How to Remove Rolex Bracelet: a Step-by-Step-Guide
All Rolex watches come fitted with a metal bracelet, except for the exception of a few Rolex watches that come fitted with a leather strap, and others that come on an Oysterflex bracelet.
The vast majority of Rolex watches that are sold, however, come on a bracelet, and for different reasons, you might want to remove your Rolex bracelet, but find yourself wondering: how do you remove a Rolex bracelet?
Rolex makes some of the most robust bracelets for watches there are, especially its stainless steel sporty Oyster bracelets, made in 904L steel which no other watch manufacturer uses, and making it in their very own foundry.
But sometimes, you may want to remove your bracelet. Maybe you want to clean it, which is necessary to do sometimes to minimize wear and keep it as fresh and good-looking as possible and to prevent it from becoming loose and stretching. Or maybe, you want to remove the Rolex bracelet in favor of a different strap, perhaps a NATO strap or a leather strap, since changing straps on watches has become more popular over the years, and also has several benefits and advantages.
Background to remove Rolex bracelets
If you have a modern Rolex, you might ask yourself how you remove your Rolex bracelets. There’s no obvious place or way to do it, and to many, it may even seem impossible. unless you have some advanced tool.
Now, obviously, it’s possible to remove the Rolex bracelet from a wash, but back in the day, doing so used to be much easier.
On Rolex’s older models, you’ll find pierced lugs. In this hold, the spring bar points out a bit, making it super easy to access the spring bar which you need to access in order to remove the Rolex bracelet.
When Rolex used the spring bar holes on their watch models, changing and removing the bracelet on Rolex watches could be done in a heartbeat, making Rolex watches among the easiest watches to remove the bracelet on. In fact, all you needed to do was to take a small straight pin and push it into the spring bar hole from the outside, pushing the spring bar in, and allowing it to pop out.
This has changed in modern models, however, and since 2000, Rolex has moved from the pierced lugs to conventional lugs because of the visual appearance, and now also has a solid end link at the end of the bracelet. As such, needless to say, removing a Rolex bracelet on modern Rolex models is a much more difficult task.
How to remove Rolex bracelets
In order to remove a Rolex bracelet, you first and foremost need great patience. Removing the Rolex bracelet is a picky task, and you need to be gentle and precise.
In order to do this, you need a special tool. Now, it is possible to push out the spring bar without a tool and instead use something else, however, it is much more difficult, and you risk scratching your watch.
There are many tools for removing the spring bars of Rolex watches – some better than others, and some much more expensive than others.
The best tools are made by Bergeon, which is one of Switzerland’s premier watchmaking tool companies and their tools are considered the industry standard. The tool that is considered the best for the job is the Bergeon 6825-ff (ff for fine forks). This tool is pricier than others, but it will minimize scratches and make the job of removing your Rolex bracelet easier. It can do this since the tool allows you to push in both sides of your spring bar at the same time, allowing for effortless removal of the bracelet from the case. This also makes it much easier to install the bracelet again if you wish to do so.
If you want to buy a more affordable tool, there’s a whole array of them on Amazon.
The process of removing a bracelet is actually very simple, however, the tricky part is that the springboards are so small, and accessing the spring bar can be tricky since it is hidden away behind the bracelet and the end links.
In order to remove a Rolex bracelet, you need to push in the spring bars that hold the bracelet in place, and then gently move the Rolex bracelet to detach it from the case.
Removing a spring bar can be a tricky task, and may demand repeat actions, so if you are going to remove your Rolex bracelet, make sure you tape the inside of the lugs to minimize scratches.
If you wish to use your Rolex watch on a NATO strap or a person strap, you need to take the spring bars from your Rolex bracelet and extract them from the bracelet, then put them back on the case in lug holes again, then attach your strap by inserting the strap underneath the spring bars.
