Watch Mod Tools

[Bob_Defly]

I think I'm going to try and mod my Seiko 5, are there 'good' brands of watch tools like presses, back and hand removers, tweezers, crystal setters etc. or are generic ones off amazon ok?

Any recommendations would be great! I'll start on something cheap in case I mess it up.

[gregs656]

There are definitely brands to have (bergeon, durmont etc) and then there is everything else where it is a crap shoot.

What doesn't exist is 'mid range' stuff. It would be a significant investment to set your self up with decent tools to mod 1 watch and decide it's not for you.

In the UK I think it would be worth buying a decent (bergeon) movement holder, which aren't that expensive and are available (expensive here in Canada, and the cheap ones are rubbish)

Carefully choose the tweezers you buy (I bought some plastic tipped ones off amazon which I am quite happy with), you want antimagnetic, you could also choose to buy one or two nice tweezers from cousins - you can find various recommendations for the most useful sizes.

hand setting tools you can buy copies quite cheaply of the decent ones and they seem fine. Mine did the job.

The cheap hand removal tools (the sprung ones) seem pretty useless. I am going to buy lever removal tools for my next watch.

I bought a cheap crystal press (lever rather than screw) and it's fine, not great but fine.

Another recommendation is to buy reading glasses instead of a loupe for the longer focal length.