How do you change the watch strap?

You can completely change the look of your watch with a new strap. With the right bracelet, you not only upgrade your watch, but your entire outfit. You also give your watch a new feeling when you wear it. Learn how to change your watch strap below.

First, we recommend looking at how the current strap is attached to your watch. Most watches have a so-called spring bar on each side, which is pushed into the bracelet and clamped between the brackets of the watch case. The term spring bar results from its mechanics. In order to be clamped and snapped between the watch case mounts, it must be contractible like a mechanical spring. Every spring bar has this basic mechanism.

There are now three different ways in which a spring bar can be detached from the watch case - depending on the type of bar or the type of attachment in the case. With the tool from our Watch strap store you can easily change the bracelet in any of these three ways. Below we explain how to change the watch strap depending on the case.

On some watches, the holes for spring bars go through the case so they are visible from the outside. The biggest difference to the variant under 1. lies in the way the spring bar can be released from the holder:

1. The pointed end of the spring bar tool is required to detach the watch strap from the holder. With this side you press into one of the holes on the outside of your watch case (see picture) until the spring bar pops out of its holder.

To insert the new bracelet, proceed in exactly the same way as described under 1. Here it is important that you also use the existing spring bars for your new watch strap, as they usually differ slightly from conventional spring bars. They are slightly wider at the ends to fully fill the through holes in the watch case.

Quick change bars are becoming increasingly popular and are used more often on newer watch models. Even premium brands such as Nomos Glashütte now use this quick-change system as standard. In principle, this is just an attachment with a conventional spring bar, except that this spring bar has a protruding pin (see spring bar in the picture).

What is special about these quick-change spring bars is that they allow you to change the bracelet even faster and require your own holes or cut-outs in the bracelet (see picture). Changing the watch strap is as follows:

1. To release the bracelet, simply push the visible pin of the spring bar to the side.
2. Now you can slide the spring bar out of the bracelet. Make sure the pin doesn't get caught in the band's notch. It is best to use the spring bar tool for this.
3. By placing the flat, fork-like side of the spring bar tool against the protruding pin on the spring bar, you can slide the bar into the new strap.
4. Next, insert one side of the spring bar with strap into the hole of the watch case bracket (see image).
5. The pin must now be pushed toward the inserted side to compress (contract) the spring bar.
6. With the spring bar pressed together, the watch strap can now be placed completely between the holders of the case until the spring bar snaps into place.