Most straps on the market causes stinky wrist syndrome, itchy wrist rash and uncomfortable wearing experience when wearing a watch for long hours.
The main reason for this is because of the poor breathability of straps that staves your skin the oxygen it needs, dirt and grime accumulate when it is in contact with your skin and it is inconvenient to clean your watch strap regularly.
Here’s why most traditional straps are problematic after long usage:
Leather Straps
I realized that leather straps are not as durable as it seems after repeated use. It can get torn and worn out after awhile.
A rotting cheesy smell can be left on the strap if it’s not cleaned regularly and fungus can grow on it if it’s not maintained.
Metal Bracelets
I thought of upgrading to a metal bracelet but I just didn’t like how it bangs against my laptop when I work.
The base of the bracelet gets scratched easily when it comes into contact with the desk top causing desk rash on the buckle surface after long use.
Plus I have a hairy wrist and the metal bracelet nips on the hair of my wrist whenever I wear it which is annoying.
Wearing the metal bracelet too long would cause both an itch and rash because of dirt and grime stuck in between the grooves of the bracelet and clasp.
Silicon Straps
Silicon straps makes my skin starved of oxygen after long usage and nobody wears a silicon strap on a Rolex.
I saw how others with silicon straps are broken after not wearing for a period of time. Some silicon or rubber straps ‘dry up’ and become brittle over time.
So it was a big NO for me.
So here’s a sobering thought:
Would you wear the same underwear for a month without washing?
Why would someone do the same to their wrist with a dirty watch strap that have not been cleaned for months or worse…. a year?
The only watch straps that made sense were fabric straps allows me to switch out the old straps for new like how I would switch out an old underwear to a new one.
No more itchy wrist, funky smells and enduring disgusted looks from others while they hold their breath around me.
After deciding that the simple fabric strap has many unfair advantage over all other straps, I went to amazon and e-bay to find a suitable strap. When I saw the reviews of these highly recommended fabric straps, I was shocked by what I read and how poorly designed these straps are…
Would you compromise your watch for just $14.99?
This top selling strap on amazon uses only super glue to hold their straps together instead of stitching it to save on labor and material cost. This is a design failure because when the glue weakens over time, the watch safety is compromised.
They claimed their hardware is sturdy but look at the keeper ring on this strap…
The rings gets bend out of shape when it got shipped over to a customer. They used cheap materials and lousy metal alloys that cannot maintain it’s shape when under pressure.
Weak Buckle = Higher Risk Of Loosing/Damaging Watch
If the springbar is holding both the clasp and the fabric strap at the same time, this adds a lot of stress to the spring bar and makes the springbar gets out of shape easily.
When the buckle’s springbar goes out of shape or breaks, I hope your watch does not get damage or worse… goes missing.
This happened to an amazon buyer of the bond strap with a single spring bar installed on to the buckle.
Bottom line: One could easily lose an expensive wrist watch with a weak buckle
Holes are poorly welded – fallen apart after 3 days!
The holes in this particular strap on Amazon have no welding. The main hole has been frayed badly and the other holes adjacent are completely without any heat welding.
This was reported by Amazon’s customers after using this particular cheap strap repeatedly after 3 days. What a waste of money!
I was disappointed with the quality and the poor design by these “Highly Recommended” fabric watch straps on amazon and e-bay.
When I looked at the higher end branded fabric strap…
It cost $295 for a quality fabric strap!
OUCH!
I rather spend that money on a new watch instead.
By using my architectural training, would I be able to create a new strap that solves all my problems by eliminating all the design flaws of these cheap straps and make it affordable by tweaking it?
I was able to take the best of each type strap and put it into 1 strap where it can have:
- The durability and toughness of a metal bracelet yet leaving no scratch marks on it.
- The flexibility and classiness of a leather strap without the smell and itch caused after long hours of usage.
- The ease of cleaning and all weather usage (regardless of rain/shine) with a silicon strap.
- The breathability, the failsafe design and ease of switching to another strap like a NATO fabric strap.
I took out my sketchpad and started identifying the flaws, eliminating excess and made design improvements to the common NATO fabric strap.