At the beginning of the week we took a FirstLook at the Time Trak. A few readers had noted that while the watch was interesting, it was a bit "fancy" for everyday wear. We thought...why not "beef it up" a bit by replacing the strap with a sportier looking one?

Frequent readers of RainyDayMagazine know that our "go to" source for watch bands is as site called StrappedForTime. They have a great collection of the most interesting aftermarket straps, the service is quick, and the prices are excellent.

We looked at through a lot of potential options and decided on a "Kevlar-look" synthetic band and a stainless steel clasp. At 6mm thick it was certainly well suited for the beefier sports watches, diving watches, and chronographs. We picked it because the texture made a nice contrast to the smooth face of the Time Trak. The synthetic strap had the "sporty" appearance we were after without making the whole thing look like a diving watch.

We have done articles on watch band replacements before so we won't go into the details here. We will mention a few things we encountered that made this particular band change different from the previous ones.

First, we had ordered a larger band (20mm) than needed because we noticed there were notches on both sides of the OEM band. This meant we would have to cut the replacement strap to fit. Second, what we had not realized was the anchor pins had to be bent to fit. We didn't want to try to replicate the curve so we just used the original ones.

It took a bit of work to refit the pins back into the holes because the strap was new and was not yet that flexible. After a few tries, we finally managed to get things aligned and anchored.

The Time Trak with its original band is a very nice looking watch. For us and our daily activities, it was a bit on the dressy side. However, with its new band, we would have no problems wearing it when we are just hanging out at the cafe. If you have a dressy watch which you would like to be able to mix into the rotation, then do what we did. Take a look at the options available at StrappedForTime, pick out a replacement, and get more use out of that fancy watch in the drawer. [Permalink] -Strapped For Time