Occasionally someone will contact me to ask if I can make a strap for a watch they own which has fixed bars i.e. the bars that hold the strap onto the watch can’t be removed and so a standard strap can’t be fitted. My answer is always the same – although I don’t make open-ended straps, I can stitch a strap onto the watch as long as (a) there is sufficient clearance between bar and watch (the amount of clearance needed depends on the specific leather they choose but normally 2mm is sufficient), and (b) they are happy to send the watch to me. A lot of military watches have fixed bars, and over the years I’ve made numerous straps for some very interesting fixed bar watches such as Omega, Blancpain & Longines.
Just before Christmas I received an email from a goldsmith in Cambridgeshire who wanted a strap making for a project he had started. He explained that the watch in question was a key wound silver pocket watch (circa 1870) that he was converting to a wrist watch by making and fitting 18 carat gold lugs to the case. The idea of turning a pocket watch into a wrist watch isn’t new of course, Panerai did exactly this with the first Radiomir watches they produced in the late 1930’s (taking 47mm Rolex Oyster pocket watch cases housing manual wind movements by Cortebert, and soldering steel wire lugs at 12 o’clock and 6 o’clock so a strap could be attached allowing the watch to be worn on the wrist), but this sounded a much finer project and so I asked to see some photos. As soon as I saw the exquisite floral engraving in the silver case I was hooked, and I said I would love to help.
The goldsmith explained he had seen some photographs of a strap I had previously made in Heavy Horse leather with butterscotch stitching and he thought this would be the perfect strap for his watch, so we talked about it and he agreed to send me the watch case (the dial & movement was removed) for me to look at. It arrived just after the holidays and a quick inspection told me that there was no reason why this wasn’t possible (the lugs had been fashioned in such a way that there was no issue with clearance for the leather), and so a couple of days later I got to work.
Building a strap around a watch is never easy, but a couple of hours work later the strap was finished and the watch & strap was ready to be sent back to it’s owner. I think it worked out very well, and so I wanted to share some photos…..
The watch has now been returned to it’s owner who has told me he is delighted with the strap. He was also kind enough to send me the following three photos (and agree to me publishing them here) showing the watch complete with dial and movement. The first photograph shows the movement complete with makers name (Adam Burdess Coventry) hand engraved….
The second photograph shows the open case with access to the movement for key winding…..
and the final photograph shows the dial – which is also made of silver and embellished with gold decoration….
All in all a very handsome watch and in my opinion well worth the conversion. Possibly some purists may suggest that the watch should have been left alone, but I couldn’t disagree more. In many ways this is a very good example of horological up-cycling, and one I wholeheartedly support. As a pocket watch it may well have been put in a drawer and forgotten about (after all, how many of us would consider actually using a pocket watch today?), but now it can be worn and enjoyed for years to come.