The springbars on the Seiko divers are fat, 2.5mm. These will not go through most leather straps without a bit of work. Wet the strap, apply some lube to a nail that is about the same thickness as the springbar, force it into the strap then let it dry. Remove the nail, then the springbar should fit, apply some lube to the springbar if it is a little tight.
Alternativly, you can replace the springbar for a thinner one. There is no other reason why an aftermarket strap won't fit. The monster has 20mm lugs, so any 20mm strap will fit it.

 

Just to expand a little on the strap size.

You may be able to use a 22mm strap if notches are carefully (1mm each side with a very sharp razor/exacto blade) cut into the springbar ends of the strap to accomodate the Monster lugs. The Monster lugs are "drilled through" as well to make it much easier to remove the existing strap.

You can see in the pic (Thank you Chonograph.com) the drilled lug holes, and how even the metal bracelet has notched lug ends, similar to what could be done to to an aftermarket strap.

Here's a pic of a 2.5mm springbar.

 

Your Monster can use just about any leather/rubber/metal bracelet or strap as long as the spring bars are 20mm and appropriate for the bracelet or strap.

Here's my Black Monster on a 20mm Di-Modell Chronissimo leather strap:

HTH

 

Boy..that looks good :-!. I need to get one of those for mine .

 

I tend to wear my OM on a Chronisismo too by taking the spring bars out of my bracelet and gently forcing them through the strap. It's not too easy becauase the 2.5mm bars are a fair bit wider than average but they do it and that's all that counts I suppose :-!

Don't suppose anyone knows a UK supplier of the OM spring bars - I could do with a spare set??? :thanks

 

Yeah Nick is remembering sort of correctly. The monster's lug width is 20mm. What I said was that in any seiko diver, you can install any bracelet that will fit. however, other than seiko bracelets (and now the watchadoo lumpy), no others take seikos fat spring bars. As a result you'll need to use standard size spring bars which are a bit thinner.

Since the lug holes in the monster are designed for a fat spring bar, using a standard spring bar will leave some slack and the tips of the bar will move around inside the lug hole. if you do nothing about this, over time that moving around will score and ultimately deform the lug hole, thus potentially making springars more prone to popping out easily. That plus the play gets annoying after a while.

How do you solve this? easy. You buy a set of wide shouldered standard spingbars, one size longer that your lug width. in other words, for the monster, you would by a 22mm set. What happens is that when you use these, the springbar end compresses, but does not have enough room left over to expand fully inside the springbar whole. This causes the wide shouldered flanges near the end of the springbars to remain inside of the lug hole, thus taking up the slack.

Do this and you will avoid potential damage to your watch.

BTW, before anyone suggests that this is an unlikely possibility, I have personally examined several watches where this has happened.

 

Yep, I remembered that post too, just took a minute to find it.

 

Gabe and others, thanks for picking up where I left off. Nice to see that there is such an easy solution (the wide-shouldered 22mm spring bar) to the problem, too.

By the way, to the original poster (music_healing), I apologize for hijacking your thread, but I figured this discussion would help and ensure you don't damage that nice Monster of yours.

 

thats ok dude

I has 1 other maybe silly questions
Still dont really follows, I try to ask in my understanding after reading your responses:

So OM comes with Fatter spring bar , right?
this fatter spring bar wouldnt fit to other OEM bracelet, leather strap or NATO?

so if we want to use OEM bracelet, leather and NATO
We has to find 2,2 mm thin spring bar to use in no.20 bracelet, leather or NATO ?

the we keep our original Fatter spring bar from Seiko , to use in future if we wish to go back to Seiko rubber or bracelet ?

Is my understanding right ?

 

Healing,

Your Monster has come with the 2.5mm spring bars.

If you want to switch to leather band, you will need to make the hole bigger for the 2.5mm spring bar. This is done by following HYST13s instructions.

As for the majority of Seiko bracelets, I believe that they come with 2.5mm holes in place for the fatter spring bars.

Now NATO bands are nylon if I'm not mistaken and I'm fairly sure that you will be able to slide the 2.5mm spring bar through the band with a little effort.

Bottom line, is make sure that the band/bracelet is 20mm wide (or you can "notch" a 22mm leather band) and make sure you can RETURN it!

Where's OnTimeGabe when you need him?? He had to sleep now?

I'll try to forward a link to OnTimeGabe regarding your issue. He has crazy knowledge of bands/bracelets.

Good luck Music_Healing,

Rice

 

Your Monster has come with the 2.5mm spring bars.

If you want to switch to leather band, you will need to make the hole bigger for the 2.5mm spring bar. This is done by following HYST13s instructions.

As for the majority of Seiko bracelets, I believe that they come with 2.5mm holes in place for the fatter spring bars.

Now NATO bands are nylon if I'm not mistaken and I'm fairly sure that you will be able to slide the 2.5mm spring bar through the band with a little effort.

Bottom line, is make sure that the band/bracelet is 20mm wide (or you can "notch" a 22mm leather band) and make sure you can RETURN it!

Where's OnTimeGabe when you need him?? He had to sleep now?

You've got it under control, Rice.|> Like Isthmus said, the OEM or Watchadoo are the only 20mm bracelets that use the 2.5mm bars. Both are fantastic IMHO, so why even bother with anything else? As for the NATO, it definitely works with the fat bars. When I go with nylon, I'll squeeze a 22mm strap on my Monster to give it a little extra width. There's plenty of room. b-)

 

Only seiko DIVER bracelets take fat spring bars. regular seiko watches use regular spring bars.

 

thanks a lot people

I understand

for safety , I ' ll go with Nylon strap

still try to find a decent one here

 

A word on the Watchadoo. until very recently Watchadoos only took regular spring bars. if you are going to order one, make sure to specify which springbar size hole you want. Tell them that it has to be the one made to take fat seiko spring bars.

 

hello, I want a nylon strap for a seiko monster...
is 22mm size good for OM?
what is the difference between Nato and Zulu straps?

http://cgi.ebay.com/22mm-Black-Zulu..._W0QQitemZ290409721143QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item439dc4ad37

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-22mm-Black-..._W0QQitemZ250589263594QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item3a5848b6ea

thank you

 

The Monsters take 20mm bands. I have a hard time imagining a 22mm Nato or Zulu fitting, but it obviously can be done (see above post).

This has been covered in much greater detail, but the Nato is usually thinner nylon and has an extra flap of nylon and ring. The Zuly is one piece of thicker nylon.

Look at http://www.broadarrow.net/maratac.htm to see some examples of both.

 

A Maratac Elite works fine too.....

 

is that a 22mm elite?

 

It's the original Maratac Elite design.... strap is 24mm wide but notched (by the maker) for 20mm lugs.

The new "Truesize" range of Maratac straps comes in 20mm and 22mm width -without the notch. I prefer the 24mm on the Monster.

 

It has been almost 2 years, I hope the OP found something by now.

 

I've ordered a couple of the Maratac Elite from MWR. Looking forward to getting them on my BM. The watchadoo may lose the battle for fave BM strap.

 

Thanks for posting that up Isthmus!

 

Hi im looking for a nice 22mm black leather strap for my BM. Anybody know of some good ones or where to look? Are they knotched? Id hate to try to cut one or something...

 

Panerai straps have a 2.5 mm end loop for larger spring bars....Panerai use a screw in mini rod and a metal tube liner. The liner is the same size as Seiko Monster springbar.

If the strap comes with the liner just pull it out, if not just insert your fat SEIKO Springbar, put on watch and go. I've put a 22mm on a Kinetec, just a minor 1mm notch on either side. Also put a 22mm on a 6309, Just went right on.

You can get some nice straps for Panerai. You can find rubber, leather, etc. Only 22mm is small for Panerai, so there is probably more selection at 24 and 26mm.