Hi, will email you soon, .just getting ready for a flight.
You are correct, that's me at HPMuseum and the book. Hope to be in Ft. Collins this year.
Nice thing about HP bracelets is they are solid stainless steel. I actually took a really sad example to a plating company and had the electroplated gold removed. Then buffed and polished and after using a scrubbing pad had a beautiful stainless band example. The case is actually a gold cap fused in place over a stainless steel case. This is much more robust a plating method using actual gold which is denser, not as porous as the plated strap. You can polish and apply a brushed finish to the case (not aggressively) resulting in a NOS look.
The links were plated prior to assembly. Plating them in situ (On the strap) will result in a fused strap; not able to flex. Now purchasing a plating kit and applying the plate locally to the top of each link may work, haven't tried that yet. These kits come with solution, adapter and brush (conductive) to apply the solution. i have one but have not experimented with it on a strap. Disassembly and plating would be expensive and finding a jeweler with the expertise, difficult.
Keep your eye out for one, also consider a leather option. It would be a lot cheaper to find a leathermith (cobbler?) and have a strap made. These did come with leather strap options.
Cheers, Geoff
Ps.s the 29c is a rare and good example of a Woodstock. Never, never use the charger Cut the spine of the battery pack, remove the offending nicad's and replace with alkaline following the polarity. The spine is not required so no need to replace. All this will be in the book. Off to London now!