Black Oyster PVD coated metal bracelet on Traser P6506

[MikoDel]

Black Oyster PVD coated metal bracelet on Traser P6506

Just had to share my frustration dealing with this metal "Oyster" style watchband. After all the trouble, I'm thinking it looks nice enough on the Traser Commander that maybe it was worth it.

I got it from debeerwatchbands.com. Paid almost $60, with "free" shipping, ha! It is sold under the pretense of being a 22mm black metal link band, but upon delivery I realized it is a rather skinny 16mm band with various sized pairs of both straight and curved hollow end links that adapt to fit a watch up to 22mm. But the end links have some kind of crazy prongs sticking out that can't be bent out of the way, making the band useless in stock trim for both the Tawatec and the Traser I tried. I just saw it tonite at globalwatchband.com, for $41 shpg. incl. They are selling it branded "Hadley Roma".

So I had to use a Dremel to cut and then grind away the prongs. I tried this first on my Tawatec EO Diver. Problem was, once the prongs were gone, the very pointy curved end links rotated up and the top of the watch became like a scorpion! This can't happen with the Traser because the titanium case has a "shelf" built into it where the band meets, curved on top (the part you see) but machined flat and recessed underneath. But they could rotate down, possibly };-\

So I cut and ground two more, the sraight ones this time, for the Traser P6506. I even had to drag one of the Dremel grit bits over the inside edges of the folding clasp where it was stamped. Sharp enough to cut you for sure.

Anyway, my friend has this tattoo, he says in Chinese it means "... to fight, to desperately struggle." And trying to get the pins to finally snap into place, that's how I felt. Even after all the grinding and deburring, it took me maybe a good 20 mins just to clip them in. I had to gently bend one straight end link in a slight arc to get it to fit with the pin. Any other band I can do in probably under 60 sec. This thing is just a pain in my ass. Same thing when I was attaching to the Tawatec. A mother of a hassle, and that was with different, curved end links. I have a dispute logged with PayPal. Maybe this guy Gary at DeBeer will be nice and refund me some cash to make it more fair.

I just like a metal band so much sometimes. But this one is pretty poor quality. The black "PVD" coating can be rubbed off with finger pressure. It's already showing a gold-ish tone on the underside. No way if I was wearing this Traser outside for tree work or anything rugged would I use this band. It's given me such a hard time so far, I can't believe anything other than disappointment awaits should I push my luck.

I also attached a pic of a black 22mm band I found on Amazon tonite, Momentum ZC-22STO. This one is different, definitely not the same. If I had seen this first, no question I would have chosen it based on the SEL's alone, not to mention the width.

[vanwag]

That's a really old Dremel.

[sharbatgula]

Hi MikoDel,

Thank you for sharing your experience with the DeBeer bracelet. I was about to order this bracelet but I accidentally headed to your post. I'm looking for a black matte (or satin) finished bracelet to fit my CK Bold with 22mm curved endings. I'm worried for two things and the first is the wearing of the black coating and the second thing is will the bracelet fit the lugs on the CK bold. I would buy the Momentum bracelet which is quite expensive, so please let me know if that one wears and if possible the dimensions of the rounded end-pieces of the Momentum bracelet, i.e. distance from the needle hole to the "horn" of the piece plus the thickness of the thickest part of the end-piece. I love how it looks and if the dimensions are OK and the coating is resistant I would not be sorry for the 100 bucks it costs.

[momentumwatch]

The PVD coating is quite strong, but will scratch off, seems to hold up pretty well to rubbing (at least on the one I have, but I'm not that hard on my watches).

[sharbatgula]

Hi,

Thanks for your feedback. Would you share the dimensions of the rounded end-piece.

[momentumwatch]

We are closed for holiday here in Canada today. Will see if I can dig up this for you when I get back in the office.

[momentumwatch]

We are closed for holiday here in Canada today. Will see if I can dig up this for you when I get back in the office.

If you PM your email address I can send along the drawings with the dimensions.

[sharbatgula]

Hi momentumwatch,

I PMed my e-mail address. Did you get the message?

[Flightpath]

Hi,

nice to see some 'home improvements' being done, looks like all of us buy things and then find it cheaper somewhere else, I end up with too many watch related things partly because of that!

The titanium Trasers are made to be nice and light, I'm guessing the band weighs as much as the watch itself. I bought a Stainless Hadley Roma band for my Glycine Combat Sub but it's very heavy and I don't use it.

I've just bought a titanium band to fit to my Seiko titanium diver, it looks nice and does not add much weight overall.

cheers,

-John