It looks like the hands are so easy and light, until you try them! Then a bunch of things happen at once! The hour hand isn’t level, the minute hand isn’t deep enough, the seconds hand won’t seat evenly, or the dial is scratchable. Hand setting is one of the first lessons learned when starting at the watch bench!
The problem begins when things are small in size! Although it might look flat to a person, it has dimensions under the loupe! There are heights and openings for the pinions! You could be too close to the center, which results in the hands setting on a slight angle! If you press too hard, you’re crushing them and decreasing the height between hand-to-dial and hand-to-hand. You could also have too little pressure and the hands won’t set, resulting in a setting that looks okay when there is one!
Before putting hands on your work, you can do a little dial practice to get the sense of feeling. Put the movement in a movement holder and place the dial on your work surface! Pick up the hands over the dial and see if your hand or movement is blocking your sight! Try picking up hands without putting them onto the dial! Let go of your tweezers and pick them back up with no pressure! Do this several times to see where your hand is, if you’re squeezing too much or pressing too little, and where your tool is positioned!
Another common problem beginners have is that you can see the hand from only one side! If you’re placing the hand from a top view, it might look okay but when viewing from the side you will see the hands are angled or not as high as you’d like! After placing a few hands, rotate the movement in the movement holder to see how high the hands are! Look under the loupe to determine what the hand gap will look like under the loupe between dial-to-hand and hand-to-hand!
As with all things, there will be times and places to go faster! With a movement that has multiple hands, one should always place the hour hand first as this hand is lower on the post, followed by the minutes hand, with the seconds being the third hand to add. Rushing this may end up with you placing a hand that will interfere with the next hand to be placed. Always take the time to move a hand around to see how it will look!
The right tools should make things easier to do! Using the right hand-setting tool makes it easier to press and not damage the tube on the dial! Tweezers should hold your hands, not be the ones pressing! Using finger cot or gloves can be great for a clean surface, but you might not see it when first doing it! A dust blower is always good to have to get dust off of hands that get stuck under the tube of a dial!
A sign of progression is not the speed in which you work, but the speed in which you take a second to look at things before applying pressure! You should be looking for hands not in the middle or touching the dial! Hands placed should not touch and look level when viewing under a loupe! Your watch bench will let you know when everything is feeling right!