I'm thinking of going retro and the Twist-O-Flex appeals to me. I've never seen one in real life. Do you have one, do you enjoy wearing it?
Also can anyone recommend a retailer.
This is what my grandad wore his watch on brings back happy memories. I bought one a few years back for my Apple Watch very comfortable to wear most of the time but occasionally it would pull a hair out. IIRC I bought on amazon pretty cheap maybe worth taking a punt on a cheapo to see how you get along with it.
It's a hair pincher, so not for me
I have a couple of vintage watches on this style of bracelet, a Seiko 6106 Sea Lion and these two Majex. The only issue I had with one of the bracelets was it was too long and I had a devil of a job reducing the strap down. Maybe the modern interpretation of the strap allows for easier adjustment.
Sent through the ether by diddling with radio waves
They also remind me of my grandfather as he wore his watch on one. It’s actually one of my earliest memories his watch with the hands and face glowing in the dark!
I wear my original Airman on one
As others have said can pull a hair or 10 plus adjustment is difficult. Once adjusted though it’s very comfortable.
I found this one, vintage 60's which looks tempting, but I'll need to check the width:
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/2794...CABEgKEBPD_BwE
I suppose though could be classed as retro, but I’ve never liked them. When I started buying vintage watches in the mid- 90s I had a few of these and I always binned them. They were popular in the 60s and 70s and were often found attached to old watches for sale when I used to go to antiques fairs.
They always struck me as really cheaply made and as others note they pull hairs terribly. I had one on a watch years ago and it was truly horrible. Just because something is old doesn’t necessarily mean it’s any good I’m afraid!!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
@ Gerrudd Ive got too many of them ! mostly 18 mm if you want to try one send me a PM and I will sort you one for the cost of postage and a small donation to the fundraiser .
Let me know
Rob
Thanks Rob. That is Kind. I'll PM you.
Reminds me so much of my dad he had both his watches he wore regular on these. I’ve never got along with them and won’t where them but still have the straps I took off my dads watches.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
That is way too small, it is only 13mm (half inch) at its widest point, the lugs. For a ladies watch.Originally Posted by gerrudd
I have several stainless steel and gold plated vintage ones.
Remember those and even picking one up from Woolworths, there where some good quality ones around if I recall right and I remember pulling out the little clips from the sides to remove links, fond memories just like the gold coloured Strad watch I used to wear on the gold expanding strap, never did find out if that Strad watch was gold but it was a lovely watch as I remember. Good memories.
the Tudor Sub is gorgeous:)They also remind me of my grandfather as he wore his watch on one. It’s actually one of my earliest memories his watch with the hands and face glowing in the dark!
I wear my original Airman on one
As others have said can pull a hair or 10 plus adjustment is difficult. Once adjusted though it’s very comfortable.
My dad also had one in the 70s and 80s
I find they work better with older watches, as they are smaller and lighter. Putting an SeMP head on one was a lot less comfortable.
I've got a few. My mum likes them so I decided to try them out. Works well on certain 60s/70s style watches. Can be quite comfortable. They can pull hairs occasionally, but I've had metal bracelets that were far worse so I think that problem is usually overstated.
The generic term is expansion band. Genuine Speidel Twist-O-Flex is a specific brand and those are quite tricky to find in the UK because the company is now American-owned. You can find them on Amazon and eBay but the prices are all over the place and good luck finding a specific model/size combination. It also seems you can now order direct from speidel.com, although I don't know what they charge for postage. That wasn't an option when I got mine.
Speidel popularised them, so I guess they are the Rolex of expansion bands. I honestly have no idea if they are really better quality or not. I've got a couple of Speidels and they are slightly better than the other generic ones I have in that they are stretchier, more flexible, and have an "closed sides" construction (I'll explain shortly). However, the finish on the outside isn't as good as the better generic ones.
I got the generic ones from watch-band-center.com but I don't think they sell the specific models anymore so I can't recommend anything in particular. There's one I think looks really good and I tried to buy a spare a while ago, but couldn't find the same one again. WBC are also terrible for not giving products the correct make & model name in their listings.
Construction-wise there seem to be two main types. The generic ones I have all have open sides, with each link being joined with a couple of pins stuck in each side (like small hairpins). The downside to this is that they can pop out. I have had this happen and my watch fell right off my wrist. Fortunately it wasn't damaged or lost. But I would not trust anything expensive on one of these.
The Spiedel-style construction has a top piece that is folded down and a bottom piece that is folded up to create a sort of enclosed box. This makes the inside of the strap flatter and closes off the sides so in theory, slightly less hair pulling (though in practise I find both about the same - not perfect, but OK). The main advantage of this is that the pins that hold the links together won't fall out on their own. The downside is that if you want to make the band shorter, you need to fold the metal edge up, remove the pin, then fold it back afterwards. It could easily snap or be damaged by pliers. Mine just happened to be the perfect size so I didn't need to adjust anything. Which is good because I was not looking forward to that part.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
