Caveman's Watch Forum

Last night's project, or The Perfect Combo for my >>

Posted By: Ricky Lee McBroom
Date: Wednesday, 15 June 2005, at 3:34 p.m.

A little background first - some of you may have read the archived review of my Casio Databank Twincept ABX23-8BV. If so, you'll recall that it's my everyday workhorse watch. So, when pondering on what watch to wear on my upcoming motorcycle tour of the western U.S., it took me maybe 20 seconds to decide on the Casio. It's digital functions will come in handy; the Telememo means that all my VIP phone numbers will be ready at hand, the World-Time eliminates the need to reset for different time zones, and the Stopwatch is essential for computing trip stats. I'll even try the Alarm, though I have serious reservations about whether it will wake me after a hard day in the saddle.

You may also recall that I've been wearing the watch on a Spiedel resin strap with compass.

Now, when the weather gets hot and sticky, I find a rubber strap to be more comfortable than leather. And much more so than a bracelet, in most cases. But the best strap material for sauna-like conditions, IMHO, is soft-weave nylon. When you're going to be in the saddle for nearly three weeks, every little bit helps and, as I believe I've mentioned before, I can't leave well enough alone.. So I set out to remedy the situation.

Luckily, I had a perfect strap candidate on hand, in the form of a 22mm skunk NATO, obtained from WatchRick over on the sales forum.

Seller's photo borrowed from Sales Forum

But there was a snag - the Casio takes an 18mm strap. No problem, I figure, I'll just notch it to fit. I removed the old strap, laid out the notches, and was actually ready to cut 'em when I thought "Hmmmm. These straps are very supple. Maybe, just maybe I can squeeze it in with no modification." And, sure enough, 'twas a piece o' cake. Good to go!

So I rigged 'er up ('backwards', as is my norm) and test drove it for a couple of days. The weather co-operated, with temps near 100, and I noticed a definite and significant increase in comfort. And I loooove the looks of the watch on this strap.

But the more I thought about it, the more it seemed that I would really, really, really miss that compass. A compass is a fine thing to have handy when you're far from home & traveling unfamiliar roads, after all! After a little brainstorming, I decided that I'd have my cake and eat it, too.

The compass itself is round, and simply pops into the molded orifice in the Spiedel strap. I removed it, rigged up a harness with Kevlar thread, and test fit it to the strap.. or rather I attempted to. Big problem! The keeper of the top strap lay right where I needed to mount the compass. I re-rigged the strap conventionally, but no joy. Now the end-loop of the base strap interfered.

I'm not one to admit defeat, though, so I simply cut the base strap off. This effectively turned it into a US military-style strap.. or, I suppose, when you consider the SS strap keepers, something more like one of the Zulu straps from WCT. Whatever.. a single-span over-n-under strap. This let me adjust the position of the buckle and keepers so that I had plenty of room for the compass. YIPEE!

At this point, I was finally able to test fit the compass.. and it just looked wrong to me. Remember, this was just the round compass module, and 'twas the round shape that put me off. That and, frankly, my spiffy Kevlar harness looked like crap. Also at this point, it occurred to me that Spiedel knew what they were doing when they mounted it in a thick rubber boss. The bare plastic module, sitting there naked like that, would be extremely prone to impact damage when knocking about on a bike.

But never say die, remember!

Being honest with myself, 'twas my Inner Scotsman who led me to try it that way first. It required no modification of the Spiedel, and it'd be easy to return it to OEM at some later date. Cheap! But, what the heck, we're talking a $5 strap here! So I told my Inner Scotsman to STFU.

It also seemed the simplest solution, which appealed to my Inner Engineer. So I pointed out to him that the compass module needed a protective shroud. That did it! Out came the Xacto knife, and gung ho sod that he is, he soon had the Spiedel on the operating table.

And the operation was a success! With the excess trimmed away, I was left with a cushion shaped rubber shroud which matched the 22mm width of the strap almost perfectly. Next I drilled 1mm holes in the corners, low and angled inwards so that they're not visible from the top. Out came the Kevlar thread again. A stitch here & a stitch there and.. Voila!

I'm wearing the combo today and, so far, am most pleased with it.

Still diggin' the looks, and the compass mounting seems plenty solid. You could tow a truck with this Kevlar thread, so I'm not worried about that aspect of the job. But time will tell and I will, of course, update y'all when I return from the trip.

Thanks for lookin'!

-Ricky

Messages In This Thread

Last night's project, or The Perfect Combo for my >> (views: 110)

Ricky Lee McBroom -- Wednesday, 15 June 2005, at 3:34 p.m.

to all for your best wishes.. >> (views: 1)
Ricky Lee McBroom -- Wednesday, 15 June 2005, at 11:04 p.m.

Great job Ricky! (views: 1)
Chris Moy -- Wednesday, 15 June 2005, at 5:34 p.m.

Ghetto Mods - neato (views: 2)
Bjorn Keizers -- Wednesday, 15 June 2005, at 4:57 p.m.

Heh. Yep! Guilty as charged!
Ricky Lee McBroom -- Wednesday, 15 June 2005, at 10:24 p.m.

GREAT Ricky! I enjoyed this very much! Safe ride (views: 2)
Reto -- Wednesday, 15 June 2005, at 4:31 p.m.

Very nice! Have a safe ride! (views: 2)
John N -- Wednesday, 15 June 2005, at 4:24 p.m.

Great job! (views: 2)
Jeff Hargrave -- Wednesday, 15 June 2005, at 4:08 p.m.

Now it is a tool watch and a half. (views: 3)
Tim -- Wednesday, 15 June 2005, at 3:51 p.m.