Removing watch hands requires a gentle, controlled pull straight up from the center pinion, using either a hand puller tool or a pair of fine hand levers. It sounds simple, but the margin for error is small. A slip of even a fraction of a millimeter can scratch the dial, bend a pinion, or crack the paint on a vintage hand. With the right tools and technique, though, this is one of the most approachable watchmaking tasks you can learn at home.
Tools You Need
The most common tool for this job is a hand puller, sometimes called a Presto-style puller. These look like oversized tweezers with flat, forked tips that slide under the watch hands and grip them from below. When you squeeze the handle, the tips close and lift the hand straight off its post. The standard version (Bergeon’s Presto #1) works for most wristwatch hour and minute hands, while a smaller version (Presto #6) is designed for second hands and the tiny hands found on modern fine watches. If you’re working on watches regularly, having both sizes covers nearly every situation.
The alternative is a pair of hand levers. These are thin, flat steel tools about 110mm long, with tips just 2.5mm wide and 0.20mm thick. You slide one lever under each side of the hand and pry upward simultaneously. Many experienced watchmakers prefer hand levers because they offer more precise control, especially on small sub-dial hands where a puller might not fit.
Beyond the removal tool itself, you’ll need:
- A dial protector: a thin plastic sheet (typically 0.15mm thick) that sits between the hand levers and the dial face, preventing scratches. These are made from scratch-resistant synthetic material and come pre-cut with a slot for the center post.
- Pithwood or a soft pad: a piece of pithwood placed under the movement to cushion it while you work.
- Fine tweezers: for handling the tiny hands once they’re removed, since fingers can bend or lose them easily.
Step-by-Step Removal Process
Start by opening the watch case back and carefully removing the movement from the case. Place the movement dial-side up on a piece of pithwood so it sits securely without rocking. Give yourself good lighting and a clean workspace, because dropped hands are notoriously hard to find.
Before touching any hands, slide a dial protector sheet under them, around the center post. This creates a barrier between your tools and the dial surface. If you don’t have a commercial dial protector, you can cut a small piece of thin paper with a slot in it to serve the same purpose, though the plastic version is more reliable.
If the watch has a sweep second hand (the long one that moves continuously around the main dial), remove it first. Second hands are press-fit onto the thinnest pinion in the watch, so they require the least force. Position the smaller hand puller or your levers directly under the second hand, close to the center, and lift straight up with gentle, even pressure. The hand should pop free with minimal effort. Set it aside on a clean surface.
With the second hand removed, you can now remove the hour and minute hands together. They share the same center axis, and pulling them as a pair reduces the number of times you’re applying force near the delicate dial. Slide your dial protector into position, place the hand puller’s forked tips under both hands near the center post, and squeeze gently while pulling upward. The key word here is gently. You want steady, even force, not a sharp tug. The hands should release from their friction-fit posts cleanly.
Removing Sub-Dial Hands
Chronograph watches and other complications often have small hands on sub-dials for functions like elapsed minutes or running seconds. These hands sit on extremely thin arbors (posts) that are more fragile than the main center pinion. A standard hand puller is often too large to fit inside the sub-dial area without touching surrounding parts of the dial.
Hand levers work best here. Cut a small paper dial protector with a slot that fits around the sub-dial’s arbor, and slide it into place. Then position two fine lever tips (or two small screwdrivers, in a pinch) on opposite sides of the hand, as close to the center post as possible. The critical technique is to pry upward on both sides simultaneously, keeping the blades at 180 degrees from each other. This applies even force to the hand tube and prevents the arbor from bending to one side. A small amount of leverage on both sides at the same time is enough to release the hand without stressing the arbor.
Some watchmakers also place a thin piece of plastic wrap over the hand before sliding levers underneath. This keeps the hand from flying away when it pops free, which is a real risk with these tiny components.
What Can Go Wrong
The most common mistake is scratching the dial. Even a momentary slip of a metal tool across the dial face leaves a visible mark, and dial refinishing is expensive. This is why dial protectors aren’t optional. Use one every time, even if you’re confident in your technique.
Bent pinions are the other major risk. The center pinion (also called the cannon pinion) is a friction-fit tube that the minute hand sits on, and it connects to the gear train inside the movement. If you apply uneven force or try to wiggle a hand off sideways instead of pulling straight up, you can bend or damage this pinion. A bent center pinion causes the minute hand to drag or stick after reassembly, and fixing it means partially disassembling the movement.
Cracking the lume (the glow-in-the-dark paint on hands) is another concern, especially on vintage pieces. Older lume becomes brittle over time, and the pressure from a hand puller’s tips can chip or flake it. Positioning your tool as close to the center hub of the hand as possible, rather than out on the painted portion, minimizes this risk.
A Note on Vintage Watches
Watches made before the late 1960s may have radium-based luminous paint on their hands and dials. Radium was widely used for its glow properties and was largely discontinued because of ingestion risks, not because of the low-level radiation the watches emit while closed. The Health Physics Society’s guidance is straightforward: no special handling is required for radium-dial watches as long as you don’t open them or disturb the radium paint.
If you’re removing hands from a watch of that era, the practical concern is avoiding any contact with flaking paint. Don’t scrape, brush, or blow on deteriorating lume. Work in a ventilated area, and wash your hands thoroughly afterward. Ingesting even tiny particles of radium is the real hazard, not touching the watch or being near it. If the lume is visibly crumbling or powdery, this is a job best left to a professional with proper containment.
Tips for Clean Results
Position the hands at 12 o’clock before removal. When the hour and minute hands overlap at 12, they’re stacked neatly and give you the cleanest angle for your puller or levers. This also makes reinstallation easier later, since you’ll know exactly where both hands were aligned.
Work slowly. The friction fit holding watch hands in place doesn’t require much force to overcome. If a hand isn’t releasing, check that your tool is properly seated under the hand and not caught on the dial protector. Increasing force is almost never the right answer.
Keep removed hands organized. Lay them out on a clean white surface in the order you removed them (second hand, then minute and hour). If you’re working on multiple watches, label each set. Watch hands are not interchangeable between movements, and even hands from the same manufacturer may have slightly different post hole sizes.
Store your hand puller with its tips slightly open, not clamped together. Keeping the tips compressed during storage can weaken the spring tension over time, giving you less control during your next job.