Last year I took a step into the world of horology and bought an Omega Aqua Terra; black dial, orange details, on a leather strap. It’s a glorious watch, with an outstanding mechanical movement, beautiful finishing and a design that manages to be both contemporary and vintage-inspired without overdoing it in either direction.
But there has been just one problem: it turns out that for every day wear, I need a steel bracelet. The leather band it came on is gorgeous, high quality, comfortable, and the perfect shade of tan to complement the orange details on the dial. But on any given day, I’m likely to find myself rinsing dishes in the sink, giving one of my two boys a bath, playing out in the yard, or being spit up on by the baby. Leather is not suited to these activities.
So I found myself trying strap upon strap to fix that dilemma. The NATO option is cool and leans much further into the vintage diver feel of the watch. But I just don’t like NATO straps that much. I tried a Milanese mesh bracelet, but that doesn’t quite look right to me. I would buy the Omega OEM bracelet that goes with this watch, but new from the company it’s $600+, and they just don’t come up on the used market. The third party ones on Etsy, eBay and elsewhere don’t fit (trust me, I’ve tried a handful).
So I gave Uncle Seiko a shot. They sell a range of straps and bracelets for Seiko’s as well as repro’s of old Speedmaster bracelets that are long discontinued by Omega. And it turns out that you can easily modify the hollow end-links of those steel Speedmaster bracelets to fit most Seamaster models—including my Aqua Terra. There are four specifically that work: the 1171 (“President”), 1035 (“Flat Link”), Holzer and a “beads of rice.” I tried the 1035 flat link and the 1171 president.
The result? It’s kinda good! I ended up liking the 1171 president the best. The bracelets are intentionally made to be kinda loose, light and jangly. To me, it feels like a Timex bracelet, with its stamped clasp and snap closure. To my surprise, that doesn’t bother me all that much once it’s on the wrist.
Supposedly the Speedmaster bracelets of old were this way, and there is a subset of customers who pine for those days. I always assumed that was an impulse akin to a preference for the “warm” sounds of tube amps and old 45s.
But after wearing this jangly, Timex-y bracelet on my master co-axial chronometer for about a week, one day it clicked, and I understood the appeal those old-timers see:
It turns the watch from an object of worship into a commodity, more like what it was back in the day. Not a luxury item you obsess over, stare at, worry about and buy insurance policies for, but instead just a nice watch you put on your wrist to tell the time. That wasn’t what I expected to feel but here we are.
That said, the biggest appeal to me isn’t all of that, but simply that it turns what had been a watch I wore in more dressy scenarios into an every day, black dial steel sports watch. The versatility of that can’t be overstated, and I appreciate the Aqua Terra as a category of watches even more than I did before. If I’m able to find a second-hand OEM Omega steel bracelet for a good price, I’ll buy it.
In the meantime, I’m greatly enjoying Uncle Seiko for what it is, in all its loose, jangly glory.
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