SMP/SMP Chrono Bracelet Swap

[dovo1695]

The decline of the SMP "Bond" over the last few years has been pretty well documented here in the RWG forums. Nevertheless, it's still the watch I keep coming back to when I'm browsing the forums; it's such a beautiful, understated, perfect watch. I think I can forgive most of the short-comings of the current SMP reps, but the one thing that troubles me is that I've repeatedly heard that the current bracelet is junk. Life is too short for crappy bracelets. Unfortunately, the gen bracelet costs more than the whole rep and my searches of the "Bay" have come to naught.

On the other hand, I've heard that the bracelet on the current SMP chrono is pretty damn good. I've consistently seen it compared favorably to the "old SMP" bracelet (which is saying a lot). I realize that it will still have screws instead of pins but this doesn't really bother me. My thought is that I could by an SMP Blue "Bond" and an SMP chrono bracelet and do a bracelet swap.

The only difficulty is that the end-links on a SMP bracelet are different from the end links on a SMP Chrono bracelet. See below.

SMP Chrono endlink in front

Is it true that the SMP Chrono bracelet is as good as the "old school" SMP? Is it possible to swap the endlinks from the SMP bracelet to the SMP chrono bracelet; if so how difficult is it to do? Has anyone ever tried this, or am I just kidding myself. If it works, I can finally stop drooling over pictures of the "old" SMP and place an order.

Thanks in Advance

Edited April 15, 2008 by dovo1695

[predfan2001]

All I can say is good luck. I wanted to put a SMP band on my GMT rep and it took almost a year and at least 6 rep bands before I got a combo to work. Bracelet swaps on Omega reps will make you pull youre hair out.

The decline of the SMP "Bond" over the last few years has been pretty well documented here in the RWG forums. Nevertheless, it's still the watch I keep coming back to when I'm browsing the forums; it's such a beautiful, understated, perfect watch. I think I can forgive most of the short-comings of the current SMP reps, but the one thing that troubles me is that I've repeatedly heard that the current bracelet is junk. Life is too short for crappy bracelets. Unfortunately, the gen bracelet costs more than the whole rep and my searches of the "Bay" have come to naught.

On the other hand, I've heard that the bracelet on the current SMP chrono is pretty damn good. I've consistently seen it compared favorably to the "old SMP" bracelet (which is saying a lot). I realize that it will still have screws instead of pins but this doesn't really bother me. My thought is that I could by an SMP Blue "Bond" and an SMP chrono bracelet and do a bracelet swap.

The only difficulty is that the end-links on a SMP bracelet are different from the end links on a SMP Chrono bracelet. See below.

SMP Chrono endlink in front

Is it true that the SMP Chrono bracelet is as good as the "old school" SMP? Is it possible to swap the endlinks from the SMP bracelet to the SMP chrono bracelet; if so how difficult is it to do? Has anyone ever tried this, or am I just kidding myself. If it works, I can finally stop drooling over pictures of the "old" SMP and place an order.

Thanks in Advance

[PAMman]

I have one of the 'old school' Bond reps with the good bracelet etc but I recently got a genuine clasp that I wanted to swap into the rep bracelet and so far it's proving to be a problem as the pins aren't the same thickness, so I fully agree with the above comment that a braclet swap is likely to prove frustrating.

What about buying the current rep and, if the braclet is a real let-down, you can always put it onto a genuine Omega blue shark strap which is an option on this watch? I bought an unused one of these on a gen forum, complete with the genuine Omega buckle for

[Logan]

The original chrono bracelet is slight narrower between the inner row of links than the real one or the better replica bracelets like on the older SMP's. The good point is the clasp is very very good. The engraving and the finish inside are much better than even the older SMP's had.

The real end links will not fit the chrono bracelet due to the width but will fit the older SMP bracelets.

The better clasp from the chrono will fit the older SMP pin type bracelets but some very tiny holes need enlarging to fit the pin and sleeve instead of the screws used on the chrono bracelet.

As for fitting the real chrono end links (826's from memory) into the replica chrono case.. its a bloody mission. The hole positions on replica cases are notorious for sloppy positioning. Its hit and miss as to whether yours will fit in easily.

[dovo1695]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I had a feeling that it was going to be difficult to swap the bracelets . I don't relish the thought of going through 6 bracelets in the attempt!

Thanks Logan for the heads up about the clasp swap. You say that the clasps can be swapped from the Chrono to the old SMP; do you (or anybody) know whether they can be swapped to the current generation of SMP reps?