Ask the Experts Making Watch Bands Q&A

Hi! I'm new to beading and love it! I want to make bands for my existing watches that have a bar. What do I use to start? Is there a special finding?

- Lois Ann

Welcome to beading! You will come across many findings to create wonderful, original designs for watch bands.

To start, you need to remove the ''spring bar'' on your watch face. To do this easily, we recommend you use a spring bar watch tool. The fork on the tool will help compress the bar so you can angle it out of the setting--be careful though as they do LOVE TO FLY! When you're ready to reinsert the bar, just reverse the motion.

When designing your band, keep in mind you can't fill the spring bar up too much or it will be hard to compress and reinsert into the watch face.

To build a watch band using beads, we recommend stringing on Accu-Flex® beading wire and securing the wire with crimp beads.

If designing a band using lots of strands of beads, you might want to consider using spacer bars to hold multiple strands in place. Finish your new watchband with one of our many clasps.