Nope, I haven't yet opened any watch yet. I do need to make that jump with the number of watches I've hoarded.
I haven't even sized a watch yet, all my bracelet watches are unsized, I keep postponing resizing. And yet I keep buying watches...
I have a sickness
LOL, it's a grand sickness though, ain't it?! My first battery attempt was such a debacle -- I didn't know the retaining clasp was under pressure and it shot out into the air, and I spent the next few hours with a tactical flashlight trying to find it, LOL. Like an addict crawling around on the floor, yikes. Now, I've managed a few batteries, and even opened up some cases for cleaning, although not because I wanted to. I'll be mentioning that in some future posts on two watches I bought recently.
A basic bracelet kit is certainly worth it, and you'll enjoy it. I'm too impatient to own a watch I can't wear. Plus, it feels good to work on a watch, for me, even in that most basic capacity. I don't have to pay a jeweler either, which is nice.
There were a few I didn't want to mess with, so I did take them to a shop with the real set up and professional grade tools. I bought my Breitling on a strap, so that one went to a jeweler to change over to the Professional 3 bracelet, which I bought separately, since there were no bracelet models for sale anywhere in the model I wanted, at that time. Oddly, they use different spring bars, strap vs. bracelet.
Pin and collar, for me, are the most frustrating. Most pleasant has been the Zelos bracelets with screws. The vast majority have just been the simple cotter pins you knock out. Aragon, by the way, sells a very inexpensive but (for my use, at least) excellent pin pusher. That, one of those little hammers and a bracelet cradle, and it's a good start for a lot of bracelets (depending on the brand, of course, and what holds the links together).