First Skirt of the Year and Kate Spade Watch Gets a Makeover

It was a rare occasion today. After last week’s cold rainy weather, I woke up, looked outside, and seeing how beautiful of a day it was beginning to be, I had the sudden urge to wear a skirt. Not a big deal to most people, but this is the very first skirt I’ve worn this year. It must be spring, because my legs have finally come out of hibernation.

Today was also exciting because I finally got to wear the cute Kate Spade watch I picked up recently. Kate Spade has been a favorite brand of mine for a while (I literally wore a pair of red suede Kate Spade flats so often, they developed holes), with their fun accessories and quirky sense of humor, so when they debuted their new watch line, this adorable “confetti dial” watch caught my eye. I absolutely love the watch face, but had to get some strap customizations done before I could wear it.

FYI – A Kate Spade employee told me boutiques will remove links of the metal and acrylic band watches for you, and Nordstrom offered the same service (including punching holes in leather watch bands). I unfortunately wanted a whole new watch band, so I couldn’t use either of these services.

The watch comes with a gold leather strap, which was a little too much shine for me, and frankly, I thought looked a bit cheap compared to that adorable watch face. As I was deciding if I should keep it, I kept thinking how great the watch would look if only it had a different colored strap.

Even if I had liked the original strap, it was too long for my small wrists. It would have needed more holes punched to fit my wrist, which is easy to do yourself if you have a leather punch tool, but that would make the strap nearly loop back up and touch the watch face, looking obviously too long.

Look at how adorable that watch face is!

UPDATE: since writing this post, leather watch straps in a variety of colors are now easily found on Amazon! If you have this style of Kate Spade watch, these 16mm watch bands should fit (look for the word “short” in the description if you have narrow wrists like I do). The exact band I used for this watch can be found here.

Finding a new watch strap was harder than I thought it should be. I wanted a brown, short strap (16mm for this watch style if anyone is curious), and figured a watch store would surely have cases of stylish, short watch straps in their back room for me to choose from, right? Sadly, the employees of each store I went into just shook their heads, not knowing of any such thing. I also learned there is a serious lack of stylish replacement watch bands, as each store showed me sad little cases of ugly, overpriced leather.

Finally, an employee at one store remembered they had a catalog from a watch strap company, and there they were! Short watch straps! And in ladies styles and colors! At $20, the price was right, but the shipping for a “special order” item was absolutely ridiculous at $25! I went home thinking I could find the same thing for cheaper online, and what did I find? Nothing but ugly looking watch bands, with all the best options from the same company with the crazy $25 shipping.

I bit the bullet and paid the crazy shipping, but at least the watch store switched my strap out for free (most stores quoted me $10 to swap the strap, on top of the cost of the band). In the end it worked out because the short strap fit perfectly and I really love the watch with it’s new neutral colors. I already don’t want to take it off and foresee this being an item I’ll wear everyday. Now I’m thinking about this lovely mint watch strap that would be so much fun for spring and summer, but don’t want to pay any more crazy shipping charges!

Short watch band compared to the original

Isn’t she cute? And now I have a custom watch!

**Update** – A very nice shop owner explained to me why the shipping cost was so ridiculous on the watch strap. Watch supply companies want to sell their items in bulk, so they charge high shipping costs to encourage retailers to make large purchases. If the shipping charge is high, retailers will make larger orders to make the shipping charge worth their while.

Outfit Details – BCBGMAXAZRIA vest :: LOFT dress shirt (altered) (similar from J.Crew) (similar from Ann Taylor) :: J.Crew skirt :: Ann Taylor belt :: Coach flats :: J.Crew handbag :: Kate Spade watch (also at Bloomies) :: Bracelets – Stella & Dot (c/0) (in silver) (post) and vintage