Post by ausimax on Apr 30, 2018 19:19:02 GMT -8
A year ago I purchased a Bellmatic, in good going order, it has a GP case in good condition, however the bracelet was a disaster area with about 40% of the plating missing and every time you touched it was like a gold snowstorm.
The problem in this case being it was an integrated bracelet, no simple swap of a leather band or other bracelet, so started the search for a replacement, now these type bracelets NOS in stainless steel cost a small fortune - if you can find one, in gold plate they may as well be made of unobtainium.
So now my attention turned to the fact that surgery would be necessary, so I started looking for likely organ donors in gold tone finish, I purchased several specimens that may have had possibilities, and ended up settling on this one.
The main considerations were the width at the fitting end had to be 22mm to match the watch case and the centre link had to be 9.8 mm to match the original bracelet, now I wasn’t able to get a tapered bracelet but I figured the a Bell is hefty enough to get away with a wide bracelet.
So to surgery, first I cut through the centre links of the original at the marked lines in the photo, the in the remaining solid link I cut the outer pin out and gripped either end of the link with pliers and twisted till the other pin broke, this left me with just the centre link.
I was fortunate that the end fitting of the new bracelet fitted into the centre link was fastened by a removable pin.
So the stage is set for the marriage, the centre link was the exact width to fit - slide together and insert the pin
The end result, not a perfect colour match but barely noticeable under normal conditions.
And the obligatory wrist shot.
Actually for a cheap Chinese bracelet these are a good solid link and the polished parts of the centre link are actually narrow links.
The stainless steel version of this bracelet would also work for the many SS cases with this type of fitting, in those the end fitting would only need to be cut to the width of the centre link to make it fit as most of these type Seiko have a 10mm fitting.
if you are looking- eBay # 263116469399
The problem in this case being it was an integrated bracelet, no simple swap of a leather band or other bracelet, so started the search for a replacement, now these type bracelets NOS in stainless steel cost a small fortune - if you can find one, in gold plate they may as well be made of unobtainium.
So now my attention turned to the fact that surgery would be necessary, so I started looking for likely organ donors in gold tone finish, I purchased several specimens that may have had possibilities, and ended up settling on this one.
The main considerations were the width at the fitting end had to be 22mm to match the watch case and the centre link had to be 9.8 mm to match the original bracelet, now I wasn’t able to get a tapered bracelet but I figured the a Bell is hefty enough to get away with a wide bracelet.
So to surgery, first I cut through the centre links of the original at the marked lines in the photo, the in the remaining solid link I cut the outer pin out and gripped either end of the link with pliers and twisted till the other pin broke, this left me with just the centre link.
I was fortunate that the end fitting of the new bracelet fitted into the centre link was fastened by a removable pin.
So the stage is set for the marriage, the centre link was the exact width to fit - slide together and insert the pin
The end result, not a perfect colour match but barely noticeable under normal conditions.
And the obligatory wrist shot.
Actually for a cheap Chinese bracelet these are a good solid link and the polished parts of the centre link are actually narrow links.
The stainless steel version of this bracelet would also work for the many SS cases with this type of fitting, in those the end fitting would only need to be cut to the width of the centre link to make it fit as most of these type Seiko have a 10mm fitting.
if you are looking- eBay # 263116469399
