Adjusting Hand Position on 6263 Subdial

[leitztozeiss]

I recently purchased a Jimbo (EE?) 6263 from Stephenrom. I love the watch so much, I purchased a T21 to have installed when I send it to Joe for spring bars, case shaving, etc. Well, today I received the T21 and in my excitement got ambitious and tried to install it myself. Removing the bezel was quite easy - easily 'popped' off by hand. It has just enough fit to feel secure, yet is easily removable to swap with another bezel.

The crystal was a bit tougher for me to get off. Ubiquitous was helpful by PM with tips on removing the crystal. It seems that there was some adhesive securing the old crystal to the case. Anyway, with some encouragement from Ubiquitous and a little help from my all-in-one Gerber tool, I managed to get the crystal off. I guess I was afraid to apply too much pressure and damage the dial or hands - I'm good with my hands, but sometimes I act like Bill Bixby and turn into the Incredible Hulk and break delicate things. Anyway, with the crystal removed, I then thought I would try to re-align the hand of the 30-minute subdial. It doesn't reset to zero, and instead resets just to the right of zero (see pics below). I've tried "nudging" it with a tool tip, but that didn't work. So, that's where I'm stuck. I don't want to press the crystal and bezel in place before fixing the hand. Is this an easy thing to do? Do I need a special tool for adjusting hands? Any help is appreciated - thanks.

(Joe, I'm still sending the watch in for the real mods. I just wanted to give it a go with the crystal and maybe even fixing the subdial hand.)

Here's my 6263 with crystal removed. Notice the misaligned subdial hand:

Here are the new T21 (left) and old crystal (right):

And, here's the T21 just sitting on the 6263 ready to be pressed home. I'll probably have to shave the inner diameter of the bezel a bit, though. It's a bit on the tight side:

[leitztozeiss]

UPDATE: Ok, so I did a quick search on TRC, found that there are actually special tools for hand removal and setting (big surprise). So, I broke down and purchased some nice bergeon hand removal and setting tools. The deep sucking sound is me getting pulled deeper and deeper into this hobby.

[Guest avitt]

Here a tutorial on hand removal from the PMWF:

HOW TO remove and replace hands and dial

[ubiquitous]

Excellent work!! Glad to see people giving this stuff a try!

The genuine T-21 makes a huge difference!

[leitztozeiss]

Thanks for your help Ubiquitous. I'll post updates when the tools arrive from ebay Land.

[pitimany]

please keep us posted

[rbj69]

let me tell u one thing subdial hands u need to be very steady or u will scar your dial , use tissue underneath and put a pair of latex gloves , and make sure u stay very steady cause if u slip u bascially ruined the dail usually , i have faith in u but i like to stress things that r more intense ok but if u do i have a xtra dial so no worries lmao let us know how it goes

[leitztozeiss]

Is there danger of the pressure of the tool feet (white plastic in the picture below) damaging the subdial? I guess that's what the tissue is for?

[eunomians]

I HIGHLY recommend that you use a chrono hands remover for the sub-dial hands, not the regular hands remover in the pic above. As RBJ said, use tissue paper or face the consequences of a scratched dial.

[leitztozeiss]

Wow, there's yet another tool for removing subdial hands? Boy, this is like changing wall paper . . . before you know it, you've re-decorated the whole house!! I'm just going to send the thing to Joe - too much for me to screw up. Well, at least I got a shot at swapping crystals.