A Review Of The “16 Piece Watch Repair Tool Set”

If you have ever looked for any sort of watch tools online, you will have probably seen a number of “tool kits”. You can get various sizes ranging from one or two tools all the way up to a few hundred. They generally all come with the same sort things, screwdrivers, case back removal tools and things to help you adjust your bracelet.

Today I will be looking at one of the more commonly found sets, the 16 piece. This is one of the lower priced packages, so it seems like a good deal, you can get 16 tools for around 5 or 6 quid, but I will spare you a long read. It’s dreadful and you should just buy single, good quality tools instead.

While I haven’t tried all these tool kits out, I imagine a lot of them are the same poor quality that I experienced with my set. 

It Doesn’t Matter Where Its Form

These kits are available everywhere, they are on Ebay, Amazon and Aliexpress. The same product is available on 100s of listings across these sites.

They are sold through different sellers and may be listed in different ways, such as slightly different brand names and at slightly different prices. The truth is they are all the same. They all come from the same wholesaler, which I am going to assume is in China.

That means I am not going to be talking about the seller, or delivery times or any of that kind of stuff. This review is solely on the product and how it performed.  

Is It Good

Before I go through each tool, I will give you an over view. … It’s dreadful.

Lets’ be fair, it is extremely low priced and you can see where all the corners have been cut to get the price so low.

I only ordered this as needed about 3 of the tools to adjust a bracelet. Buying this set of 16 worked out cheaper than buying the 3 tools separately, so it seemed like a good deal and I could probably make use of all the tools in the future.

However, I had managed to break everything after about 30 seconds of opening the packet and I didn’t actually get to adjust the bracelet and well, I don’t really have any tools for future use.

Basically I wasted £5. It’s obviously not the end of the world, but it is quite frustrating. If you think “oh, this will do the job” you wrong, it probably won’t and you should just not bother, save your fiver for something else.

Packaging

The package is just simple 2 bits of clear plastic with everything sandwiched in between.

It’s not glamorous, but it does the job. I don’t have any problem with this. Everything arrived together, so it’s fine.

You can get versions of these kits with a bag/case. Honestly I wouldn’t bother, I am going to assume they are of an equal low quality and are not worth your time.

What Do You Get?

As the name suggests you get 16 pieces. Not 16 different tools, just 16 pieces. So you get a few doubles of things, well triples, but I will go through everything below.

I think that is okay though. If you read the description, or even just look at the picture you will see exactly what you are getting. So it should be no surprise that you get a few doubles.

Also when you consider these kits costs around £5-6, it means that each tool is worth around 35p, give or take a few pence. When you realise this, you will start to understand why the quality is maybe not as good as a single tool that might cost £20 or more.

Bracelet Block

This isn’t too bad. It’s a bit rough around the edges, but at the end of the day it is a lump of plastic that will hold your bracelet while you work on it. It does this. so I can’t really complain.

It is actually also quite solid. It didn’t break and I can make use of it again. This is one of the tools I wanted, so for me, this is a success. If you wanted to buy a version from Bergeon, they are about £15. They will of course be better quality, but I guess for £ 5 I am doing okay.

Spring Bar Tool

This is the type of double ended spring bar tool. As soon as I picked it up from the packet, the forked end fell out.  I didn’t even know that was possible. But it seems like this tool was so badly made, it wasn’t even glued together.

Luckily I have plenty of semi decent spring bar tools (I thought there low quality until I seen this one). So I was probably never going to use this, but that’s not the point, that is 35p straight in the bin.

Single Ended Spring Bar Tool (x3)

Even though they give you a double ended spring bar tool (one end is forked and the other is flat) they for some reason also give you 3 more spring bar tools. However these ones are only single ended and only have the flat end.

This means they are basically useless for changing a strap that does not have drilled lugs, but you could use them to change a micro adjust. 

I used one and well, it bent like it was made out of butter. I took another out and it did the same. At this point I went and got my own spring bar tool to do the job. I barely put any force on these and they just bent.

I have actually just took the 3^rd one out to look at …it’s already bent slightly. I haven’t even used it yet. I assume these have not been put in straight and whatever material they have used is extremely weak. So, all 3 are useless. 

Pliers

The small pair of pliers are dreadfully made, but at this time they are operational. I don’t know if I would trust them to do the job, but for now they look ready for action.

When I go back to the 35 pence a tool, you can really see it with these pliers. The finishing is awful, there is literally a bit of metal hanging off the end of them from where they have been pressed from the mould.

There is nothing nice about them, but like I said they are working, for now.

Flat Screwdrivers (x3)

These are 3 identical flat head screw drivers. They are functional and they I guess they work. It would have been nice to see 3 different sizes, but such is life.

I did actually use one of these to adjust my bracelet. I used it to push some pins out. Not ideal, but it did the job and I really put some pressure on them and they didn’t bend, which I was totally expecting to happen. So that is good.

However, the flat end is a bit rugged. I would worry these may slip and scratch your watch, but if you need them for anything else around the house, I am sure they would do the job.

Cross Head Screw Drivers (x2)

You also get two cross headed screwdrivers. These are different sizes…. well the length of them is different, but the head seems to be the same size. So I’m not sure if that makes them the same size of different sized. I’m going to say they are the same, even though the smaller one is so small I don’t think you could realistically use it.

Anyway, these again will probably get the job done. They are also a little rugged and I wouldn’t want them near my watch, but for any other little screws around the house, they would be fine.

Tweezers

These are operational, but nothing special. They are actually kind of rough and are another item I would not want anywhere near my watch.

 I think if you went to a make-up shop you would get better tweezers than this and I can guarantee you that no girl would allow the tweezers from this set anywhere near them.

Hammer

So this hammer is okay. I have nothing bad to say about it. It looks and feels okay.

I used it to push the puns back in and it survived the ordeal. I think this is one of the few tools I might be able to get more use out of.

Case Back Knife

I want to say nice things about this, but I don’t think I can. I tried to use it to remove a case. I didn’t really need into the watch, but I wanted to test this tool.

I didn’t get the back off. I tried to tell myself that the watch was maybe too tight, but I just had a feeling this tool was going to scratch or damage the watch.

I am looking at it now and it looks like the knife is actually damaged, like its chipping some paint off. This is kind of strange, as it looks metal, but it’s clearly just plated with something to make it look more metal.

So when a tool fails to do a job and then the metal end, starts flaking off its metal… I don’t think I can really say anything good about this tool. I’d maybe give it a second try on a different watch, but I really just think using a knife from the kitchen is going to work better; at least it’s actually real metal!

Case Back Remover

This might be okay. It feels solid and it feels like it could do the job. I would be very cautious though; the parts that come in contact with the watch feel like they would be very scratchy.

I think if you put a plastic barrier in between this and watch your watch, you might be okay.

I don’t need to remove any case backs, and I don’t really want to try this tool on any of my watches. I think it will do the job, but I kind of have a lack of confidence at the same time, so I haven’t been brave enough to use it. When the time comes when I need to get into a watch, I will try it and then we will see how it goes. I will try and come back to this and update you all.

Honestly, I think it can do the job and you might get some use form it. It seems weighty and more than 35p.

Pin Remover Tool

This was a disaster. I wanted to use this to make my life easier. I lined up the bracelet pin with the tool and give it a twist. It started to move the pin and I was very happy, but the little metal that part on the tool wasn’t that long, so it only pushed the pin out a small amount.

Frustrating, but at least it got the pin moving. I then used one of the before mentioned screwdrivers to push the pin out the rest of the way.

I then lined the tool up for the second pin, to do the same all over again. This time the metal part of the tool just bent like butter.

Basically this tool removed a pin half way then broke. It didn’t even fully remove one pin. I was really excited about having one of these, but I guess it’s going in the bin. 

What Do The Reviews Say?

After this disaster of an experience I went back to Amazon and read what some people had left for reviews. (Something I should have done before buying it).

Strangely all the listings sit at around 4 stars, and in general the reviews usually said something like “The tools did the job”

I did look at the one star ratings and they seemed to read more like my experience, saying how everything was dreadful and not worth your time.

My Rating

Personally, I would give it 1 star too and I would say it barely did the job at all.

From the 16 items I have 3 I will keep, and one of them I’m not even sure about.

The bracelet block and the hammer can stay. They did the job and they look like they might last. The case back opener is a maybe. Once I try it I will know for sure. But until I need to use it, it can stay.

The other working tools I will probably keep for other things, but I would not want them near my watches, like the screw drivers or tweezers. As for everything else, well it was pretty much broke after 30 seconds, so it will be going in the bin.

My over all advice would be to not bother with this kit. You should just buy proper tools. Of course they will be more money, but at least you know you will have them for the rest of your life.

I imagine the 3 items I am keeping will probably be replaced at some point by better versions. The old saying is true. “Buy cheap, you buy twice”.

(If you are fixing watches you might want to read more about – Is It Worth Becoming A Watchmaker?)