Blancpain Fifty Fathoms new limited edition unveiled on the 15th of March

[asiparks]

Originally Posted by Batmannr1

Thanks, nice pick the barakuda and a great watch to add to your collection.
The bracelet is not fitted with spring bars. It comes with friction pins which have to be hammered into the endlinks. No easy job, the watch maker of the AD I bought the bracelet from did the work.

what the heck what ?!?

My X71 is attached by a pin with a .9mm hex socket at each end. $7 worth of hex screwdrivers from amazon and 3 minutes max to gently unscrew them and switch between bracelet and straps. Not to cast this "watchmaker" in a bad light, but I would really like to know more about these pins he had to hammer in....and how he would go about hammering them back out, should you want to change to a strap.

Granted my watch is a big old regular FF, but having to get unduly physical ramming pins into anything seems decidedly off brand....


edit- just did it. 30 secs each way being fairly careful....



edit2 bloody hell, my watch is filthy.....
.

[Batmannr1]

Originally Posted by asiparks

what the heck what ?!?

My X71 is attached by a pin with a .9mm hex socket at each end. $7 worth of hex screwdrivers from amazon and 3 minutes max to gently unscrew them and switch between bracelet and straps. Not to cast this "watchmaker" in a bad light, but I would really like to know more about these pins he had to hammer in....and how he would go about hammering them back out, should you want to change to a strap.

Granted my watch is a big old regular FF, but having to get unduly physical ramming pins into anything seems decidedly off brand....


edit- just did it. 30 secs each way being fairly careful....



edit2 bloody hell, my watch is filthy.....
.

The X71 bracelet to fit the 40 mm FF case unfortunately does not come with the hex pin and screw.
Blancpain developed just for the X71 bracelet of the 45 mm FF case that feature, which makes it a lot easier to swap from bracelet to strap and back again.
If I want to change back to the tropic strap a visit to the watchmaker is required
A pity Blancpain did not put in the effort yet to upgrade the 40 mm X71 bracelet.

[asiparks]

Wow ! Sorry to hear that, for a bracelet costing as much as the X71, that's frankly shocking & disappointing on the part of Blancpain. Supplying slightly shorter, threaded pins seems like a low bar...

[Batmannr1]

Originally Posted by asiparks

Wow ! Sorry to hear that, for a bracelet costing as much as the X71, that's frankly shocking & disappointing on the part of Blancpain. Supplying slightly shorter, threaded pins seems like a low bar...

Check the diameter of the lugholes of the 40 mm FF. Too small for threaded pins and hex screws. Would be a real improvement if Blancpain redesigned the 40 mm case lugholes, so it would fit the hex screw and pin.

[NardinNut]

I bought spring bars to fit the x71 and be easy to do strap changes. Downside is that there is slight play so the bracelet doesn’t sit flush to the case. Didn’t bother me at first but now the gap and play annoys the hell out of me. Would love to find a fix so it’s flush/solid and able to do quick strap changes