How To Remove A Watch Strap And Replace It For A New One | Beginners Guide

To remove and change your watch strap, you’ll need a few key things.

The watch with an existing strap
The replacement strap
A soft surface, such as a cloth, t-shirt or mousemat

Depending on your strap you may also need:

A spring bar tool
An alternative sharply pointed object
Springbars

HOW TO REMOVE A WATCH STRAP:

1. Place your watch down onto the soft surface, for this, I’ll be using this large mousemat. This is to prevent your watch from getting scratched or damaged.

2. Start by analysing the type of strap you currently have fitted to your watch. Many modern leather straps come with quick-release tabs built into their construction. If so, these will be located on the underside of your strap, near to the watch case. With these, all you need to do is push the small lever in a downwards direction, away from the nearest lug. This will easily release the strap from the watch.

3. If your existing straps don’t feature these, have a look for drilled lugs. These are small holes machined into the lugs extending from the main watch case. You can use a narrow, sharp object to prise the spring bar and strap out from between the lugs. When using this method, be careful that the resultant recoil doesn’t fire the spring bar across the room.

4. If neither are present, your best bet will be to utilise a spring bar tool. You can grab these individually or as part of a watch repair kit on Amazon. These tools come with a v-shaped point that we can use to compress the spring bar and remove them. For this, you’ll need to locate the ridged ‘shoulder’ of your spring bar, usually on the right side of the strap, as you look at it from the rear. Stick the forked end of your tool in there, pushing down on the ridge to compress the spring bar, until it’s released from the lugs.

SO, THAT’S HOW TO REMOVE ALMOST ALL STRAPS FROM YOUR WATCH. HOW DO YOU REPLACE THE WATCH STRAP?

Well, ensure your replacement strap or bracelet is of the correct size. There are two ways you can do this. Firstly, you can use some callipers to physically measure the size of the space between the lugs. If you don’t have this, you can use a ruler or look up the lug width of your watch online. Watchbands typically come in even sizes, with 18, 20 and 22mm being common options, though some can differ. Ensure you buy a replacement strap and springbar that matches this size.

If this replacement strap has the quick-release bars, you can easily compress them using the lever and slot them into place one end at a time. Slot the first side into the lug pinhole and use that as a pivot point. Then manoeuvre the other end into place, ensuring that the spring bar clicks into the lug pinhole. Give the strap a quick wiggle to check it’s in place.

If the replacement strap lacks this feature, you’ll need that spring bar tool again. Rather than compressing the spring bar using the lever, you just need to use the forked end of your tool instead. Slot one end into place, then find the ridged shoulder of the spring bar and use the tool to compress it to the right size. It might take a bit of wiggling, but the spring bar should then snap into place, with a distinct click.

This is the stage where you’re most likely to scratch the lugs, so take your time and be careful.

If you’re a real beginner to watches, and you just have a normal 2-piece leather strap or mesh band, ensure you’ve got the short end attached to the top of your watch; otherwise, your watch will look rather strange.

If you have a metal bracelet and are looking to adjust the links to fit your wrist, I’ll be releasing a post on that very soon.