ARF Bracelet modded to Noob Endlink.

[Longwood]

Wanted to share this cool little project i just finished up. If you ever held a ARF daytona bracelet you may know its the best Rep bracelet out. After handling some of my other watches from noob and other markers it became evident i needed to get the ARF on all my watches. How ever because bracelets may look the same the endlinks are all different. In my case the daytona and gmt DO NOT use same endlink, there-for installing the arf on to the gmt case left it loose fitting and could have scratched the bezel.

So i started a game plan on getting the ARF swapped over to my noob end link and have the best rep bracelet i could have on it. That involved picking up a bracelet puller, this worked very well and cost around 400.00. I than needed to be able to push the links back together after modding. I drew up a design in cad software and 3d printed it in no time. Now, i needed to open the noob end link to accept the ARF roller. It took a 1/16th drill bit to get it opened up. (A touch more clearance would make it easier how ever you will see why i chose it this way for myself) I kept the link side a little tight so that i could slowly shave down the roller to slide in without play. After using the drill to sand it down half way at a time i polished it up and slide it in to the endlink. I used the tool i created on a cheap harbor freight vise and boom i now had a ARF 78200 bracelet.

I hope you guys think this is as cool as I do!

Thank you to Pelagic for all the help brain storming.

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[DJ Woody]

Fantastic work! Would this be compatible with the ARF to Noob Daytona?

If we could buy just the ARF bracelet, then this procedure may become a thing!

 

[Longwood]

Fantastic work! Would this be compatible with the ARF to Noob Daytona?

If we could buy just the ARF bracelet, then this procedure may become a thing!

Thank you!

The arf bracelet would work without modding just with larger sel gaps as the noob end link is a touch wider to help fill the improper machine lugs.

i used the noob endlinks on my Daytona and did arf swap to it as well!

 

[Pelagic]

Great work bro! Ready to swap out my Daytona noob bracelet for the noob. ARF bracelet is much nicer than the noob. Smoother and the clasp finish and feel is bette than noob. Nice rounded edges and a better cornet.

 

[thinwhiteduke]

This is such a cool mod, OP! Congratulations to you and @pelagic!


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[DJ Woody]

Is it possible just to buy the Arf bracelet on its own?

 

[shaKi47]

I think you can make your own Business now and sell it for People with Noob-Daytona. I would buy it

Great work! I am envious

 

[Keniath]

so the clasp on the ARF is better than one the Noob? i heard from some people the Noob clasp is better

 

[DJ Woody]

Depends on batch I guess

 

[Longwood]

so the clasp on the ARF is better than one the Noob? i heard from some people the Noob clasp is better

The arf clasp is much better. If you want to get down o the nitty gritty the noob clasp lock a better and tighter giving a more gen click. I run the Noob flip lock on my arf. It must be modded to allow to fully close. I have about 12 hours of labor into my final bracelet . I went through and nodded each link joint tighter to be as tight as a new gen bracelet .

 

[Longwood]

so the clasp on the ARF is better than one the Noob? i heard from some people the Noob clasp is better

The arf clasp is much better. If you want to get down o the nitty gritty the noob clasp lock a better and tighter giving a more gen click. I run the Noob flip lock on my arf. It must be modded to allow to fully close. I have about 12 hours of labor into my final bracelet . I went through and nodded each link joint tighter to be as tight as a new gen bracelet .

 

[Longwood]

This is such a cool mod, OP! Congratulations to you and @pelagic!


Sent from my iPhone using RWI

Thank you, he’s as picky as I am. So it’s cool to have friend that don’t think your insane for wanting every last detail the best it can be.

 

[Longwood]

I think you can make your own Business now and sell it for People with Noob-Daytona. I would buy it

Great work! I am envious

Haha no business doing it. More so to show others how they can do it, and share that it can be done.

I can do a better write up with more details if others are interested and they can see why the noob bracelet is so far behind in feel.

 

[Longwood]

Is it possible just to buy the Arf bracelet on its own?

Yes they cost around 165.00 but keep in mind it won’t fit anything other than a gen Daytona, a arf Daytona and it will fit other Daytona’s but may have gaps. It will not go into a noob Daytona without major sel gap.

 

[KJ2020]

Haha no business doing it. More so to show others how they can do it, and share that it can be done.

I can do a better write up with more details if others are interested and they can see why the noob bracelet is so far behind in feel.

I'd be interested in seeing exactly how the bracelet puller works. Does it just ruin a mid link pin with brute force? And what was the tool you 3D printed? Looks like some kind of a press? Awesome work BTW, too bad we always have to pick one from column A and one from column B.

 

[Longwood]

I'd be interested in seeing exactly how the bracelet puller works. Does it just ruin a mid link pin with brute force? And what was the tool you 3D printed? Looks like some kind of a press? Awesome work BTW, too bad we always have to pick one from column A and one from column B.

Ill snag some photos. Maybe even a video if I have the time! Can we upload videos to Pic.me?

Thank you I like messing with things so this was a cool project.

I created a press tool for the bracelet. Plastic allows me to apply the needed force which is actually a good amount to he links and not scar them. And marks left can be taken away with a polishing towel.

it took a lot of time to measure it and get the angles correct. But the first try was a success!

 

[KJ2020]

Ill snag some photos. Maybe even a video if I have the time! Can we upload videos to Pic.me?

Thank you I like messing with things so this was a cool project.

I created a press tool for the bracelet. Plastic allows me to apply the needed force which is actually a good amount to he links and not scar them. And marks left can be taken away with a polishing towel.

it took a lot of time to measure it and get the angles correct. But the first try was a success!

I have always been fascinated by bracelet repairs / mods. I remember seeing a video years ago of a guy actually drilling out the side links of a gold president bracelet to replace the pins. He then re-cast the links, actually just refilled the holes with gold and reshaped them to original. I remember thiking wow that must have cost a mint. I tried to find that video and in the process found a guy using a bracelet puller so I see how that works.

I have recently been practising recessing SELs on a cheap DHGate bracelet. I'm finding it quite easy to sand down a SEL without losing the curve. I started out trying to use a dremel but even with a 600 grit wheel it took off too much too fast. I found that 320 grit by hand takes off enough to let you see you are making progress and not get discouraged, but not so much that you make unrecoverable errors. It's got me thinking I don't need to worry too much about SELs anymore if I really want a particular watch. Doing this on a band with PCLs will require a little more care but should still be manageable.

So, I've heard people say the Noob SELs are bad, maybe this is all it would take to fix that.







I'd love to have the bracelet puller, what great tool! The ultimate in enabling the perfect bracelet. $400 is pretty steep though ouch...

 

[Longwood]

I have always been fascinated by bracelet repairs / mods. I remember seeing a video years ago of a guy actually drilling out the side links of a gold president bracelet to replace the pins. He then re-cast the links, actually just refilled the holes with gold and reshaped them to original. I remember thiking wow that must have cost a mint. I tried to find that video and in the process found a guy using a bracelet puller so I see how that works.

I have recently been practising recessing SELs on a cheap DHGate bracelet. I'm finding it quite easy to sand down a SEL without losing the curve. I started out trying to use a dremel but even with a 600 grit wheel it took off too much too fast. I found that 320 grit by hand takes off enough to let you see you are making progress and not get discouraged, but not so much that you make unrecoverable errors. It's got me thinking I don't need to worry too much about SELs anymore if I really want a particular watch. Doing this on a band with PCLs will require a little more care but should still be manageable.

So, I've heard people say the Noob SELs are bad, maybe this is all it would take to fix that.







I'd love to have the bracelet puller, what great tool! The ultimate in enabling the perfect bracelet. $400 is pretty steep though ouch...

Wow thats awesome, looks absolutely perfect after you weee done!!! Sadly the Daytona issue is a width issue.

good work and thank you so much for sharing that. Going to try it next week when I get some time.

 

[brane]

Fancy bracelet tool. I thought about buying one but was quoted $700. I think someone was trying to take me to the cleaners tho. ...

 

[KJ2020]

Wow thats awesome, looks absolutely perfect after you were done!!! Sadly the Daytona issue is a width issue.

good work and thank you so much for sharing that. Going to try it next week when I get some time.

Couple things to mention if you try this. I had it in a vice because I was using a dremel but doing it by hand you can just sit in a chair and use a thin strip of sandpaper under your thumb. Using a thin work glove on the sanding hand is a big plus!

Take care not to remove any material at the bottom of the SEL, or the outside of the SEL. It's not difficult to abrade only the face of the SEL but there is a fine line between the face and the bottom edge. You dont want to increase the gap between links.

I was wondering, what exactly is the issue with the ARF SEL on the Noob case. Does it sit too high? If so, maybe that can be corrected.