Are you wearing the wrong bracelet? Butterfly vs Deployant clasps
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- Опубліковано 9 бер 2024
- #NSOW
A common complaint about watches, especially Omegas and Grand Seikos, actually has little to do with the watch, often its a complaint about an accessory, the bracelet. Even more interesting ofen the complaint concerns a lack a micro-adjust, and they are often compared to (and found wanting against) Tudors with their T fit and Rolex with their on the fly adjustments. Today I examine the deployant with microadjust vs thin but less flexible butterfly clasp debate.
For your awareness some things about me and the channel.
I'm an engineer who's into human behavior, loves the ideas behind art and sees watches as a mix of science, craft, art, business, history, technology, philosophy, and psychology. As a result, my videos cover all that ground. (Oh, and I overthink everything).
In my opinion a $15 Casio or a $50 G-Shock are probably the only real tool watches and pretty much everything else is jewelry. So as we are talking about jewelry I think style is substance and I tend to believe history, brand, style, design, execution, and aesthetics are more important than specs. A dull design with a good movement is a dull watch, and an exciting design with an average movement is an exciting watch.
To be clear, I hate the expression "it's just a watch". If you got this far, watches matter to you and represent a bridge between us - dismissing them as unimportant seems wrong and disrespectful. That doesn't mean we can't and don't have fun, it just means we should not be totally mindless of others.
I'm a watch collector and curator - I like my collections to have a theme. My collection has several themes:
1. Vintage Alpina watches
2. Travel watches (GMT. UTC, world timers, home times, dual times)
3. Seiko Prospex dive watches
4. Breitling chronographs
5. Stuff I just really like.
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One thing that makes a big difference is the overall balance and distribution the weight of the watch, and the way the case and bracelet conform to the wrist. I don't mind wearing a well balanced watch on a bracelet a little loose, but if the watch head is really heavy relative to the bracelet, I want a closer fit to keep it from moving around too much.
I think this is probably more of a problem with affordable microbrand watches that try to do a watch with a butterfly clasp or integrated bracelet, but are operating in a price range that doesn't allow them to build a slim cased watch, or to be able to spend the time designing and prototyping the watch to the point where they can get the fit and balance down.
I exclusively wear vintage watches (late 60s, early 70s), and have always been very happy with the old fashioned stamped, folding clasp. It's light, slim and not fiddly to open or close. The bracelets on these watches are also much lighter and slimmer than on most modern watches. It's been all downhill in the last 50 years IMO, overcomplicating something simple and over-engineering it for the sake of perceived, rather than actual, quality and practicality.
I'm apparently the opposite of you. I find bracelets much more comfortable than straps, and more practical, you can get them wet, etc. I like to wear bracelets like your AD guy says, snug, with a bit of room to breathe. I've gotten a decent enough fit on most of them, maybe I got lucky, and I don't have a strong preference for either butterfly or deployant clasps (I definitely prefer a deployant clasp on a strap). I don't get the hate for butterfly clasps. Now for my public service announcement for people who say they can't get a good fit with a Grand Seiko bracelet: they do have "microadjustment," though not on the fly. The half links are really 2/3 links, and they give you two. So, by mixing and matching half and full links, you can adjust the bracelet by 1/3 link increments, or about 3mm, the same amount of adjustment that adjustment holes give you. No, it's not quick, but it's not hard, and I find I do it once or twice a year, so it's not onerous and quite workable.
I've never had the problem of wrist swelling during a hot day, but I have had many a bracelet where my wrist size is bang in the middle of two settings. Ie take another link out and it's too tight, leave it in and it's too loose and I can't tell you how disappointing it is when that happens. For me if the bracelet or strap doesn't fit nicely it's enough to completely ruin the watch for me
I’m with you on the butterfly clasp. It’s sleeker.
I love bracelets-although I really don’t find any watch of mine to be comfortable or uncomfortable. Shrug. It’s a watch on my wrist and I don’t much feel it and even when I do it doesn’t bother me.
I tend to like a butterfly clasp on dressier watch, and a deployant on larger tool watches. The butterfly clasp looks more elegant, and the micro adjustment is more useful on heavy watches that won’t sit in place if the bracelet is a little loose.
I never thought about it until now, but I wear my bracelets with a finger gap too. I don't like the feeling of a tight bracelet. Most of mine are butterfly clasps, and that works well for me. I could see wanting some micro adjust capability if I wore them tighter, in which case a deployant clasp would be a nice thing to have.
I used to always go for a leather band. I was always wary of bracelets having tried them on cheap watches decades ago and found that they functioned more as epilators more than to keep the watch on your wrist.
Cut to the tail end of 2022. I decided to buy my first luxury watch on the bracelet. I was following the advice that I should buy the bracelet variant, and then wear it on leather, and then keep the bracelet for resale purposes. The watch? The _Fifty Fathoms 5015_ titanium black dial. The bracelet is an all titanium with a butterfly clasp with no quick adjust mechanism. The link removal was by a clever cam and bar system. Crucially, that's when I discovered bracelets could be comfortable and not rip all your arm hairs out. So the leather strap idea went out the window and I now wear that _Fifty Fathoms_ on the butterfly bracelet.
The second bracelet watch I bought was a _Sinn 903 H2_ on Sinn's fine link bracelet with another butterfly clasp. Once the bracelet was sized (screw and bar system), it was super comfortable.
The third and most recent purchase was a _H Moser & Cie Pioneer Center Seconds Mad Swiss Red_ on the bracelet. The bracelet is made by a Swiss company for several brands including A. Lange and Glashutte Original. The clasp has a quick adjust button on it in the form of the Moser logo. It too is a lovely comfortable bracelet. It's my first quick adjust clasp and it's brilliant.
But that doesn't mean, for me, that it makes bracelets without a quick adjust mechanism a deal breaker. I've come to love watches with bracelets and will be getting future timepieces on bracelets regardless of type.
Hi Pete, I remember when butterfly clasps came out. A vast improvement over thin metal clasps and milled to boot. Then, milled bracelet clasps became more prevalent. Both are vast improvements to style comfort and quality. I enjoy both. Then thinner and elegant the clasp and bracelet the better. My best bracelet was on an Oysterquartz datejust with a white gold bezel. It was similar to the current PRX bracelet.
I like you now prefer a good leather band or as in Seiko their soft rubber straps. Hirsche makes excellent cartouche premium rubber straps.
Great topic Pete,
Thank you,
Starlight
When it comes to butterfly clasps, the weight and finish of the whole watch matters. Bigger, heavier watches and bracelets benefit more from quick-adjust because wearing them loose can be uncomfortable or harder to keep in place. Well finished (chamfered, beveled, and polished) bracelets and cases can get away with being looser fitting.
Sinn offers both types on their 556 and 104 models.
I can't find anything from my personal experiences with either kind of enclosure on a bracelet to say that one wears better for any particular situation. But I have resized most of my bracelets because I came to realize that a close-fit wears much bettter for me than having it a bit loose. Well, to be honest, this close-fit is more important on heavier watches; A lightweight titanium that comes in around 70g can wear loose because I'm not going to feel it. I have to believe that some of what generates talking points on wearability has to do with the psychology of wearing them, not as much about the physical qualities. And by that, I mean stuff like, fidgeting with the bracelet and taking the watch off and putting it back on, just because you're noticing it there on the wrist.
I prefer bracelets generally. I have a couple of deployant clasps and one butterfly. They both work for me. But the issue with a butterfly is to get it symmetrical on the back of my wrist. It bugs me if it sits too far off center.
It would be great if more brands milled the inside of the bracelet to fit the deployant inside, like the Bvlgari Octo Finissimo for example.
That would be cool of course like the VC butterfly clasp with microadjust, when charging 20k plus all things are possible.
JLC has a clever micro-adjustment mechanism on its butterfly clasp. I wish more brands would copy their mechanism.
JLC probably have a patent on that clever solution. So it's likely no-one else can copy it, unless they can come to some kind of licencing arrangement.
While your idea makes sense, I’m afraid it would drive up the manufacturing costs, therefore the retail costs, of all watches on a bracelet. For that reason I’m a no.
You personally might not understand because of how you wear your watches on bracelets but I recommend trying out the VC Overseas or VC FiftySix on bracelet - butterfly clasp but with two on the fly micro adjusts on each side giving you 2mm more each side - which is amazingly convenient. JLC has the same in their butterfly clasps. But you have to open the bracelet to adjust. However - do I "survive" without it with watches that don't have this? Sure - but then I have to configure the bracelet looser than I want to to offset my wrist swelling in humid conditions etc. So it's much easier and comfortable having an on the fly adjust - especially when you pay so much for the watches it better be comfortable to wear. However you want to wear it.
I’ve never liked butterfly clasps. They are harder to get a perfect fit and can come loose if the push buttons are depressed.
I actually prefer the single fold deployant clasp with no micro adjust on leather or sailcloth. The micro adjust makes the clasp too bulky.
I hate the feeling of a watch flopping around on my wrist. I like a tighter fit. Its my one problem with GS bracelets. I'm not willing to wear a watch a little loose. Gives me the heebie-jeebies. If that were my only choice, I would just assume not wear a watch. I have been able to find a good fit on my Santos and "The Citizen" though. Neither have micro adjust. And I think that comes down to those bracelets using smaller links than GS does. The smaller the links, the better you can fine tune the fit.
Normalizing the choice of a deployant or butterfly clasp would not only solve the problem of preference, but also eliminate useless complaining!
(...or just give people more bandwidth to complain about case size)
I've never owned a butterfly clasp bracelet although that may change in the near future. Some brands already do offer deployant and butterfly clasps but the design of the bracelet is different and I'm not sure if you meant same bracelet design with optional clasp designs.
Both style should be offered
IWC did this with the ingenuir due to no on the fly
Makes alot of sense - why not buy both
Anyone know where I can get a decent
NATO strap for a standard Seiko watch?
I agree with you, Pete. This whole "I have to have micro-adjustment on my bracelet" mentality has become something of a dumb-reach for too many people. Just size your bracelet so it's still comfortable when your wrist is in its most expanded state, and enjoy the additional drape you get at other times. For me, I want a deployant only on a dive watch. I prefer the more elegant butterfly design on anything else: sport, dress or chrono. Deployant clasps, especially those with micro adjustment, are too big and bulky and they ruin the continuity of a good bracelet. Unfortunately, Rolex has made that rather fashionable at present.
I think since a lot of brands offer on the fly micro adjusts on butterfly clasps - once you experienced that added comfort, you wonder why it's not used universally. Even micro-brands have bracelets with that so - the question is not why you should want it - but why you wouldn't want it. My VC Overseas has these micro adjust that is super convenient and so smartly integrated that it doesn't add bulk or looks ungainly - it's wonderful to have. Especially when you like the bracelets snug.
(Swiss) Brands, Breitling, Bracelets.
Can we please move on over the Br_____? There are more letters in the alphabet.... 😋
(What's next? Bucherer???😜)
V C Overseas has a butterfly clasp with micro adjust