Under the Loupe/General Tips for Uncasing a Watch Movement

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Snapback Cases

• You can open, or at least start to open, very thin or hard to open snapback cases using a thin razor blade
• If a snapback is particularly gummy, or stuck, apply a small amount of naphtha or one dip around its perimeter

Removing Watch Hands

Sometimes hands (especially chronograph hands) can be difficult to remove. Following are some suggestions to follow.

• On very tight, fragile hands, such as a chronograph's sweep second hand, grab the hand by its tube to remove it
  • A stripped down presto tool with indented tips comes in handy to achieve this
• Apply a small amount of penetrating oil, such as WD40, around the inner perimeter of a hand's tube to remove very, very tight hands
• When dealing with mother of pearl dials, use a stripped down presto tool to pull the hands off without touching the dial at all
  • If this fails, protect the dial with a thick sheet of plastic (or several layers of thin plastic) and use broad hand lifters

Bezels

• Gently remove thin bezels using a razor blade