Submariner rubber strap (nearly)

[watchstudent]

So I have been hankering for an Everest rubber strap for my SubC. However a forum member kindly pointed me in the direction of Cousins who have a rubber strap for £16, rather than the £180 (!) for the Everest. With the money saved I thought I would buy a proper spring bar tool as I would hate to scratch the lugs badly on this or any other nice watch I will own in the future. So my purchases:







Strap seems fine for the price, nothing special like some rubber straps I have felt from the likes of Bremont and IWC.

The tool is brilliant, despite the high price, I would still recommend. Bracelet came off very easily with no damage. I also put my Speedy back on its bracelet in about 2 mins, previously took me about 15-20 with some swearing.

Only problem is the spring bars from my Rolex do not fit in the rubber strap! Balls! Does anyone else have this Cousins strap? Kind of wanted to use the OEM spring bars as I would have thought (naively?) they are of very good quality and should reduce the chance of my watch falling off...

Anyone have the Everest and the cousins? Is there a noticeable step up in quality? Does the Everest fit the Rolex spring bars?

To be honest, I find the Sub a bit heavy when wearing for a full day so thought I would try it on a couple of NATOs. Never liked the look of 6 digit refs on NATOs due to the lugs but actually I am enjoying it. What do you guys think?

First, a bit of sacrilege:





Didn't like the Omega nato on it for some reason, plus I use it a lot on my Speedy so tried this and really like it, for now...





I mean I still kinda wish the lugs were a bit less fat but am enjoying it. Still want to get a rubber strap that works though, any suggestions?

[Tenko]

I purchased the cousins strap for my non ceramic sub. Same problem as you, the spring bars did not fit. I used a small drill bit and reamed the strap holes out with it by hand. The spring bars then fitted the strap but it was such a tight fit to my watch that I still couldn’t use the original spring bars. I ended up buying smaller bars to make it fit.

Had the Everest previously and had to return it as it just would not fit my watch no matter how hard I tried. Can’t compare them quality wise as I never got to use the Everest but the cousins one is decent for the price.

[gbn13]

I think most of the Everest straps come with springbars that are described as “Rolex style 2.0mm”.

Whilst I am happy enough to put a NATO, Cordura or vintage leather strap on a 5 digit Submariner, I don’t think anything other than the bracelet, or fitted endlink rubber strap works on a SubC.

[Umbongo]

Any rubber strap does not suite the Sub. Some watches yes but sub only looks good on its bracelet.

Baaaaaaaaa.

[Lukeott]

I tried the Cousins rubber strap on my Exp2 and used the same Bergeon tool which is great for removing and fitting bracelets. However, it’s not so good for straps and I just use my regular tool.
I used spring bars from Cousins, they’re the ones they describe as Rolex style I think. They seem like good quality.
Be prepared for a lot of swearing and protect your watch with electrical tape would be my recommendation!