Blend-in for a metallic strap

Posted on
  • My wife would like to have a smartwatch with a strap in rosé (pink) gold steel mesh (something like https://www.apfelkiste.ch/smart-watch-fi­tness-tracker-display-ecg-herzfrequenzme­ssung-frauen-milanaise-armband-rosegold.­html)
    of course with all the features and extensiblity of the bangle2 :-). A strap compatible with the bangle2 can be found but doesn't blend in well with the silicone/plastic look of the watch-case (even the pink version).

    Thought about how to blend in the watch to the metallic look and thought about the following possiblities:

    1. Spray-painting the watch with a metallic color (how well does it stick?)
    2. ordering a custom milled casing with the right colored metal (has anyone a 3d-model of the current case?)

    Does anyone has some experience with such a plan? Other ideas are welcome (except buy her an apple-watch).

  • I don't have any experience of painting the watch but if the paint was fine for ABS plastic then I guess it should work... It might rub though.

    ordering a custom milled casing with the right colored metal (has anyone a 3d-model of the current case?)

    Wow - well, I do have a CAD file, but while you could cut it out, the bluetooth is on a flex PCB on the side of the case, and I wonder whether you'd be able to get any usable signal out of it at all with a metal case :(

    I guess one option may be to see if you could CNC cut something that would slip over the outside of the case like a bumper, but it'd going to be a big undertaking!

  • There are very involved processes to electroplate plastics, based on a conductive paint as the first layer. In this case the matte copper look of the conductive paint is already quite nice, but he manages to electroplate enough copper on there to be able to sand it down and polish it before doing a final pass with palladium. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsrlrH3o­mZc

  • Thanks for the suggestions. I ended up glueing a apple-watch-cover over it (with removable glue). It has approx 2 mm space which can be filled with glue thats hidden by the curved front.
    Used these two products:

    Turned out well enough for my wife to wear it daily :-).

  • It looks nice. Did you use a pink Bangle.js 2 or a black one? Did you used hot glue? I suppose that the cover would also work as protection for the watch.

  • I used a black one, as some edges and corners are visible from certain angles and two different rose materials look worse than rather standard-black in my oppinion. I used uhu patafix. it holds enough, fills the mm-gap and is removable if you decide you want another color.

  • Post a reply
    • Bold
    • Italics
    • Link
    • Image
    • List
    • Quote
    • code
    • Preview
About

Blend-in for a metallic strap

Posted by Avatar for cephos @cephos

Actions