BoR bracelet and endlink adjustment, &c

I’ve recently gone through quite a few BoR bracelets for 166.010- and 166.011-style Seamasters and a couple of Constellation models and wanted to document what I think I know now. I’ve always accepted a fairly rattly bracelet worn loose and louche. Then I ran across a bracelet with #11 endlinks that were squeezed really tight and it fit better than any I’d worn previously. @pdxleaf and I discussed how these endlinks differed from ones I’d had earlier and speculated whether they were even legitimate Omega items. The size is subtly different and the font is obviously cruder than the serifed #11s I’m used to. Now that I know they exist, I see the more crudely stamped #11s in online photos, particularly in Japan, but before my mind would fill in the missing serifs in typical photo resolutions.


I recently bought a beat up 1502 5-row bracelet with #11 endlinks bent out of all shape and looking like crap (should have scrutinized those photos better). After grappling with them with a pair of pliers, it was clear that there’s no problem I can’t, with a little effort and ingenuity, make much worse. But it also seemed to show that the size difference I noted before could easily be a shape difference instead.

I recently picked up my 166.011 from service and the watchmaker mentioned he had adjusted the endlinks for me because he couldn’t bear to look at them (not my handiwork, thankfully). I’m grateful, but in all honesty they still don’t look that swift. The lug shape is more bosomy than your classic sleek 166.010 profile, so it could be that #11s just aren’t a great fit. I’ve since gotten some more appropriate tools and practiced beating up on the previously-mentioned 1502 and its endlinks, and by using a beefy 2mm-diameter spring bar, I’ve almost gotten a less unsightly fit on my 166.010.


166.011 on the left, 166.010 on the right, both on 1502/11 bracelets, neither with a great fit to the endlinks. I feel like I’m getting close with the beat-up practice bracelet—just need to raise that right-hand tip of the lower endlink a bit.

I’d like to hear about best practices with endlink adjustment. I definitely need something to keep from chewing up the endlinks. I was more worried about metal fatigue just causing the endlinks to snap but they seem more resilient than I had expected.

If anyone else has some insight into fitting hollow endlinks to watch cases, I would be grateful to hear.

I’ve never seen #12 or #14 endlinks—you mean they don’t have rolled edges? Every 166.010 I’ve seen on a BoR bracelet has had #11 or #512* endlinks. I’ve seen those endlinks with 166.011s too, but I don’t know if they’re correct for the watch. The lugs are definitely shaped differently.

* Typo; should be #511

I’m also on the lookout for something I can use as a mold or some kind of rubber/silicon sheath for my tools. My endlinks were bent out of all proportion even before I started messing with them. The first photos I shared in the first post look pristine in comparison.

@krogerfoot I recently picked up a 166.011 and am now considering sourcing a bracelet. In your experience, is the 1036 with #11 end links the right way to go?

That’s the combination I used on mine. #511 is the same thing, if you run across that variant.

Edit: I guess I was actually using the 1502 bracelet. There is no difference that I can tell between those two bracelet styles.

Maybe it's my imagination, but putting them next to each other and looking at the links from the side, the links appear to have an ever so slightly different oval shape on the 1036 and 1502. The 8220 is different still, in the way the links meet the clasp. And then there are the bracelets on marked with a big "12" in a circle. But all take the same endlinks, IMO.

@pdxleaf pointed out a similarly subtle difference between variants of the 7-row BoR 1503 and 1037, which I would have never seen in a million years and still can’t discern without a side-by-side comparison (and probably not even then). They certainly look and feel the same to me on the wrist. Part of the fun with these bracelets, in my opinion.