Recommendations to watch repair shops with a Bergeon 5700

[WatchLover]

Dear Watch Enthusiasts, 

Hopefully, this is the correct forum to post this question. 

I've managed to open the back of a number of Seiko 
watches and change the capacitors/batteries. 

These all had screw on case backs and I 
used a Jaxa type opener. 

But there are two watches I've bought, that I 
have not been able to open. 

I've actually scratched the case back 
pretty badly while trying.

Online, I've seen this heavy duty opener:

Bergeon 5700 Watch Back Opener for Waterproof Watches
Your Price: $799.00
SKU: 5700z
https://www.esslinger.com/bergeon-5700-watch-back-opener-for-waterproof-watches/

There are Chinese copies too.

But either of these tool is not something I would buy
when it would be only used for just a few watches.

I'm in the USA.  

Can anyone recommend a US watch repair specialist 
that actually has the Bergeon 5700 in the shop?

My idea is to ship the watches, and have the
shop open them for me. 

Thanks a lot!

[fixermole]

I have a similar problem and have had no luck locally finding a watchmaker with one of those openers either. The watchmakers I did find had no luck opening this tough one.

It's a vintage Tissot with a standard screw-on caseback with a nice gouge out where someone also couldn't get it open. One of the local watchmakers did tell me that it is likely that the gasket deteriorated to the point of acting pretty much like epoxy. He's seen it a number of times.

He suggested the only way to open it would be to heat it up carefully to soften the gasket material. I haven't tried that yet, but will let you know if that works. You may want to give it a try as well. However, you mentioned quartz watches and those have a lot of plastic in them, so I would not try it on those.

[jdm]

11 hours ago, WatchLover said:

I've actually scratched the case back  pretty badly while trying.

Scratches can  repaired with a bench polisher, and proper wheels and compounds.

 

11 hours ago, WatchLover said:

Online, I've seen this heavy duty opener:

Bergeon 5700 Watch Back Opener for Waterproof Watches
Your Price: $799.00

A Chinese copy should be less than $200. That's what I have, and it works fine. They also make smaller and more modern types, copied from Horotec or other Swiss makers.
There are other alternatives, what would almost surely work is a wooden case holder in a garage vise, and a two handles opener. I have shown these in the topic below.

You will also read about the trick of gluing a nut to the back. Whilst necessity is the mother of invention, personally I don't like that way, because I find superglue to be an unfriendly chemical, doesn't solve the problem of holding the case anyway, and I want something that works right way, without aggravation and having to wait for the glue to dissolve.

 

[Paul80]

The Chinese copies can be found for under $60 on AliExpress.

If you are thinking of posting watches off to get a watchmaker to just open them the postage would soon exceed the cost of one of those tools.

I have one and cannot fault it, it's so close to the Bergeon tool I started to suspect Bergeon actually have theirs made in China as well and just claim it's made in Switzerland. 

[aac58]

When I have a watch that I cannot open, I superglue a nut on the center of the case-back and when set I use a wrench to budge it while holding the watch wrapped in a piece of fabric. Then I dip the case-back in acetone until the nut comes off, it just takes a couple of hours to dissolve the CA glue. It has never failed so far.

[jdm]

38 minutes ago, Paul80 said:

The Chinese copies can be found for under $60 on AliExpress.

Not a full 5700Z copy. That is what we're talking about: https://aliexpress.com/item/1005003020605988.html

If you can locate a better deal, please post the direct link.

[Paul80]

Mine was under £60 from Ali but it didn't include the Rolex openers, I bought those separately for about £15.

 

[WatchLover]

Some good responses

I'd seen the superglue/crazyglue technique

And don't want to buy a big tool that I'll 
just once or use a few times. 

So, back to the original question,
can anyone recommend a US watch repair specialist 
that actually has the Bergeon 5700 in the shop?

Thanks a lot!