Hey gang,

I received a strap not long ago that had these spring bars.



Do people use these? They seem very convenient, but can they be removed more easily with that little pin/handle? Is that a risk?

Cheers!

 

Speidels from Walmart have these. Don't bother me except knowing that they are attached to a $5.99 strap.

 

The strap these came with was a freebie, tossed in with a watch... no issues with them catching a shirt cuff and popping off or something?

 

I think they're generally recognized as safe (GRAS). I believe they are referred to as quick change springbars. Usually the strap is notched to accommodate them, otherwise I'd probably put them on more straps.

 

Those come on the wiThings smart watch straps...

 

I have one strap that came with them and haven't had any issues (knock on wood) in over a year of use. Be sure to check and make sure the "handles" don't rub against the case in between the lugs on watches with tight clearance though. Also, FWIW, I know a lot of the Nomos straps come with them now too.

 

those spring pins are a darn good idea

 

LMAO!

 

The 1506 on my Seamaster 164.025 came with a very old, and solid pair of these.

 

My son's Christopher Ward C11 Rapide (chronograph style) has those kind of spring bars on it (OEM bars). They are fine when the strap is designed for them. Personally, they seem like a solution in search of a problem. I don't care for them.

 

Back in the day, pre-Swatch Omegas used this type of spring bar, a lot. Don't see them some much any more, and certainly, not on any newer Omegas I've seen over decades.

 

F. P. Journe uses similar, but curved, spring bars. The handles allow to easily change the straps which are mounted very tightly.



Cheers,

Mick

 

The Hamilton Jazzmaster Seaview I got for my daughter for Christmas has them on both the steel bracelet and leather strap. Seems very secure.

 

Lickin' the toads again, Steve?

 

Here they are on Ofrei.
http://www.ofrei.com/page654.html
They are called Lock-tite

 

I was going to start a new thread asking if anyone knows if these type of spring bars were originally used by Omega in the 1960s but it seems that has already been answered (more or less).

Anyway, I decided to dismantle my 1040 Bricks bracelet today to give it a clean; well actually I was just plain curious to see how everything fits together, which is engineer parlance for taking it apart. What I discovered was quite interesting (if you're a WIS).

My bracelet was held onto the watch head with what Otto Frei call Gimmick Bars. Although mine look more like something dredged up from the ocean floor after 40 years...so they might be original. Despite the poor condition they were actually pretty easy to use; much easier than the things on my Globemaster.


So
Question1: were these things really used by Omega as original equipment or do you think someone swapped them to the above type at a later date?

Question 2: What are folks thoughts on using these? Buy new ones or a similar type (I couldn't see any 19mm ones on Otto Frei's website) or replace them with more conventional Spring bars, which ones? The bracelet is on a '69 Constellation C Case 168.019 with 518 end links.

The bracelet centre links looked like they had some sort of Bakelite insert to guide to link pins. I'd never seen something like that before so I gave 'em a poke with a pin. Ha! that was just 40-year-old compacted crud. So the previous trips to the ultrasonic tank obviously had no significant cleaning effect. What worked very nicely though was concentrated drain cleaner plus boiling water (I'll probably get some stick for that).

I can also confirm (for anyone that's interested) that the extension links are held in place by short spring bars that are compressed via holes in the outer link pieces. These also look a bit rough, if functional, so I guess I'm going to have to track down a bag of replacements.


Question 3: Does anyone know if these extension link spring bars are still available and if so what is the correct part number? I fear that the ones quoted by Omega are for their generic replacement bracelet which is somewhat different to the original 1040 Bricks bracelet.

Cheers

Longbow.

 

Yes they were, and in some cases are still used by Omega. Here is a pair that I ordered from Omega for a 70's Geneve I'm working on now with an integrated style bracelet...

Not a fan personally, at least when used on bracelets. If used on a strap that has a slot cut in it for the handle to come through, they are okay, but if used on a bracelet they can turn on you inside the end link, so you can't easily get at the little handle. Also, when the end link is packed with body cheese and other debris, sometimes you can even see the little handle, and sometimes the bar gets seized up and that little handle can't take the forces required to retract the bar - this makes them very difficult to get out in certain instances...

Where possible I would just use regular spring bars personally.

You don't list the full bracelet part number, but the 1040 19 mm bracelet lists part #068ST9967 for the spring bars for the links, but there's no way to tell if they will work on the older bracelet. You could get some to try I guess...

Cheers, Al

 

We'd have to ask Yinzerniner, but I have seen more of them in the newest Omega watches at the OB. Maybe this is a repeating trend coming?

 

That's exactly what happened to me. One of the spring bars was correctly aligned, the other was rotated so that the tip of the lever was pointing into the end link instead of through the end link slot, but I managed to fish it out with a plastic hook from my Swiss Army Knife Cybertool.


I don't know the correct full bracelet part number, but the replacement that Omega Customer services quoted was 020ST3011518, so I guess my old 1040 would be xxxST1040518. Not sure what should be in the xxx position.
On Otto Frei the bracelet comes up as 020ST1030000 but that is a completely different BOR style bracelet.
I did find this image, but I am guessing that the part number is for the link and bar not just the bar itself.