The same story with older Breitlings - different spring bars tips on both versions.
Owning 2 Tudors(BB red & monte carlo chrono 22mm lug widths both) I came to the slow realisation that I must of mixed up the spring bars at some point.Was struggling to put the bracelet on the monte and cursing cheap Chinese 7825 ripoffs etc..when I worked out that with both ends of the bar compressed it was about 0.5mm too wide to insert between the lugs.Its okay on a strap as you can locate one end in the lug hole before inserting the other half.The correct ones for the bracelet has a smaller length outer tube which also has 2 circular slight indents.I suspect the spring strength is much less with the bracelet bars.Lesson learned!
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The same story with older Breitlings - different spring bars tips on both versions.
Some Omegas too. Bracelet bars have shorter bodies for the reasons you state above, the need fit when you compress both ends at once. The Trilogy pieces which came with both bracelet, leather straps and NATOs had at least 2 sets of bars of different lengths.
Had similar issues with an Orient, the strap uses 1.8mm or 2mm wide spring bars, but if you want to put a bracelet on you will struggle with anything wider than 1.5mm.
If there's any doubt it pays to compress the springbar first in a digital caliper and check what it compresses down to, usually that makes it obvious whether it'll do what you want it to. Also worth checking thickness too, bracelets sometimes need thinner bars. I have plenty to choose from so if I`m fitting replacements I pick the ones that'll do the job best.
A digital caliper is well worth having for lots of jobs, decent ones can be bought for around £20. I have a set for the garage and a set for the watchroom.
Makes sense and will check in future.The problem I had and not obvious at first was there was only 0.5mm in it compression wise.The spring pressure was greater than expected vs correct bracelet spring bars as well but I blamed my technique and tools.It makes sense now as straps are known to come off when caught or knocked hence greater spring resistance. I posted because in all my years this is the first time its happened - never gave a thought before especially as it was the same manufacturer and the bracelet fits on both watches with 22mm lug width Sent from my SM-A505FN using TZ-UK mobile app
Last edited by amcneill; 9th February 2020 at 20:07.