How to adjust your Seiko Watch Band
I recently received a beautiful Seiko watch from my son for Christmas. One of the first things you typically need to do on a new watch with steel links is adjust it to fit. The Seiko watch band adjustment is fairly simple. But you need to know how to go about it. I thought I would make a quick post to guide anyone needing a quick tutorial on doing the Seiko watch band adjustment.
Why Adjust Your Watch Band Yourself
You can always take your watch to a jeweler to have your band adjustment. But, there’s a cost to do that, so saving money would be one good reason to do this yourself. Another reason, and in my opinion, an important one , is time. It seems that there are significant demands on my time (many of them self imposed). Taking a trip to the jewelers to drop the watch off an another to pick it up chew up a lot of time. In comparison, doing this is relatively quick and typically will take no more than 15 minutes or so.
Tools You Will Need
There’s really not a lot you will need in the way of tools to do a Seiko watch band adjustment. The key tool you will need is a pick of some sort. I used a dental pick for this task. You can readily use a fine tipped jewelers screwdriver or a small punch. Anything with a small pointy tip will work. You might need a small needle nose pliers as well. This would be helpful if you have any links that are stubborn and hard to remove. In my case, I did the entire job with just the small dental pick.
Most of us don’t have a watch link removal tool. However, if you will be doing multiple watches, it might be useful to invest in a tool kit for watches. I have a link to a watch repair kit at the bottom of this article. Another item that could be helpful are reading glasses. They can help protect your eyes from spring loaded pins and provide some magnification to see.
Remove the End Link From the Clasp
Using a pick or other pointed tool, push the pin visible on the side of the clasp. Once depressed, you can tilt the end link away from the clasp. Secure the pin with your thumb before doing this. It is spring loaded and will pop out. As with all spring-loaded objects, it will either hit your eye or disappear into the nether. So it might be wise to wear eye protection! Set the pin aside as you’ll need it to re-assemble the watch band later.
Removing The Watch Band End Link
Look at the inside of the links. You will see that a number of them, towards the end of the band have arrows. the arrows signify two things. First, that it is a removable link. Second, That is the direction the locking pin is removed from. On the opposite side of the arrow, you will also see a small indentation. That indent is where you will use the pick to pull the locking pin out. See picture to locate the arrow and indent.
Place the tip of the tool in the indent. Pull back in the direction the arrow is pointing too. The retaining pin should pop right out. You may have to use a little force but shouldn’t have to “gorilla” it. Once the retaining pin pops out you can simply grab it and pull it the rest of the way out. Next, once the retaining pin is out, you can easily remove the end link by bending it inwards. This should give you sufficient clearance to completely remove it. Set the end link aside, you will need it to re-assemble the watch band.
Removing Additional Watch Band Links
At this point, you can remove as many links as needed to adjust the watch band to fit. Removing additional links follows the same process. First, make sure the link is removable by insuring their is an arrow on the link you want to remove. After that, simply use the pick or your tool of choice to remove the locking link and then remove watch links until you reach the desired length.
Re-assemble the watch band
Re-assembling the watch band is simply following the reverse order in which you removed the links. Take the end link you set aside earlier and install it at the last link left on the band. After you “hook” the link into place, push the pin (locking pin) in exactly the same way that you took it out. Press it into place until it clicks and locks in place. You may have to use a small flat tool to get some leverage on it to get it to lock in place.
Once you have the end link in its a simple matter of reconnecting it to the clasp. Take the pin you set aside earlier and slide it into the tube on the end link. I found that holding the pin in place with your forefinger simplifies getting these back in. Set the bottom of the pin into the desired hole on the clasp. using a pick. screwdriver or your finger, depress the top part of the pin and slide it into place. I like to start with the clasp pin in the center hole. This gives you leeway to adjust the watch band in either direction to loosen or tighten.
Congratulations you’ve just completed a Seiko watch band adjustment.
Most watch bands are similar to the Seiko watch band. Seiko is unique in the locking pin that they use. I think these pins or lugs make the entire process much easier. Other watch bands I have adjusted quite often are held together with pins similar to the clasp pin. Which can be a challenge to get them lined up when installing.
Here are links to two different tools sets that would help with this. The First is simple (actually dental picks) , the second is a more complex set of tools if you’re really into tools or watches
