14 Dec 2005, 22:16
If you could email a pic of the watch to Simon or me, we could tell you what's going on here; but I agree with Simon... it doesn't sound like the original bracelet. They originally came in three lengths, short, medium, and long [in about 2cm increments, with adjustment in the clasp giving about a 5mm overlap]. It seems likely the larger distributers stocked at least a few of them. The actual lengths were chosen so that the odds were nearly 100% that one of them would fit [or be adjusted to] almost any customer. For the guy with the odd-size wrist [being either very large, or very small], Time Computer provided jewelers with a bracelet sizeing ruler. This was a nine-inch strip of brown paper, graduated in 1/8 inch increments from 4 to nine inches, and perforated every 1/8 inch. The theory was, you put the case on top of your arm, wrapped the ruler around from lug to lug, tore it to length, and sent it off to Time Computer. Eventually, you were supposed to get back a bracelet tailored to your exact dimensions. There was no provision for sizeing these at the point-of-sale. The paper rulers are a minor but tough-to-find item.