I recently bought a replacement band for my watch on eBay.
Now, I could just take it to a jeweller and ask them to “install” it but I have too much pride for that. This morning I wandered into a jewellers’ supply shop and bought a tool that has a notch in a flat protrusion on one end, and a pointy thing on the other end.
The problem is that where the band attaches to the watch lugs, the lugs don’t have any little pokey holes in them. So somehow I have to remove the pin with the notch tool thing.
I cut the old band away from one end of the watch to expose the pin and it goes from lug to lug with a sleeve running most of the way along the length of it.
The notched tool just pushes the collar backwards and forwards but does nothing to actually retract either end of the pin.
I’ve always just used a sharp-pointed knife to lever one end of each pin (which is spring-loaded internally) down and out. Never came across a watch band that I couldn’t change this way.
You have to apply pressure to the pin itself, not the sleeve around the pin. I use a mini screwdriver, and push down between the sleeve and the lug, until I hit the pin, then pry it away from the lug.
It’s best to work in an area where you can find the springy thing after it goes flying.
Most watchband pins have a small collar on the springloaded pin sections, where the pin meets the watch lug. This is what most people hook a pin/knife edge/screwdriver on to to compress and remove the pin. I guess your tool (the flat end with a notch) should fit in to that collar, allowing you to easily compress the pin and remove it. Of course, not all pins are made the same, and may require different tools.
You may need to destroy the existing pins, and replace them.