Concessions in a Recession

I've been wanting this watch from J Crew for a while, it's a watch collaboration they did with Timex. This is what it looks like:



It's not an overpowering watch, just glancing at it it's really not that amazing at all. But the simplicity of it struck me. I love the subtle details like the military watch band (metal clasps incorporated throughout the nylon band). I just feel like it's such a cool little unassuming time piece.

And to be honest, it's not very expensive ($150). But we are in a recession, and because we are in a recession you have to justify your purchases. How do I justify the purchase of said watch for $150 when for that amount I could buy two weeks worth of groceries from Trader Joe's? The simple answer ... I can't.

Undeterred I've gone back to the saying of my childhood neighbors. They were a family of Mormons, so naturally there were like millions of them. Because of their fierce numbers they had to be budget conscious and would always say "Why buy that? You could make that?" I thought to myself Shit, that makes sense.

So I decided to embark upon a journey of finding the ingredients to recreate the J Crew x Timex wristwatch. I already had an Invicta Pro Diver that I was not using, or really getting much use out of. It looked like this:



I figured I could remove the metal bracelet and replace it with the watch band from the J Crew watch. But what kind of band was it? I tried searching for "watch band with metal loops" "watch band with metal clasps" etc, etc. Nothing. So I started doing a little research on the actual J Crew x Timex watch and found out that it was simply known as a "Military Watch Band".

A quick search of this term populated some great results. One such result took me to County Comm Government Products Group. Here's the link to their watch bands but you may also want to check out the rest of their stuff, its very cool and very affordable (grappling hooks, trauma bandages, and so forth). Once there I found this band and knew it would work:



Ordering was done through Paypal, and since they are in California I received the band in 2 days (not bad). I went about the business of removing the metal bracelet from my Invicta. Even with crude tools (scissors, switch blade knife and screwdriver) removal was pretty simple. Then I simply strung the nylon band through my watch and buckled it.

The band was a little long so I cut about an inch off of it. Then the edges began to fray and I was a little bummed. But then I just put the frated edge over the flame of my lighter and it melted perfectly. Bam! Here's the result:



Total damages:

Watch band .........$17
Shipping ...........$6
Used Invicta Watch .$0

Total ............. $23

Concessions in a Recession