Stiff links in new Seamaster 300M bracelet

Hello,

I just purchased a brand new Seamaster 300M and love it except for one pesky issue. I tend to wear watches on bracelets, but find this watch hurts my wrist after a few hours of wear. After a few days, I believe I've found the culprit - it seems one of the links is extremely stiff and gets locked into position with almost no give:



I've read about this issue occurring with the half links, but never seen anyone have an issue with a non-removable link.

Is there any way to resolve the issue at home, or is a trip to the boutique in order? I've tried to manipulate the link into its full range of motion, but amazingly, that seems to make it even stiffer.

I have the warranty card if it needs to be sent off... hopefully, the OB will let me keep the watch head and only send the bracelet off for repair so I can wear the watch on a NATO.

Thanks!

Kind of like a car engine needing 500-1000 miles break in before being ready to go, that's true for a lot of watch bracelets too (notably, the Rolex Oyster on new models tends to have a squeak when the links rotate as the metal is getting worn down).

I would continue to wear the watch and see if it improves over time. That said, this isn't normal and if it's already been several days of wearing, I would go to the OB.

They should be able to order you a replacement bracelet (unfortunately, that link isn't removable so that entire half of the bracelet would have to be replaced). I would imagine they should be able to do that without needing to send the actual watch in.

Thanks for the advice guys! I never knew this was a normal occurrence. I followed @Scarecrow Boat's advice and ran some warm water over the bracelet and put a small amount of Dawn dish soap in between the crevices of the links. I then manipulated the link through its full range of motion and saw a huge difference after 2-3 goes at it. The links have gone from having almost no range of motion to ~50% of their intended range - more than enough to make a difference in how it lays on my wrist. 👍

I'm not sure if there is any downside to putting Dawn in there, so I plan to let it "break in" naturally from here on out now that it is not physically painful to wear the watch! Appreciate you guys saving me an unplanned trip to the OB.

By the way, on a semi-related note, I understand that Rolex has ceramic sleeves on their bracelet pins (I believe they're intended to prevent bracelet stretch). I wonder- do any modern OMEGA bracelets have ceramic sleeves around their pins, and could it have anything to do with this?

You could go onto Etsy, buy a fake strap, keep the real one and no-one looking at it will know the difference. DHGate no longer sell branded straps. They look identical, but without the branding. The real strap for my PO lasted about 10 years before it fell apart. The first fake one lasted about 4. I wish I had kept the real strap in the safe and just trashed fake ones.