Hi guys,
I've recently bought an Omega Constellation with beads of rice bracelet (1503).
However I need to remove a few links so it suits my wrist size (6.1 inch).
Can I please have some recommendation of where this can be done professionally?
I'm based in Melbourne, Australia.
Thank you so much.

 

Hi Kyle, welcome here on Omega Forums!
Removing links from a 1503 is quite easy, you could do it yourself.
If you don't want to do this yourself, you can give it to every watchmaker you like.
No special skills are necessary.
Don't forget to post pictures of your watch (if you like)

EDIT: Usually those braclets are DIRTY (not visible at first sight, the dirt is within the elements)
If you give it to a watchmaker let it be cleaned also (not polished)
Of course you also could do the cleaning yourself

 

Agreed with doing it yourself. As an added bonus, you'll get some comfort in knowing that you can do a lot of common watch repairs/update yourself. You can't hurt anything (well, except maybe a scratch) when working on the band. Tape it up with camera tape before you start until you get used to working with small parts.

 

Adding to this, if you have an ultrasonic cleaner, they have worked very well for me in the past. The Chinese ones are pretty cheap these days too.

 

BTW: Before removing links, did you check the clasp adjustment?

You can shorten the bracelet about more than 2 cms by moving the springbar at the clasp to this position

 

Good point, and you can do it with nothing more than a paperclip too.

 

Thank you guys, much appreciated!
I will try to do myself and post a few photos (if a good result comes out..).

 

If you should need further assistance you can send me a PM

 

That was very kind of you! Much appreciated

 

I also have a query on the BoR bracelets. I've taken mine apart and noticed the bracelet is assembled with shoulderless spring bars circa 7mm. However I took the watch down to the local watch store they told me that the spring bars may have replaced original split pins. Can any one shed light on this? Originally came with spring bars or split pins?

 

All Bors I have seen so far came with springbars as far as the removable links are concerned.

I'm not shure if I got your point correctly, please add a pic

 

Same here.

Chris

 

I had a quick look at shortening one of mine but I can't figure it out...are those pins pressure fit or unscrewable?
Does anyone have any pictures of the process? Or is it so simple that no-one ever thought to document it?

 

Pins are pressure fit, just press and turn the turnable upper part of the element...

 

Pictures would be a wonderful addition here...

 

Here some pictures.
1.) Push the springbar in and move the outher link, until the springbar pops out.
2.) Push the springbar from the other side out.
3.) Readjust

Sorry if I always did it wrong.

 

Hi KingChrouchy, nice write up!

I also did some pictures myself before I saw your post, so here they are:

There must be at least two special links if you want to remove one, the other will stay in place.

As pointed out before you sometimes have 50 years of dirt on those bracelets,
if the springbars doesn't move when pressing just drop a little WD-40 in the hole

When you put it together again be careful not to have the slit-side of the rice elements on the outer side of the bracelet!

 

Thanks for that, it worked perfectly!

 

Just to make it easier, hopefully, put this in one of those watch bracelet blocks to knock the pin out. It makes it much easier. There are kits out there for the bracelet stuff which make it easy. Springbar is not the same as bracelet pin.

 

Hi guys,
I got the watch today, apparently the bracelet is too big and my wrist size is 6inch, therefore I have to remove around 6 links in total (3 from each side) to be able to fit my wrist. However I can only see 5 links that have holes (as in the photo).
Does it mean that I cannot resize this bracelet myself? I assume to remove more links I have to break the rice beads?