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Change a Watch Buckle How-To
Note: The watch straps used in this example are oiled leather padded
watch straps.
If you have a buckle on your watch strap that is a different colour to that which is desired, you may be required to separately
obtain a buckle and change it over. For example, you may have a watch strap that has a chrome buckle, and you may wish to change
it for a gilt-coloured buckle. In this example, we will be doing exactly that.
We are going to swap these two buckles over, so that in the end, we have the chrome buckle on the brown watch strap, and the gilt
buckle on the black watch strap.
Changing a watch buckle is much the same as changing a normal watch strap, the process
of which was explained on the changing a normal watch strap page. Again, you will need
either a spring bar removal tool, which you can
buy by clicking on the link,
or a small, flat-bladed screw-driver.
As with changing a watch strap, start off by inserting the forked end of the spring bar tool underneath one side of the
buckle, as shown:
Then compress the spring bar by pushing down on it, like so:
Now slide the spring bar out from underneath the buckle. Now that you have removed one end, the other side can be removed
easily.
After this, use the pointed end of the spring bar removal tool to push the spring bar out of the strap.
Remove the keeper from the notch in the strap and place all the parts together.
Now do the same with the other buckle, in this case, the gilt one. Once you have finished, you should have two straps
without buckles, and all the parts that you have removed.
To begin reattaching the buckle, firstly place the correct keeper into the notch in the correct watch strap (in this example
we will be placing the gilt keeper into the black watch strap), ensuring that it is the right way up. Insert the spring
bar and secure the keeper.
Push the spring bar all the way into the watch strap. When you have done this, you might like to swivel the keeper back so
that it doesn't get in the way or accidentally get put on the wrong side of the buckle. Get the matching buckle piece, and,
again, ensuring that it is the right way round and the keeper is on the correct side of it, insert the bottom of the spring
bar into the small indent on the inside of the buckle, as shown:
Now use the spring bar removal tool's forked end to compress the top of the spring bar and slide the other end of the buckle
on top, like so:
When the buckle is over the spring bar, wiggle it until it clips into the other indent. The buckle should now be fitted
securely to your watch strap.
We repeated this process, attaching the other buckle to the brown strap. Now we have a gilt buckle on the black strap and
a chrome buckle on the brown strap - the opposite of before.
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