I've had my SMP for about a month now and wear it 16hrs a day. My work as an I.T. professional mean my left wrist rubs on my keyboard tray all day long and I've noticed the scuffing on the buckle and left side of the strap as demonstrated in the photo. I imagine this is normal and there's nothing I can do short of not wearing the strap as a daily driver?

I've ordered a leather strap to replace this one for daily wear...and hopefully mitigate any further damage.

What's everyone else's experience? Is this normal? When I'm willing to pay the price, will it be possible to bring the strap back to almost-new? I'm thinking that Omega logo is a gonner as the years go by...

 

I've rubbed a new green dry Scotchbrite on some clasps before to spiff them up. Just go carefully in the same direction as the original brushing, and mask off the polished areas surrounding where you're working.

Before:




After:




When you're done, maybe a piece of Scotch tape over the clasp will prevent it from happening again. Never tried it though.

 

I wouldn't worry. Wear it down amd enjoy. A new clasp replacement can be had if you really wear the heck out of it. Get the most out of your watch

 

Light scratching is easily fixed at service. I know many love the Scotchbrite pads and similar techniques, but if you are not careful you can make the surfaces uneven pressing with your fingers, and this will make refinishing it properly more work down the road. Wear it, enjoy it, and when it's serviced the bracelet can be refinished - I seem to do a few of these every week...

Cheers, Al

 

Buy a new clasp and keep it for when/if you ever sell the watch. That way you don't have to worry.

 

I had similar things happen with my Seamaster 120 with pretty much the same band - I thought it was cuff links, but it turned out to be one piece of laminate furniture that was scuffing it up (and it essentially takes only one light contact - in that case with a laminate desk in my children's room). Essentially, the best thing to do is to lose the plastic contact surface on your desk/keyboard tray by taping it or replacing it with something else. The stainless on these bracelets is very, very soft - but it is harder than wood, leather, and fabric tape.

You can't easily use Scotch tape or Scotch Brite on the upper part, where it is really more critical to keep the links unscuffed. The links are 9 pieces of metal across in alternating mirror/matte configuration, and absent a trip to Omega in Switzerland (where they tear the whole thing down), the links are very, very difficult to polish properly without careful masking (this is undoubtedly why so many Omegas seem to show up on Ebay with all matte bracelets). The clasp is no problem.

Really, for things like this, learn to live with it until the watch needs to be serviced - and take steps to prevent recurrence.

D

 

While I can't say for certain what Bienne does (I've never been to their service center) I have been to the NJ service center, and during the training there I spent time in the refinishing department. I can tell you for certain that if all they are doing is refinishing the bracelet, they do not disassemble it. If there is severe damage to a link and it's being replaced, then yes, but they don't take it apart to refinish it.

It's not necessary to take it all apart to refinish it, so although they may do this in Bienne it's doubtful as it would be a waste of time. In fact it's pretty easy to refinish the bracelet and bring back to factory condition if you know the correct methods.

Cheers, Al

 

Are you able to do this Al?

 

Refinishing a bracelet? Yes of course - I do these often.

Cheers, Al