View single post by Isthmus
 Posted: Tue Oct 28th, 2008 12:57 pm
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Isthmus

 

Joined: Tue Sep 9th, 2008
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 I have 2 of these alba divers.  Both of mine are on the stock bracelet.  The blue mantaray that you have does not come stock with a bracelet.  You'll have to do like I did and source it separately (or buy a variant with the bracelet, swap it out and sell it).  Sadly I know of no seiko bracelets that will fit without modification of the endcaps I tried lots of different OEM seiko bracelets before finally sourcing the OEM Alba one.  The reason most didn't fit is because the lug space is very shallow and a bit narrow.  Everything I tried, even when it fit the curvature, was either to wide (so it clattered) or too long (so the springbar wholes didn't align). 

To it's credit the original endcap is made to cause a neat effect.  It actually sits lower than the surface of the lugs and fits below the bezel.  This causes the top of the endcap to line up with the rounded flared sides of the case, causing a cool visual  continuity effect.  The bracelet itself is very nice and heavy, much like that on the monsters.  Unlike the monster bracelet, it is held together with split pins (not pins and collars) so it is easy to adjust. 

The clasp is the standard friction type fliplock used in the 3 OEM bracelets for seiko's base SKX divers (it's not the spring loaded push-button flip lock used in the monster).  IMHO, unless you really must have this watch on a strap, try to source the OEM bracelet.

BTW, I got mine by posting a WTB on the boards of various fora.  I think it was the add from PMWF that got me a reply.  Good luck.

Last edited on Tue Oct 28th, 2008 01:07 pm by Isthmus