Video: How to open any screw back watch case – Omega, Rolex, TAG …

They can be a right pain – there are so many opening tools, and each manufacturer has their own. Not only that, but the opening tools can slip and leave ugly scratch marks on your watch back.

Never fear, a £1 children’s toy rubber ball does the trick…

 

11 thoughts on “Video: How to open any screw back watch case – Omega, Rolex, TAG …

  1. I bought a rubber ball to remove the backk a wach but when it arrives it wa badlly mishappen. How do i make it round again ?
    Any advice welcome.

  2. Hi!

    First of all, thanks for the blog!

    How do I find a rubber ball like that on ebay? It seems like there’s only €70 cricket balls or those who are formed like eggs. Could you please post a link to the type that you are using?

    Thanks again!

  3. Hi,

    Nice “How-To” open the case.. but I wonder, how hard should I turn to lock/seal the back plate? Is the friction from the ball enough to lock the plate tight? or do I need a “real” case tool to seal the back plate.

    • You can screw the back on tight enough with the ball. You don’t want to overdo it, anyway – the seal has to sit tight, but not be squashed too much. Overtightening a case back doesn’t do you any favours.

  4. Useful… I have a cheap quartz “Pod” watch that I wear when doing something likely to damage my nicer ones which – surprisingly for something that was less than £10 it has a screw back with a gasket.

    The other day I went to put a battery in it to discover that the gasket had degraded or morphed or something and expanded out of the back – friction locking it all in place. Even with the proper 3 prong tool I cant shift it as the indentations are too small to hold when you put a lot of torque… so I will seek out a rubber ball and see if that works!

    • Turns out the reason I couldn’t open the screw back on that case was because… it isn’t a screw back! Seems Pod felt the need to decorate the back and confuse anyone who may encounter it 😉

Leave a Reply to Christian Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.