Watch hand press vs hand fitting tool

[Chopin]

I would like to know what are people's opinions on watch hand presses and those hand held hand fitting tools.

Is a press a better option in any way possible ? I could get one of those red hand presses that has all sorts of plastic (or whatever it is) replaceable heads for various sizes.

Or is the hand held tool just enough and will do the job just fine ?

I'm thinking that the press will always fit the hands in the correct way and not bend them as opposed to the hand held tool which is influenced by the angle at which you hold it...

[jdm]

The issue is not bending or holding as it's easy to keep it straight, but accuracy in pressing down. You have a lot more force control with the press, avoiding the hand aging down too much. If you never have this issue, then you don't need the press.

[Ishima]

I bought a cheap hand press device once (probably the one you mention) and it was worthless, the required precision just isnt there, I would go with the handheld press tools and just accept it's one of those things you're going to need to practice a lot. I have the 3 piece set from Bergeron (7404) but there's an ~identical set from AF swiss which is a bit cheaper and I'm sure is every bit as good. There are also cheaper, Indian/Chinese sets which are probably good enough but I couldn't promise that. 

As to the tilt of the hand, thats just part of what you check and correct when you're setting them, you press down as straight as you can and then you look across the dial, looking at the side of the hands, to see if theres any tilting up or down and then put the press tool back to it then 'lean' it on the side that's too high if needed so it will tilt back to level. I hope that makes sense. 

[Chopin]

14 hours ago, Ishima said:

I bought a cheap hand press device once (probably the one you mention) and it was worthless, the required precision just isnt there, I would go with the handheld press tools and just accept it's one of those things you're going to need to practice a lot. I have the 3 piece set from Bergeron (7404) but there's an ~identical set from AF swiss which is a bit cheaper and I'm sure is every bit as good. There are also cheaper, Indian/Chinese sets which are probably good enough but I couldn't promise that. 

As to the tilt of the hand, thats just part of what you check and correct when you're setting them, you press down as straight as you can and then you look across the dial, looking at the side of the hands, to see if theres any tilting up or down and then put the press tool back to it then 'lean' it on the side that's too high if needed so it will tilt back to level. I hope that makes sense. 

Yes I am talking about those cheap ones... Are you saying that the center rod that presses down on the hands is wobbly and therefore would sort of negate any potential better accuracy of this tool in comparison to the hand held tools ?

[Ishima]

Exactly.