A bracelet is a segmented metal construct to hold a watch on your wrist. Bracelets are often overlooked when evaluating a watch, but as you can see there's significant options and things to look for. As they often determine the (dis)comfort of wearing a watch, a bit more time is a good investment.
Pros:
- Waterproof
- Durable
- Versatile, style-wise.
Cons:
- Fixed length can be uncomfortable, as your wrist enlarges in warm weather
- Often a pain to get sized just right, requires special tools to resize.
- Expensive, usually adding $100 or more to the price of a watch. What's more, matching the end links is often an epic quest if you get a third-party bracelet.
- Often flashier and more attention-getting. I consider this a negative, but if you want an attention-getting watch, feel free to disagree.
There are many, many styles of bracelet:
For example, here's an Oyster-style bracelet on a Seiko:
and many, many variations and options:
- Solid or hollow end links
- Solid or hollow links
- Half links or not
- Micro adjustments or not
- Diver extensions for wetsuits
- Micro adjustments such as Glidelock (the Rolex system) or Seiko's unnamed system on the Marinemaster.
- Push button(s), flip locks, stamped or machined clasps
- Integrated bracelet or standard lugs.
- Pin and collar or screws to hold the links together
For example, here's a Citizen dive watch, titanium, with SEL, solid links, pin and collar attachment, no micro adjustments, Diver extension, push button release with flip lock, no half links, and standard lugs:
See also strap.
Places to buy
- The Strap Shop has some really nice looking bracelets with good pictures.
- Watchadoo has 5-link bracelets that are wonderful - I got one and it's tank-like.
- Strapped for Time was recommended here
- You can Milanese-style bracelets from WatchStyle
