Having reviewed watches, and in particular bracelet-style watch bands for the Apple Watch, it became clear that it would make sense to invest in something like the SE JT6218 Watch Band Link Pin Tool Kit. In theory, a kit like this would allow me to skip the jeweler or mall watch kiosk and do the same thing myself for a fraction of what it would cost to get just one watch band sized correctly to my wrist by someone else.

Fortunately, the SE JT6218 Watch Band Link Pin Tool Kit delivered. I took the opportunity to do this during some downtime at a family Easter holiday visit and enlisted the help of my father. While you can do this by yourself, it’s definitely good to have someone by your side to help you figure things out.

The kit comes with a dual-head hammer, with one metal side and one nylon side, a watch band holder, and three pin punches of various sizes. While I couldn’t tell which pin punch was which, they’re 0.8, 0.9, and 1.0 mm thickness; at least two of those sizes were definitely needed for the two watch bands I was doing.

The instructions are straightforward, but the actual process is dependent upon the watch band itself. Basically you place the band on the holder, select which link you want to remove, then hammer out the pin. You’ll want to repeat the same process on the other side of the band, so the locking clip is centered on your wrist. In my case, I had to repeat the process on my two bands and remove two links each. After that, the sizing was spot on. Of course, putting the now separated links back together required some more thought – we didn’t even use any of the tools to do that as they just sort of locked back into place themselves – but in the end, it all worked out great.

The only major issue that we ran into was the pins getting stuck on one of the watch bands. We grabbed a pair of pliers and pulled it the rest of the way out. Problem solved, but I suppose that’s one other tool that could have probably been included, or at the very least maybe try and provide pin punches longer than 2 inches, which may have also resolved that particular issue.

My suggestion is to skip the trip out, get this kit, do it yourself, and pocket the extra money you would have otherwise spent. It’s a rewarding experience once you figure it all out.