How Do You Open The Back Of A Watch?

Most of the information crucial to identifying a particular pocket watch is inscribed on the watch movement [the "works"]. Different watches allow you to see the movement in different ways, however, and if you don't realize how your watch opens up you can damage it.

Pry Off -- On many watches the back cover simply pries open. Sometimes there is an inner "dust" cover which also pries open to expose the movement. Often, you will be able to see a hinge on the back, which indicates that the cover opens this way, but occasionally the cover will just pop off. You can usually pry off the cover with a thumbnail or a razor blade [I use the small blade on my Swiss army knife], but if you are having difficulty make sure that the cover really does pry off before you break something! If the cover does pry off, there will often be a small indentation or "lip" where the blade or thumbnail can be inserted, and if you can't find any sign of a lip, it may not be a pry off cover....

Screw Off -- Surprise! Some back covers simply screw off, a fact I learned after unsuccessfully trying to pry off the back cover on one of my first watches. If you can't pry the cover off, try unscrewing it in a counter clockwise direction.

Swing Out -- Some watches don't have a back cover, or else the back cover only exposes the inner dust cover and not the movement. These are usually swing out cases which open from the front. To open a swing out case, you need to first take off the front crystal [it's usually hinged and pries off or else needs to be unscrewed]. If it's a stem wind watch, you will then probably need to carefully pull on the winding stem until you hear a soft click. The movement should then swing out from the bottom, while remaining attached to the case via a hinge at the top. If it's a key wind watch, instead of pulling on the stem you will probably need to press in a tiny catch at the base of the dial near the 6.

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