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

skirt-3It 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.

kate-spade-metro-watch

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.

kate-spade-metro-watch-closeLook 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.

kate-spade-watch-new-strapI 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!

kate-spade-watch-old-new-strapShort watch band compared to the original

kate-spade-skirt-closeIsn’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

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43 Comments

  1. says: carol_prettythings

    Very cute – though I think the gold band was super cute as well. :) Glad you were able to find something you really loved.

  2. I LOVE the mint strap too…any way they could’ve made this an easily switchable strap? Or can you learn the trade and do the switch at home with a little toolkit? I know my friend who buys watches often eventually just self-learned how to remove the links and he said it wasn’t too hard, so I wonder how difficult it is to switch straps at home.

    1. I know! Isn’t it cute? And it would look great against the gold of the watch face. There is a little tool you can buy to switch out watch straps, which I’m sure is easy to use once you figure it out (and cheap):

      http://www.amazon.com/Paylak-Watch-Band-Spring-Remover/dp/B000A7KB7U

      I’ve thought about it, and if I cave in and pay the crazy shipping for the mint, I’d pick up one of the tools as well so I could change the watch strap at will. I’m sure removing links from metal bands is easy enough too, once you have the right tools.

  3. oh, i love that mint watch band! i always buy metal water-resistant watches (since i need to wear a watch in the shower or i’d be in there for hours) and every time i’ve bought a watch, the store has always offered to remove a few links for me so it fits. it never occurred to me what a pain a leather watch band would be in terms of fit… i may always stick to metal now =)

  4. says: witheachpassingday

    The watch is adorable. The watch looks so much better with the brown strap than with the gold.  I love the mint strap too.  It’s nice to see you wearing a skirt. 

  5. says: Janki

    Great post!  I couldn’t help but feel a bit angry (too strong a word, maybe very annoyed) at the extra time, money and effort you needed to go through just to get a strap that fit.  It’s frustrating because as petites our legitimate physical limitations aren’t really considered… you would get a lot more “flack” as a manufacturer if your sizes discriminated against those who were big bones… if they had to find special places and pay outrageous shipping etc.
    Based on Jean’s recent post, I wonder if there are kids’ watch bands that could be used too?

    1.  I totally know what you mean, because as I was running around looking for this thing, I certainly got a little annoyed that no one could (would) help me. Many of the people I talked to seemed confused that I was even looking for such a thing. Hmm…I wonder where kid-size watch straps could be found? My only fear would be they’d all be sparkly…hehe.

  6. says: Michelle

    Ack! I’ve got that stupid grin seeing the watch paired with that bracelet!

    I am loving your first skirt ensemble for the year! :)

    Thanks for the info on the watch strap hunt!!

  7. says: Callandra

    Lol Kelly!  First skirt of the year, that’s hilarious :)  Well, I have to say that you should indulge  a bit more often because your legs are great….and what a cute outfit!

  8. says: Kate

    I can’t believe I’ve never seen your site before! It’s brilliant! Your styling is lovely and the resources are invaluable- and love that kicky watch. 

  9. says: Danielle Marie Mcdonald

    Can I ask what size the watch strap is? I recently order the watch and would like to do the same thing, the gold is a bit too much shine for me, but the face is irresistible!

  10. says: Dee

    Awesome!! I was looking at ur iG pic With this watch….I’ve seen on you in a few posts..over a few weeks…..sooo I couldn’t resist….I went looking for the watch. But all I found was the all gold metallic banded one :( ….It looked cheap and not so chic to me as well. So I searched and searched until I landed this blog post and discovered that you had to change it yourself!!! Thank you for posting !!

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