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In fact, some quick research suggests that multiple Swiss watchmakers had engineered quick-change watch straps before Apple... but you can definitely credit App

by hbosch 3y ago

In fact, some quick research suggests that multiple Swiss watchmakers had engineered quick-change watch straps before Apple... but you can definitely credit Apple for bringing it to the everyday consumer. I found an article[0] that predates the first Apple watch which mentions Hublot, Panerai and Cartier as innovators here. In fact, one of the coolest things about the Cartier Santos is not only the quick-release system that frees the band from the watch but the hidden buttons that also allow you to resize the steel bracelet itself[1]! (Video shows a 2018 Santos, but nevertheless) Regardless of who got it right first, I do hope that Apple's watch strap system becomes more ubiquitous in the watch world. Oftentimes watches are over-engineered for their 99% use case of casual wear in order to fulfill some fantasy of diving in the Caribbean or scaling Mt. Kilimanjaro, and so therefore many are screwed or fastened in some way that makes adjusting them a pain without tiny little tools and a clean surface. 0. https://www.thewatchbox.com/blog/gone-60-seconds-quick-change-straps-panerai-cartier-and-hublot.html https://www.thewatchbox.com/blog/gone-60-seconds-quick-chang... 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWv4QBJyz78&t=103s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWv4QBJyz78&t=103s

reaperducer 3y ago
I do hope that Apple's watch strap system becomes more ubiquitous in the watch world. Oftentimes watches are over-engineered for their 99% use case of casual wear in order to fulfill some fantasy of diving in the Caribbean or scaling Mt. Kilimanjaro, and so therefore many are screwed or fastened in some way that makes adjusting them a pain without tiny little tools and a clean surface. I agree, but for different reasons. I have several very nice dress watches that I keep for sentimental reasons that I'm not able to wear because the manufacturer used one-off straps for them. The mechanisms still work fine, but I can't wear them because the exact strap for that exact watch is no longer available. Hey, EU — While you're forcing USB-C on everyone, how about picking a watch band standard, too?
- reaperman 3y ago
  So, I'm a huge fan of regulation but the problem with over-regulation is that it will stop really fun products from being released in those markets. Like, imagine a watch that has an inflatable cuff that can take your blood pressure. It may be unsightly, bulky, and very dorky. So maybe it wouldn't fit this new "EU Watch Band Standard" that was imagined for Apple Watch. So a very large company like Apple could lobby the EU to change the law and might even do that with enough lead time so it doesn't delay the product launch. But a small company, kickstarter, etc would be screwed because there's no way they could expect to get the legislators' attention for something like this. And yes, the legislation could be written with sensible carveouts, but we all know it won't, or they'll either not be comprehensive enough, or they'll be a leaky sieve that lets every shady corporation say "oh yeah there's a standard watchband but our special watch falls under exemption 312(c)." Or you can have a government agency handle "exemption requests" without legislative action, but then the small kickstarter will go through 6 rounds and 18 months of records and documentation requests, if they even bother looking into the process at all and not just saying "oh fuck that."
  - yunohn 3y ago
    > imagine Yes, so imaginative innovations for niche usecases can easily be exempted. The goal would be to enable mainstream mass-market devices to follow the standard. It’s not as complicated as you suggest, and works in almost every industry.
    - mynameisvlad 3y ago
      I mean, straight up no. If there is any sort of legislation, regardless of exemptions, time will have to be spent to figure out if the exemption applies, and generally will require some work to either apply for or defend the exemption as part of the development and release process. This would stifle innovation in the long run. Why bother with this extra work when there are a other variations on the idea that would be quicker to launch?
      - jychang 3y ago
        I rarely see this mentioned, but why don’t people just support laws that expire? You can’t stifle innovation in the long run if the law doesn’t exist in the long run. I’ve often espoused a law that requires USB-C to charge phones- that expires after 3-5 years. Just enough time to get everyone on the same standard and lock in a little, but not enough to kill innovation when the next big thing happens. Worst case scenario, wait 3 years… but if it was really bad, the law would get repealed anyways. This strategy would be great for many fields. Imagine if the world decided to make a law that expires in 3-5 years to require one specific electric car charging port. Or made an expiring law that required ebook sellers to use epub format in 2010 (I’m looking at you, Amazon, with your .mobi format). Or made an expiring law that unified every display cable under HDMI (ignoring patent issues). I’m not saying that stuff like this should be enshrined in law forever, but a lot of stuff would be a lot easier if it was more socially/politically accepted to pass laws that expire.
        Analemma_ 3y ago
        Because then laws that people rely on become bargaining chips held hostage when the expiration date comes. And this creates horrible perverse incentives where the more obviously good and uncontroversial the law is, the more valuable it is as a hostage, so the more likely it is to disappear, which is a complete inversion of democracy. Like clean air? Well, give $MY_FACTION a billion billion dollars or it goes away. This isn't a hypothetical either, you see this in American politics all the damn time with temporary laws and allocations.
- ImprovedSilence 3y ago
  You might not be able to get the exact strap, but there are certainly numerous aftermarket straps (from low to high end) you can easily get. The strap is more than likely held in by a spring bar, and the while there are various widths, they are standard widths, ie 20 or 22mm etc… especially any older mechanical watch, will absolutely have the ability to interchange the band. And if it’s not a spring bar but a solid fixed piece of metal, you can use a nato style strap or something similar.
  - reaperducer 3y ago
    You might not be able to get the exact strap, but there are certainly numerous aftermarket straps (from low to high end) you can easily get. I've tried, and even brought them to several watch stores and jewelers in Seattle, Houston, and New York with no luck. The problem isn't the spring bar, it's the shape of the watch where connection is made.
- Spinnaker_ 3y ago
  I'm curious, which very nice dress watch manufacturer won't replace the band for you? They went out of business?
  - justsomehnguy 3y ago
    > the exact strap for that exact watch is no longer available. Also too many reaper* nicknames in the thread
- raverbashing 3y ago
  You want at a standard watch band? Don't look at the EU, look at... NATO Really
high_priest 3y ago
What the heck are people talking about with the quick swap bands being an innovation? Literally all the watches I own, from grandfathers antiques, to modern Amazfits, all of them have the bands on a spring loaded bar. Like... I don't remember the last time I have seen a different mechanism. There is a brief mention of this system as a "conventional" one in the article ``` Apple took the conventional spring bars of traditional watches, miniaturized them, turned them on their sides, and embedded them into the watch band. ``` Complicating a simple solution for the sake of a flashy "flush" finish, doesn't sound like an innovation.
- babypuncher 3y ago
  I don't know about your grandfather's watches, but non-smart watches I've had that take standard bands require a screwdriver.
  - high_priest 3y ago
    Rugged watches, outdooring ones, garmins, sure. They have big bars which require a screwdriver. They are made to first tear out your hand and then "maybe" break.
    - panopticon 3y ago
      I think Garmin switched all of their watches to the QuickFit system at least 5 years ago.
      - jerlam 3y ago
        Quickfit is mostly concentrated on their larger/higher end watches, like Fenix and up. Their lower end watches (like the Forerunner 265) still have a quick release spring bar. In contrast, Casio G-Shocks, which are specifically built to be rugged/fashionable, don't have any kind of quick change mechanism. The strap is integrated into the case that further protects the watch.
        3y ago
thadk 3y ago
For what it's worth, scaling the freestanding Mt. Kilimanjaro volcano is about as intense as a 4 day backpacking trip up up up to high altitude, little to no watch-risky technical climbing required for the common routes.
- saiya-jin 3y ago
  Whiskey/cocacola routes take 7 days standard, at least in 2012 they both did. For good reasons, folks struggle with altitude and you have plenty of people who go up high first time in their lives, so taking time to acclimatize is smart for general groups. Even with this, success rate was not more than 50%. I've personally struggled like hell on the top, almost hallucinated and so did rest of my team members. But we made a junior mistake of going too fast up on summit day. When I did ie Mont Damavand in Iran, which is just 250m lower after cca 3 years, no issues and roud trip was just 2 days. But I've trained and did some crazy stuff in between. Most folks don't do that kind of stuff.
  - jefftk 3y ago
    Sure, but none of that is hard on watches.

by hbosch 3y ago

reaperducer 3y ago

I do hope that Apple's watch strap system becomes more ubiquitous in the watch world. Oftentimes watches are over-engineered for their 99% use case of casual wear in order to fulfill some fantasy of diving in the Caribbean or scaling Mt. Kilimanjaro, and so therefore many are screwed or fastened in some way that makes adjusting them a pain without tiny little tools and a clean surface. I agree, but for different reasons. I have several very nice dress watches that I keep for sentimental reasons that I'm not able to wear because the manufacturer used one-off straps for them. The mechanisms still work fine, but I can't wear them because the exact strap for that exact watch is no longer available. Hey, EU — While you're forcing USB-C on everyone, how about picking a watch band standard, too?

reaperman 3y ago
So, I'm a huge fan of regulation but the problem with over-regulation is that it will stop really fun products from being released in those markets. Like, imagine a watch that has an inflatable cuff that can take your blood pressure. It may be unsightly, bulky, and very dorky. So maybe it wouldn't fit this new "EU Watch Band Standard" that was imagined for Apple Watch. So a very large company like Apple could lobby the EU to change the law and might even do that with enough lead time so it doesn't delay the product launch. But a small company, kickstarter, etc would be screwed because there's no way they could expect to get the legislators' attention for something like this. And yes, the legislation could be written with sensible carveouts, but we all know it won't, or they'll either not be comprehensive enough, or they'll be a leaky sieve that lets every shady corporation say "oh yeah there's a standard watchband but our special watch falls under exemption 312(c)." Or you can have a government agency handle "exemption requests" without legislative action, but then the small kickstarter will go through 6 rounds and 18 months of records and documentation requests, if they even bother looking into the process at all and not just saying "oh fuck that."
- yunohn 3y ago
  > imagine Yes, so imaginative innovations for niche usecases can easily be exempted. The goal would be to enable mainstream mass-market devices to follow the standard. It’s not as complicated as you suggest, and works in almost every industry.
  - mynameisvlad 3y ago
    I mean, straight up no. If there is any sort of legislation, regardless of exemptions, time will have to be spent to figure out if the exemption applies, and generally will require some work to either apply for or defend the exemption as part of the development and release process. This would stifle innovation in the long run. Why bother with this extra work when there are a other variations on the idea that would be quicker to launch?
    - jychang 3y ago
      I rarely see this mentioned, but why don’t people just support laws that expire? You can’t stifle innovation in the long run if the law doesn’t exist in the long run. I’ve often espoused a law that requires USB-C to charge phones- that expires after 3-5 years. Just enough time to get everyone on the same standard and lock in a little, but not enough to kill innovation when the next big thing happens. Worst case scenario, wait 3 years… but if it was really bad, the law would get repealed anyways. This strategy would be great for many fields. Imagine if the world decided to make a law that expires in 3-5 years to require one specific electric car charging port. Or made an expiring law that required ebook sellers to use epub format in 2010 (I’m looking at you, Amazon, with your .mobi format). Or made an expiring law that unified every display cable under HDMI (ignoring patent issues). I’m not saying that stuff like this should be enshrined in law forever, but a lot of stuff would be a lot easier if it was more socially/politically accepted to pass laws that expire.
      - Analemma_ 3y ago
        Because then laws that people rely on become bargaining chips held hostage when the expiration date comes. And this creates horrible perverse incentives where the more obviously good and uncontroversial the law is, the more valuable it is as a hostage, so the more likely it is to disappear, which is a complete inversion of democracy. Like clean air? Well, give $MY_FACTION a billion billion dollars or it goes away. This isn't a hypothetical either, you see this in American politics all the damn time with temporary laws and allocations.
ImprovedSilence 3y ago
You might not be able to get the exact strap, but there are certainly numerous aftermarket straps (from low to high end) you can easily get. The strap is more than likely held in by a spring bar, and the while there are various widths, they are standard widths, ie 20 or 22mm etc… especially any older mechanical watch, will absolutely have the ability to interchange the band. And if it’s not a spring bar but a solid fixed piece of metal, you can use a nato style strap or something similar.
- reaperducer 3y ago
  You might not be able to get the exact strap, but there are certainly numerous aftermarket straps (from low to high end) you can easily get. I've tried, and even brought them to several watch stores and jewelers in Seattle, Houston, and New York with no luck. The problem isn't the spring bar, it's the shape of the watch where connection is made.
Spinnaker_ 3y ago
I'm curious, which very nice dress watch manufacturer won't replace the band for you? They went out of business?
- justsomehnguy 3y ago
  > the exact strap for that exact watch is no longer available. Also too many reaper* nicknames in the thread
raverbashing 3y ago
You want at a standard watch band? Don't look at the EU, look at... NATO Really

high_priest 3y ago

What the heck are people talking about with the quick swap bands being an innovation? Literally all the watches I own, from grandfathers antiques, to modern Amazfits, all of them have the bands on a spring loaded bar. Like... I don't remember the last time I have seen a different mechanism. There is a brief mention of this system as a "conventional" one in the article ``` Apple took the conventional spring bars of traditional watches, miniaturized them, turned them on their sides, and embedded them into the watch band. ``` Complicating a simple solution for the sake of a flashy "flush" finish, doesn't sound like an innovation.

babypuncher 3y ago
I don't know about your grandfather's watches, but non-smart watches I've had that take standard bands require a screwdriver.
- high_priest 3y ago
  Rugged watches, outdooring ones, garmins, sure. They have big bars which require a screwdriver. They are made to first tear out your hand and then "maybe" break.
  - panopticon 3y ago
    I think Garmin switched all of their watches to the QuickFit system at least 5 years ago.
    - jerlam 3y ago
      Quickfit is mostly concentrated on their larger/higher end watches, like Fenix and up. Their lower end watches (like the Forerunner 265) still have a quick release spring bar. In contrast, Casio G-Shocks, which are specifically built to be rugged/fashionable, don't have any kind of quick change mechanism. The strap is integrated into the case that further protects the watch.
      - 3y ago

thadk 3y ago

For what it's worth, scaling the freestanding Mt. Kilimanjaro volcano is about as intense as a 4 day backpacking trip up up up to high altitude, little to no watch-risky technical climbing required for the common routes.

saiya-jin 3y ago
Whiskey/cocacola routes take 7 days standard, at least in 2012 they both did. For good reasons, folks struggle with altitude and you have plenty of people who go up high first time in their lives, so taking time to acclimatize is smart for general groups. Even with this, success rate was not more than 50%. I've personally struggled like hell on the top, almost hallucinated and so did rest of my team members. But we made a junior mistake of going too fast up on summit day. When I did ie Mont Damavand in Iran, which is just 250m lower after cca 3 years, no issues and roud trip was just 2 days. But I've trained and did some crazy stuff in between. Most folks don't do that kind of stuff.
- jefftk 3y ago
  Sure, but none of that is hard on watches.