Bergeon 5700Z and Accessories

An overview of this very robust and professional case back opener. The ofrei.com website says "Every workshop should have one". After having used mine quite a bit, I fully agree. These ca. USD 350 to USD 600 (including accessories) are well worth investing. And I would again buy it. After all, it is only a "Poor Man's" watch equivalent. It is not only that one can open case backs easier, it is also the stress reduction. I was always quite horrified of slipping off with one of the hand-held openers and that stress multiplied if I had to open someone else's watch.
All bits on the wooden rack come basically with the standard opener package. The sledge (see the separate page) and the parts in the typical Bergeon yellow boxes are optional. The 6 suctions pads on the right e.g. are pretty expensive, USD 125 (import taxes and a hefty profit of Ruang Thong Basar, short RTB, Soi Chidlom, Bangkok not to be confused with the shop in Soi Texas which normally has better prices) but again, if you have a 18 K gold watch with screwed back and no slots or grooves on the back, you want to have those too.
The white case holding jaws (I simply call them lug bits, since they grab the watch between the lugs) in the left most box are for lugs that are covered by the case, as it was quite common for 70ies watches, e.g. many 70ies Seiko Diver's have those covered lugs.
There are a lot more accessories available for the very versatile 5700Z opener and if you have Bergeon Rolex openers, there will be an adapter available too.

Prices vary
Look around before you buy the tool. I found the prices vary a lot. Ruang Thong Basar near World Trade Center in Bangkok wants THB 17'100 for the base configuration without any accessories, ca. USD 430. Ruang Thai Basar (yes, I know the name is close) at Soi Paodung or easier Soi Texas sells the same configuration for THB 15'000 (ca. USD 375). Nam Hing Watch parts in Hong Kong would have sold it to me for HKD 2100 or USD 270. Unfortunately I found out only after I bought and of course, carrying the huge box back would not have been too much fun either.