Trouble fitting Strapcode bracelet

I fitted one today to a new Seiko Turtle - it’s not the first one I’ve had, not even the first I have fitted to a Turtle, but bugger me if I could not get the springbars to sit into the lug holes....
It took me probably 30 mins and some serious levels of force and levering, some damaged tools and the risk of gashing the new watch before they would sit properly.
I could see they were ever so slightly misaligned (parts of a mm) if I put together the end link and case without springbars and sighted through it - but once you got the bars there, they do not give at all, and it was a ‘mare to get them in without wrecking anything.

Anyone had probs with Strapcode tolerances before?


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Yes. They can absolute buggers to fit. I know some have sent them back to Strapcode. It's a bit of a trade-off because you want the endlinks to be snug against the case.
I think that passing a fine thread round the end of the springbar to then pull it towards the lug hole sometimes works.
Either way, they're fiddly buggers and when you've struggled for ½ an hour you're not so inclined to do lots of strap changes.

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A fine thread - bugger, that’s excellent problem solving! And is way better then going full Norman Bates-style at it with my burgeon!!!

Almost want to remove it and try that. Ended up with one original fat Seiko springbar, and one that came with the Strapcode, as the “nub” was thinner on the Strapcode

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I'm about to try and fit a Strapcode Hexad bracelet to a Samurai. On their web site it would seem that some Samurai's, particularly the PADI version, fitting the strap with the fat 2.5mm bars will not work. They advise to use 1.76mm bars...not sure if this is a work-around suitable for other watches / bracelets? Sounds as though using thinner bars is not a bad idea.

Strapcode were good enough to provide the thinner bars as well as the fat bars with the bracelet they sent me

David

Yeh, I am not sure why it would be different but fitted one to a standard turtle, was a doddle. The one I’ve tried is an LE and was a pig - but would have expected the cases to be the same!

Thinner springbars was my next step had I not got this on, and will be if and when I remove it.


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Contrary to my expectations, the bracelet fitted my PADI Samurai with the fat 2.5mm bars with no difficulty. It does seem odd that one version of a Samurai should have "out of tolerance" lug drillings; would have thought all the case's would be the same and they're just "dressed-up" differently according to model. Funny world this watch stuff!

David

I recently fitted a strapcode bracelet to my SARB033 which went on without any issues.

The website did say that some people had problems though, and they (Strapcode) put that down to the Seiko tolerances on the lugholes.