whatever those "t's" mean.
RD
Hi Moka Java,
I looked you up and you appear to be legitimate based on your posts so I will take the time to courteously answer your questions and observations.
I don't know about that gold. I am quoting from my memory from many years ago, probably more than a decade, give or take a few years. I just remember it being very solid looking and very well machined out of a single block as far as I could tell.
Huh? I'm pretty sure it's not fake as it was sold by a jeweler (although not an "official Rolex jeweler") but a jeweler nonetheless who'd be out of business the first fake Rolex he got caught selling. Plus it was in for repairs twice and you'd think _those_ official Rolex jewelers would have mentioned something. And, there's that pawn shop in Texas (admittedly not a reliable source based on the price he quoted of about $500 which can only be for a stolen Rolex - certainly not for a fake, I would think).
Again, I'm quoting all of this from memory, but, interestingly, the Rolex spring adjust didn't seem very much different than that which you pointed us to at
RD
Hi Scott,
I see you normally hang out on rec.scuba so you probably wouldn't think of wearing a Rolex watch because you need other features in a diving watch, which I can agree with. But, I do think your concerns deserve addressing.
First off, this water resistant Rolex Oyster Perpetual Datejust chronometer was no where near ten thousand dollars in cost. That may be the case (even more actually) for a gold Rolex; but this DateJust is stainless steel and gold and it only cost me about $1800, used (more than a decade ago). Since it's working again, polished up, I could probably get that much for it (based in input I see today) on the open market, so, at least it held its value (albeit not above inflation) in the intervening years.
Why would anyone buy a two thousand dollar watch is still a valid question.
Did you ever buy something just because it was well made? Did you ever buy something to last forever (your lifetime as the measure)? Did you ever buy something because you thought it would be maintenance free?
If not, you'll never understand why anyone could pay thousands of dollars for a watch when a ten dollar Casio tells time better. For that matter, why buy a forty thousand dollar Bimmer or a seventeen thousand dollar Beemer when a twenty thousand dollar Chevy gets you from point a to point b just as fast.
Now, in my case, the "illusion" of maintenance free was a farce (as it cost me over $1100 in repairs alone already) - but the other two concerns (well made and it should last forever, with maintenance) still seem valid to me at this time.
This is a well made watch. Probably just as well made as that $2500 rubber-banded analog Tag Heuer 2000 Aquagraph or Bell & Ross Hydromax you wear yourself when diving today.
RD
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