Watch Wednesday (12/10/14)

In late October I sold a vintage watch on eBay for about three times what I'd paid for it back in 2003 or so, well above what I was expecting to get. I wish I had more old watches that were that valuable (a couple might be, but I don't want to sell them).

Anyway, I didn't splurge on anything (besides rent), but I'd happened to spot a watch on the Timex website that I liked, and being me I figured I could find one for less on eBay. I did, and it only took a couple of days. It was all of $25. (It's $44 on the Timex website.)

It's from their Expedition series but it struck me as a nice variation on the military-style watches that have been popular for the past five years or so. You know, like the Timexes that J. Crew used to sell for $150 (and have since lowered to a still-too-hgh $98). Then Timex came out with the Weekenders on one-piece nylon straps that you can get for about $35 at Target, and those are okay, but they aren't especially rugged and don't have a date function.

This watch is beefier. At 40 mm diameter it's a better size for my wrist, and its case has more heft to it. It just feels more sturdy. I also liked the matte finish case in a gunmetal color, a bit different from the usual silver. (This watch is also available in a matte silver case with the black dial and a white second hand, or a matte black case with a beige dial and black hands.)

I do not love yellow, so I do not love the yellow second hand, but I do like that it's a different color than the rest of the watch's markings—contrast is better, that's another reason why I didn't want the silver-case version. Timex makes other watches that use this same shape second hand in other colors, like orange and red. If I could come across one of those cheaply enough, I might consider having the hand switched out. (Yes, I do tend to get somewhat carried away with this stuff...)

Of course, I had to change the strap. It came with a two-piece version of a nylon NATO strap in olive green. (In case anyone's wondering, the beige-faced version comes on a brown strap and the silver case version on a tan strap.) It was a little long for my wrist, and didn't feel substantial enough for the watch it was on. I first tried one of the kind that looks like carbon fiber but is actually leather, but it was so stiff that even after I'd shaped it to my wrist it was too uncomfortable to wear. The strap in this photo is from a site called Crown & Buckle that sells plenty of NATO straps at pretty reasonable prices, and also carries leather straps that they make, or have made for them.

This one is a fabric that resembles canvas; I've also seen this type of fabric described as sailcloth. The back is leather, it's about 4 mm thick and is soft and sort of squishy. I think it goes well with the overall rugged appearance of the watch. I might at some point put this watch on a tan leather strap with white contrast stitching, because I think that would look good too.

(Side note: all the time I was doing this watch feature regularly, I struggled to take photos that were close enough to show the details of the watch faces and still in focus. It wasn't until a couple of months ago, when I was preparing the eBay listing for the vintage watch, that I finally realized that as long as it's in focus, an image can be made to appear larger and closer-up by cropping it, which I've done here.)

Watch Wednesday Upgrade Update: Another Strap Change

Over a decade ago I acquired a Tudor Ranger watch from the 1960s, which I've featured here. I bought a black strap for it because the dial is black and black is always kind of my default choice for straps.

Then a couple of months ago Tudor, which has been raiding its archives for reissues, introduced a new version of the Ranger. The case is somewhat larger, but its look maintains clearly linked to my older version of the watch.

The new watch is available on a metal bracelet or a couple of different leather straps (which you can see here—scroll down to the second photo), and when I saw the photos from the watch's introduction I realized that it looked really good on a brown leather strap, and my watch probably would as well.

The catch with older Tudor (and Rolex) watches is, the case lug width is 19 millimeters, which is a hard size to find straps for. And some of them taper down to a 16 mm buckle, which makes the ends of the strap look too narrow. I couldn't find one with contrast stitching like the new Rangers come with, and ultimately I ended up purchasing the same brand and style of strap as I already had on the watch, just in brown instead of black, but that's okay.

Once again I think my camera isn't doing a good job of capturing the strap's color, which is a slightly richer shade of brown that is not coming through here, but it was a good reminder for me that I shouldn't automatically choose black straps for all my watches.

Watch Wednesday Follow-Up: In Need of Service

A little over a year ago I bought a Seiko solar chronograph as a "treat myself" bonus for shoveling a lot of snow last winter. I really liked the watch and wore it a lot. In fact, it became pretty much my #1 everyday choice.

A couple of months ago I noticed that the watch had stopped. This was surprising, since it's powered by light and I always leave it where it's exposed to plenty. Holding it up to a light bulb got it going again, and everything was fine. But it kept happening, and finally a couple of weeks ago it stopped and wouldn't restart at all.

The watch came with a three-year warranty, but obtaining service requires sending the watch to Seiko's only US service facility in New Jersey, so off it will go. I hope it can be fixed.

Watch Wednesday Follow-Up: The Departed

Over the years I've been writing this blog, I have posted around three dozen watches in my Watch Wednesday series, and that's only counting ones that I own, or owned. (I didn't know the exact number, so I had to go back and count the posts.) Over time I decided to sell a few of them, and there were a couple of others that I never posted because they were already in line to be sold for one reason or another.

Writing yesterday's post reminded me that there are a few watches that I'd posted that I no longer own, and that led me to the idea of doing a quick review of the ones I no longer have. Going back to look through the posts from the beginning, I posted a Seiko 5 automatic in May 2010 that I had purchased just a couple of weeks prior. It was a case of liking the look of it more than I ended up liking the actual watch. I didn't care for the hands, and it wore a little small on my wrist. I sold it not long after I posted it.

Then there was a quartz chronograph that I bought in 2008 and featured in June 2010. I wore it off and on for about four years, and it always ran perfectly, but by this past winter I was looking to sell some stuff on eBay and decided I didn't need to hang onto it any longer. It found a good home.

There was another Seiko automatic that I didn't like as much after I'd had it for a while, and that ended up selling this winter as well. Yesterday's watch is more or less replacing it, and I'm much happier with it overall and plan on keeping it a long time.

There are a few others that I still have, but have stopped working or are problematic in some other way. This Casio chronograph receives time setting signals every day via a radio frequency, but after I had to get the battery replaced it would not set properly. It's now running about four hours ahead of where it should be, and the only way to get it to the correct time is to set it to a different time zone (there is no crown to set the time manually).

A couple of my many old Timex watches are also no longer working properly. I like this automatic a lot, but it was never in especially good condition and I'm probably lucky it kept acceptable time for as long as it did. It's not worth spending whatever it would cost to get it running properly again. Then there was an old Timex Carriage quartz that looked just like the ones J. Crew was selling for $150 (they recently dropped the price to $98, which is still too high). For a watch that cost no more than $20 new it lasted a long time, but even with a battery replacement it just stopped running one day, so that's that.

I'll be putting a couple of my other watches up for sale soon, and will post a link when I do so.

Watch Wednesday (7/24/13)

What's this? Someone in my financial situation shouldn't be buying a watch. Well, I got this one back during the winter, with the money the landlord pays me to clear the snow. You may recall that we had a lot of snow this winter, so it was kind of like getting a bonus. I only just realized that I had never posted it here.

I'd had my eye on this Seiko chronograph for some time, since I first saw it back in the October issue of Esquire. Right after that, Dappered did a comparison between it and a Citizen chronograph, with the Seiko coming out slightly ahead in their opinion. I started watching it online, and over the next few months the price drifted downward another $25 or so, which worked in my favor. During that time it also went in and out of stock a lot on various websites, suggesting to me that it was popular.

This watch isn't as large as the picture makes it look; the case is 41 mm across not counting either crown. 42 mm is about the largest watch I can wear that doesn't make my wrist look like that of a nine-year-old, so a watch like this looks substantial without being excessive.

It has the sort of large-numeral dial that I've mentioned my fondness for, plus a rotating compass bezel inside the crystal. It's also solar powered, but that had no bearing on my purchase, nor did the compass. In fact the compass is a superfluous feature to me, and the crown that rotates it (the one adjacent to the 10 o'clock marker) gets moved at the slightest brush, so I end up adjusting it constantly. It would have been better if Seiko had made this one screw-down, or at least made it so the mechanism required a little more force to turn.

I also didn't care for the tan strap that came with it (shown at the above link). I was hoping it would look better in person than in pictures, but it's just too light and orangey for my taste. This is mainly why I tend to stick with black straps for my watches—it's really difficult to find attractive shades of tan or brown. In addition, this watch takes a 21 mm strap, which is one of the hardest sizes to find.

I ended up doing something I don't like to do: I bought a 22 mm strap and squeezed the edges in a little before putting it on the watch. It fits fine and I don't think anyone could tell if I didn't mention it, but as someone who likes to customize his watches with specific straps, the odd sizes are another barrier to getting it just right. (Ask anyone who owns a Rolex or Tudor that takes 19 mm straps.)

Watch Wednesday: Summer Straps

I bought my first one-piece nylon watch strap a few summers back, but last year I finally went all-in and got several different colors and wore them regularly, changing among them based on my mood on a given day and what I was wearing.

One strap I couldn't find was a suitably bright orange. Many were too pale, others were more than I wanted to pay. I saw one at Target, alongside the Timex Weekender watches that come with nylon straps, but it was too narrow, sized for a smaller woman's watch. For only $7 I figured it was worth waiting to find one.

Every time I went back to Target, I checked the watch section, but the orange strap in the correct width never appeared—until a few weeks ago. I was there on a weekday afternoon, picking up some household needs, and I went to check like I always do. There was only one, but it was what I'd been waiting for.

I decided to do a group shot of all the straps I have and the watches I wear them on. My camera tends to underexpose, leading to photos with incorrect color representation. From my recent batch of eBay sales I've learned that the photos come out looking more accurate if I photograph items outside, so I took the straps outside and took a couple of shots, but they looked wrong. Maybe the sun was too bright?

So I brought everything back inside and tried again, with better results:

All these straps are 20 mm wide except the two striped ones on the far left, which are 18 mm. I wear those two on the Timex watch on the left. I'm not feeling a strong urge to add any additional colors, but if something interesting presents itself I will consider it.

Time and Texture

I took this shot today with my phone, for no reason other than I liked how everything looked together:

The Spaceview has been seen before; the shirt is an L.L. Bean Signature chambray, the jacket is a vintage Brooks Brothers tweed that I recently scored on eBay. It's a very interesting jacket, so I think I'll post some additional shots of it soon.

Watch Wednesday Thursday (9/20/12)

I have been endeavoring to behave myself with regard to buying stuff, and in fact I bought this watch six or seven weeks ago. I was browsing the website of RumbaTime, the company that sells this watch, and found some women's watches in their sale section for as little as $5 or $10. After deciding to get something for the Mrs., I added this one to the order for myself. It wasn't on sale, but it was only $35 for this version (or $5 less for one with a "slap" style strap instead of nylon).

This is a perfect summer watch; it weighs next to nothing (the case is plastic) and it doesn't matter if it gets bumped or dinged up. It came with a black nylon strap, but I switched it to the blue one I picked up at Target a while back, and I think it looks better than all-black, especially in warm-weather months. Just about any bright color would work with the black case.

More Straps

Last week I mentioned that I'd also gotten a gray nylon strap for my pseudo-Sub. I forgot that I'd taken pictures of it, which I hadn't yet copied into my computer. So here it is:

The gray is much more subtle, and a better choice if I'm already wearing, say, a shirt that has a fair amount of red in it, which would look too matchy.

I also mentioned that I was looking for a royal blue strap. The next day we happened to go to Target, and alongside their Timex Weekender watches (which come with this type of strap) I found a selection of accessory straps, including a royal blue one:

As with most of my pictures, the actual color is a bit deeper than how it appears here. These are not as long as traditional NATO straps, but that is actually preferable to me. With the longer straps, you have to fold over the extra and tuck it into the metal loops anyway, and it frequently comes undone. Here's a look at the end of the blue strap:

As an added bonus, the straps at Target are only $7 each. There's also a nice bright orange I liked, but they only had it in a narrower width to fit the ladies' versions of the Weekender watches, so I'll have to look for it if I happen to go to any other Targets in the area.

Watch Wednesday Upgrade Update #3

When I first posted this watch back in November, I said that I thought if I was going to have one watch on a metal bracelet, it would be this style. But I found that I wasn't wearing it much, and after Orient offered to send me a watch to review a few months ago and I chose the Mako diver on a metal bracelet, I figured I could go ahead and replace the bracelet on this watch.

Instead of my usual leather strap, I decided to go with the more of-the-moment style of a colorful nylon one-piece strap. Sometimes these are called NATO straps, and there are other similar ones called Zulu (the hardware is slightly different).

Although this one looks slightly orange, it is red. It's nice to have a bit of color on your wrist, especially during the summer. As a bonus, this type of strap is much more comfortable to wear in warm, humid weather. I also got a gray one that is somewhat more subdued looking, and I would like to get one in royal blue but haven't been able to find one yet.

Watch Wednesday Thursday (6/7/12)

I will probably never own a Rolex, or a Breitling, or an IWC, but there are plenty of great, interesting, collectible watches that cost far less than one of the finer brands. I've focused on acquiring watches that are affordable and that I want to wear. What I have to show you today is what I have long considered the coolest watch ever, the Accutron Spaceview:

I've featured other Accutron watches in the past, but a Spaceview has been missing from my collection for a long time. I actually bought one around 13 years ago, early on in my collecting. After a couple of years my feelings about the watch had changed (I realized that I preferred a different style) and I sold it, planning to get another one somewhere down the road.

"Down the road" became a decade. I looked on and off over the years, finding ones that were in excellent condition and comically overpriced, or ones that were not running and in need of a total electronic and cosmetic overhaul. Also, during the years they were produced, there were many variations in case designs and in the markings on the crystal, and I wanted the very specific style that you see here, a stainless steel case with the metal ring around the edge with hour and minute markers, and the Accutron name and symbol on the crystal at the 8 o'clock position.

Last fall I renewed my search with a bit more enthusiasm than I had given it in some time. I found that people were still asking outrageous prices, and I started to worry that I would never be able to find a watch at a reasonable price. In November I came across a watch for sale on eBay that had been tucked away in the proverbial dresser drawer for 40 years. It was running and in very nice condition cosmetically, and being offered for a realistic price, so I bought it.

When the watch arrived, I found that while it did indeed run, it was afflicted with a problem common to many older Accutron watches: it ran quite fast, much too fast to wear even for a day. I knew it would need servicing. I remembered a New York based eBay seller who sold watch parts and also offered Accutron repairs at a flat rate. He has been repairing Accutron watches for over 40 years. When I was planning my April trip to New York, I contacted him and asked if I could drop off the watch in person while there.

It took a few weeks for him to complete the repairs, but the watch arrived back to me last week. Not only is it running just right, but he polished everything so it looks like a brand new watch. To complete the package, I had him put the watch on a period-style Accutron strap with the tuning-fork logo on the buckle. I'm thrilled to have this watch, and very happy that I was able to get it repaired so it runs properly. Watches are wonderful to look at, but they are meant to be worn.

Watch Strap Search

Those of you who have read my watch collection posts know how important it is to me to find the right strap for each watch. Sometimes I end up making compromises, but I find that when I do so, I end up not wearing certain watches as much.

One such watch is this Tudor that I spent a fair amount of money to have repaired a couple of years ago. It takes a 19 mm wide strap, which is an uncommon size. The strap on this watch is just a cheap one I found somewhere (maybe Target?), and it's not very pleasant to wear, so I set the watch aside and forgot about it for a while.

Recently I remembered that I'd wanted to find a nicer strap for this watch, so I started looking around online at all the various watch strap sites I'd bookmarked. Very few even carry 19 mm straps, and those that do have a slim selection. Also I want something very specific: black leather with little or no grain, with matching stitching. Many of my watches have straps with white or colored stitching, but I thought that style wouldn't look as good on the Tudor.

I thought of trying some local stores, but was having no luck that way either until today. I had lunch with the Proper Bostonian, who afterward wanted to look at jewelry at downtown mainstay E.B. Horn. I spotted a nice, plain strap in tan and almost bought it, but I asked if it came in black and was told it did, and it could be ordered. At this point what's another couple of weeks?

Watch Wednesday (3/7/12): Orient Mako Review

Update, 3/10: I finally got around to taking some pictures. I could have borrowed some from the Orient website, but I thought my own shots would give a better sense of the watch.

I've been wearing the Orient Mako watch for about a week and a half, so it's time for my review. In the interest of full disclosure, I'll remind you that Orient Watch USA sent me this watch to review and keep. But it's a watch I would confidently spend my own money on.

The Mako is a dive-style watch that's available with either a metal bracelet or a rubber strap. Dial color choices include black, deep blue, orange, and yellow (from looking at the Orient website, the yellow seems to be available only with the metal bracelet). All have a black ratcheting coin-edge bezel, except for the blue dial, which is available with either an all-blue or a blue-and-red bezel. The case measures 41 mm in diameter, and takes a 22 mm bracelet or strap.

The Mako's dial has its own distinctive look thanks to the squarish numerals at the 6, 9, and 12 positions. The look of these numerals is one of my favorite features of the watch. There's also a day/date window at 3. The second crown above the main one adjusts the day of the week; to use it you first need to unscrew the collar, which keeps it from getting changed accidentally during normal wear. The main crown screws down as well.

The watch is hefty and feels substantial, but not too heavy on the wrist. The construction is impressively solid, especially the adjustable bracelet. On many watches competitive with the Mako, the bracelets, and especially their clasps, can feel flimsy. The Mako's bracelet has a foldover locking clasp and a pinch release; both work flawlessly and feel very sturdy.

One distinction that separates Orient from many other watch companies, including some of the top Swiss brands, is that they manufacture their own movements. The Mako, like most other Orient watches, is powered by an automatic movement that keeps very accurate time. I've worn this watch approximately every other day since I received it, deliberately, to monitor its power reserve. That's the amount of time you can expect the watch to keep running after you take it off. Orient claims a reserve of 40 hours, which is right in line with my personal experience. If you take it off before going to bed and skip a day, the watch will still be accurate the second morning.

In normal use, I encountered only one minor issue, and it's really rather subjective: all Mako models have a silver second hand with a red tip, which against the orange dial is sometimes hard to see. But when checking one's watch to see what time it is, reading the second hand is secondary to the hour and minute hands, which are plenty easy to see. Those hands, and the hour markers, glow in the dark if first exposed to light.

The Orient watch reviews I've read online focus on value, which is justified. In the 1970s Japanese watches began to gain attention and acceptance in the marketplace, and took sales from both American and Swiss brands by offering comparable quality at lower prices. As of this writing, the retail price of the Mako on a metal bracelet is $215, or $180 on a rubber strap. However, Orient Watch USA has generously offered me a discount code to pass along to readers, so if you are interested you can save 30% by entering "someassembly30" at OrientwatchUSA.com.

The Orient Mako is an outstanding value for an automatic watch, and while it's not a particularly dressy model, it could work nicely with a leather strap substituted for the rubber one (one of my favorite watch modifications, as readers probably remember). There is a community of Orient owners and fans at www.orientalwatchsite.com/forum/ which includes a section of straps for sale.

Perks of Blogging

This blog does not have a vast readership, so I don't get invited to fashion shows or vodka parties. But sometimes there are benefits to operating on a smaller scale.

Documenting my interest in watches led to me being contacted by a representative of Orient Watch USA. He offered to send me a watch to review, and keep. Naturally I accepted. I was given a range of models from which to choose, and my selection arrived Friday. I started wearing it Saturday, after removing some links from the bracelet so it would fit properly. I plan to wear it for at least a week, so I'll be posting a full report some time next week.

Watch Wednesday Upgrade Update #2

There, I fixed it...

For some context, this "woven" style of strap was fairly common on sport and diving watches in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Back then they were made of rubber or vinyl, and they usually had flat edges without any sort of stitching, and especially not with contrasting-color stitching like this strap. So it's kind of bridge between past and present, as well as a visual connection to the red accents on the watch dial.

This strap is made by Hadley-Roma and is available with stitching in orange, white, or black in addition to the red. I've also seen other similar styles with blue or yellow. They generally aren't expensive, either; I got this one for only $20 from GlobalWatchBand.

Watch Wednesday (12/21/11): Bonus Holiday Watch

Notice I didn't say "holiday bonus watch"; it isn't, because I didn't receive one...

So, the one-watch-per-quarter rule got a little bent, but I have a long history of buying myself presents at this time of year anyway.

I first became aware of this Timex watch almost nine months ago when it was shown at the big watch trade show in Switzerland. At the time the word was that the watch would be available "soon," but it only appeared in the Timex online store in November, so I have no idea what was going on there.

It's a nice watch, nothing fancy, just good looks. It does have Indiglo, which is always useful. This is the strap that came with it. It's some sort of soft-touch silicone, and it feels okay on the wrist, but it's a lint magnet. I took this picture right before I removed it to attach the strap I'd bought for it, but after I was finished I got distracted and didn't take a picture with the new strap. It's too late now, so I'll try to do that tomorrow.

Watch Wednesday Thursday (11/24/11)

I wasn't at work yesterday, but it was still kind of a busy day, with my stint at a Community Servings pie pick-up location. This was my third year, and I'm fortunate enough to have been at the same location with the same person each time. I look forward to being there again next year.

Meanwhile, this quarter's watch has... a metal bracelet? What's going on?

This is another Alpha, like the one I posted recently with the new strap. These Alpha watches are fairly blatant copies of Rolex models, but technically they can't be called knockoffs because they don't say Rolex. This is a version of the Rolex Submariner, which is probably the best-known Rolex model.

Sometimes you see a Sub on one of those one-piece military-style straps, but most often you see them on a steel bracelet like this. I was thinking that I might like to have one watch on a bracelet, and I figured if there was one watch I would wear with a metal bracelet, it would be this style. Then this watch popped up on eBay, and I was able to grab it for a very good price.

It was used, but you'd be hard pressed to tell. It also came with the felt pouch and papers it was originally sold with. It's an automatic movement, and the bezel rotates in only one direction. It has a nice heft on the wrist, but because the metal surface is brushed, it's not too flashy.

Proportion

I was thinking about getting one of those Timex Weekender watches that I mentioned a while back. They're cheap and nice-looking, and I guess I was buying into the idea of "low cost, but also fashionable." Over the weekend I got a close look at several different styles in a store, and I decided I'm not going to bother buying one.

The main reason: there are three or four different case sizes, but they all take 18 mm straps. The largest style, the one I was thinking about getting, is about 39 mm in diameter. When I saw it right in front of me, I realized that the strap looked disproportionately narrow relative to the size of the watch's case size. It's not egregiously noticeable, like a World War I-era trench watch, but it just doesn't look quite right.

A watch's strap should be at least half as wide as the diameter of the case, if not slightly larger than half. Even the Timex I got several months back is 38 mm on an 18 mm strap. After I'd had it and been wearing it a while, I realized that its case should have been made to take a 20 mm strap. It's a small thing, but it's one of those small things that I tend to notice.

Watch Wednesday Upgrade Update #1

When I posted my most recent watch purchase back in early August, I mentioned replacing the strap, as I frequently do. But funny things happen, and the strap I bought with the intent of putting on that Seiko ended up on another of my watches.

Last year I got a Rolex Explorer lookalike made by a company called Alpha. It came with a metal bracelet, and it looked like this:

After going back and forth for a bit I decided to leave it on and wear it that way, since I didn't have any other watches with metal bracelets. So I wore it a couple of times, and whenever I turned my wrist a certain way, the clasp came undone. I was afraid of losing the watch, so I set it aside and didn't wear it for several months.

When the strap came that I had intended for the Seiko, I remembered this watch and was happy to see it took the same size strap, so I decided to use it on this watch instead (the Seiko will be fine with its low-rent strap for a bit longer). So now the Alpha looks like this:

It's a really nice strap, and it makes this watch somewhat dressier while keeping its overall sporty air. I have a couple of other watches I want to upgrade in this way: the Omega and the Tudor both deserve nicer straps. Unfortunately, the place I bought this strap from is out of those sizes at the moment, so it will have to go on hold for now.

Watch Wednesday (8/10/11)

It's been almost three months since the last WW, and one new watch per quarter seems a more appropriately restrained level of consumption.

I like the appearance and functionality of chronographs, and I have a few. On the ones I have, the subdials either blend in too much with the rest of the watch face or stand out from it too much, so I've been looking for one that falls in the middle. I found a Japanese-market Citizen on eBay several years ago that was just right, but it was over $300 and I couldn't justify spending that.

A Seiko is always a solid choice: they make hundreds of styles that are well-made and reasonably priced, so it's a value purchase you can live with happily. I found this watch on eBay while browsing Seiko chronographs. I'd never seen this style before, but it caught my attention right away. The rings around the subdials are the sort of accent I was after, and it's not too big or too flashy. On the wrist this one comes off looking a little dressier, with a hint of resemblance to a TAG Heuer Carerra.

This watch came on a really ugly metal bracelet, and this strap is just a cheap one I happened to have around that is the correct size, but I found a source for straps (also on eBay) that I was not familiar with, Holben's Fine Watch Bands. They have a nice selection of quality straps at very reasonable prices, so I will be upgrading this one soon. My plan is to go through all my watches, figure out which ones need new or better straps, and get a bunch of them at once.