Timex watch dimensions

Jewelry Discussion
1

I am making a cuff bracelet/watch band and don’t want to use the
traditional housing strip/decoration fold over watch mounting
technique mostly used by Native American Silversmiths to mount the
watch. I want to solder silver tubes on the bracelet for the watch
pins to go through and hold the watch on. My question is, does the
standard Timex watch with the leather band that you can buy at
Wal-Mart for $25 ever change in dimensions?

Rick Copeland
Silversmith and Lapidary Artisan
rockymountainwonders.com

2 
My question is, does the standard Timex watch with the leather band
that you can buy at Wal-Mart for $25 ever change in dimensions?

I assume you mean “Do Timex watch bands come in different
dimensions?” The answer is yes. Go to Wal-mart and you will see that
they sell watch bands in various sizes.

Al Balmer
Sun City, AZ

3

Rick,

Watch bands come in MANY different widths. The ones I have seen are
usually in 1mm increments. I’d buy the watch first and work to fit.

Also don’t forget to provide a means of compressing the spring bar or
you will be saying bad words when the battery needs changing. Through
drill a couple of watch lugs or make a short slot in the silver
tubes. Don’t ask, we all have bad days but never forget the lesson
learned.

jeffD
Demand Designs
Analog/Digital Modelling & Goldsmithing
http://www.gmavt.net/~jdemand

4 
I assume you mean "Do Timex watch bands come in different
dimensions?" The answer is yes. Go to Wal-mart and you will see
that they sell watch bands in various sizes.

I guess I should rephrase my question and perhaps make myself
clearer. I’m making the cuff watchband that will outlive many Timex
watch replacements. In at least 30 years I haven’t noticed any
radical changes to Timex basic watch as far as the width of the strap
but since I will be soldering tubes to hold the watch pins in a fixed
position has the basic Timex watch body changed dimensions in terms
of distance between the pins that you know of?

More history if you care to read on…

I have wore a traditional Southwestern style watch band with a short
length of expandable watch band between two silver ends set with
turquoise that attach to the watch. The width of the watch band pins
has not changed in at least 30 years that I have wore such a watch
band. Generally I get about two years out of a Timex before it dies
in the expandable watch band and need to make a change. Of course the
easy solution would be to just get a leather or plastic watch band
but I have found that people remember me at shows for the massive
turquoise bracelet and watch band set with chunks of turquoise I wear
so call it glitz if you will but it’s like a visual calling card in
my opinion. I had one suggestion to replace the expandable piece of
the watchband with a leather watch strap, but then we are talking
about a display of my work here so I don’t really want to go with
that solution.

Rick Copeland
Silversmith and Lapidary Artisan
rockymountainwonders.com

5 
In at least 30 years I haven't noticed any radical changes to Timex
basic watch as far as the width of the strap but since I will be
soldering tubes to hold the watch pins in a fixed position has the
basic Timex watch body changed dimensions in terms of distance
between the pins that you know of?

My guess, if you stay with the same general body size, it won’t
change. They do come in different sizes, though. My wife has an old
Timex with a much narrower band than the one I have.

My suggestion would be to contact Timex and ask them timex.com

Al Balmer
Sun City, AZ

6 
Also don't forget to provide a means of compressing the spring bar
or you will be saying bad words when the battery needs changing.
Through drill a couple of watch lugs or make a short slot in the
silver tubes.

Getting the spring bar out is the easy part. Getting it back in is
where the fun starts. I have tried several methods of mounting a
watch on a cuff with an eye towards ease of dismounting. For me, the
best way sounds like what Rick is trying to avoid, having a tab on
either side that comes up and over the spring bar. The tab just has
to be lifted a bit to allow access the the spring bars.

But the best solution I have found is to use a watch that doesn’t
need to come off for a battery change. I’m a HUGE fan of Citizen
Eco-Drive light-powered watches. When I sell a watch/cuff combo, I
want to minimize the chance that the watch will ever come back to
haunt me. And do you really want to put a Timex on a nice hand-made
cuff anyway?

Allan Mason

7 
a watch that doesn't need to come off for a battery change. I'm a
HUGE fan of Citizen Eco-Drive light-powered watches....

Be very careful with that idea. Yes, from a technical standpoint,
Eco’s do not use a ‘battery’ but they do require periodic replacement
of a capacitor, or a place to store the power it collects from sun.
Instead of a $8-10 battery cost, it will more likely be a 30-50$
capacitor cost. And more, not every place knows how to change
capacitors, and even fewer places stock them. Citizen probably has
all of them in stock, but will probably charge close to hundred
dollar range for the service episode. I stock the topselling 3 or 4
for Citizen Ecos and Seiko Kinetics, but there are actually more like
50 or so different models that I can order.

Citizen says the average life is 15 yrs, but I am seeing a heck of
alot of them come it at average 5-8 yrs old(hard to collect real data
as most people dont remember exactly how long they have owned their
watch). And Citizen will take quite a while for complete turnaround
time. And you sure wouldnt want to send your watch, with a custom
made band on it, into Citizen if you expect to get that band back.
Nowadays Citizen is doing alot of age-prorated replacement deals
rather than service the actual watch you send in. Becoming more
common wioth many brands of watches and other products as well.

Also, I have found that alot of people(average 2-5 a month)
experience a problem from Ecos as a result of wearer error. Too much
time stored in dark drawers, and worn under long shirt/coat sleeves,
so they dont get enough solar exposure. Also many wearers are in
locations where lighting is poor to provide enough energy. There are
tables available that show the amount of time under various lighting
scenarios, of the amount of time needed to recharge fully. Differnt
models/ movement calibres require different amounts of time. Most
rechargable power storage systems have a specific range of the number
of times it can be recharged, just like a cellphone battery, and
eventually it uses up its ability to recharge. Since the watch seldom
gets a ‘full tank’, so to speak, it needs to recharge more often,
hence, uses up faster the number of times that it can be rechargeed.
I believe Citizen means 15 yr capacitor life only if worn in optimum
conditions, which most are not worn anywhere near optimum
conditions, resulting in considerably shorter capacitor life in the
real world than in the lab world testing ground.

In addition to capacitor replacement, Ecos, just like any other
watch with water resistance of any degree, do not stay W/R forever on
its own. It will need rubber gaskets replaced on average every 3 yrs
to maintain even close to its original W/R. There again, most stores,
and jewelry depts do not stock any gaskets at all. I carry about 200
or so sizes in stock. Gaskets are inexpensive($6 av. retail), but a
quality watch will turn into a rustbucket in short time without
periodic gasket replacement. Then you have a nice custom made band
with a watch that no longer works.

Ed

8 
Then you have a nice custom made band with a watch that no longer
works.

That’s why I like Timex watches. They last at least two years then I
go to Wal-Mart and get a new one and replace it in my watch band.
That is why I’m looking for other alternatives to attaching the watch
to the cuff. If I use the traditional Native American way of bending
over a strips of silver that silver is going to fatigue and crack
after a few watch replacements.

BTW. Thanks to Al Balmer’s advice I did send an email to Timex and
their response was not surprising, “Yes their watch dimensions do
change when the styles change.”

Rick Copeland
Silversmith and Lapidary Artisan
rockymountainwonders.com

9

I have a Seiko Kinetic, and when it stoped to work was very hard to
fix it.

The Seiko authorized dealer ( the only one in my state) returned to
me without solving the problem. I had to wait for a trip in USA and
let it in a shop in L.A. that replaced the capacitor…what we supose
to be easyer, almost always just delay the problem and turns it in
bigger and more expensive one.

I miss my childhood when I have to wind up my watch before go to
sleep.

From the sunny tropical Brazil.
Vlad
www.braziliangems.org
www.radudesigns.com