Last week, we went over how to change the watch face on your Android Wear device and this week, I’m going to talk about changing the strap on the G Watch. The process is somewhat similar for the Gear Live, but I don’t one of those to hand so, this week’s feature is going to be a little more specific. By now, if you’ve had the G Watch for a while, you’ve probably wondered about changing the watch strap to something of a different material, or to something with a different color or style to it. While the strap that comes with the G Watch is actually fairly decent, I’m not a fan of silicon straps, so I went with a leather strap as seen in the above image.
There’s a great many reasons why you’d want to change the strap on the G Watch, after all it’s not exactly the most exciting black slab on the planet (even though said basic design suits me well). With a different strap, you can better suit your own style and fancy the watch up a little bit. Shopping for a strap can be a lot of fun as well, thanks to the fact that the G Watch is a standard 22mm fitting you can treat it as you would any standard watch. We put together some suggestions in a little roundup, but there’s plenty to be found on eBay and Amazon as well as your local jeweler.
I wanted to keep the flat, simple look of the G Watch, but wanted a leather strap so I actually took the above strap off of another watch – as finding something online proved difficult for me – and I think it works quite well, but I’m still looking for “that strap”. I changed this myself, but if I am honest I wouldn’t recommend it. The strap is fitted with a 22mm spring bar, which is a piece of metal with two pins either side, these pins are springy either side to allow the watch strap to be removed from the fitting.
To remove the strap, all you need to do is get a tiny screwdriver – or be really responsible as I should have been and buy the appropriate tool – and wedge it in between the fitting and the strap and then push away from said fitting. Be careful the spring bar doesn’t shoot off into the distance and do the same for the other side of the watch. I’d recommend keeping the spring bar that LG has provided as it’s fairly well-made and all you need to do is slide this into your new strap and repeat the process in the opposite way. Patience and precision is needed here, and if you don’t have either of those in any great amount, walk away.
There’s tons of info on how to change your strap online, and we’ll be putting together our own tutorial in the near future. I would however, recommend taking the watch to your local jeweler (perhaps with a new strap in hand to reduce the cost) because if you’re not used to using small tools like these you might scratch or damage your watch and your fancy new strap in the process. Let me know in the comments which strap you applied to your G Watch and shout our your favorite designs as well!