I’m a huge watch strap fan and have bought dozens of it. I’ll also be reviewing some of it soon. Sometimes I notice from some of the strap makers or online shops that I buy from, they don’t provide an option for PVD buckles and it only comes in either polished or brushed stainless steel. I wonder why that’s the case. Maybe because the cost of making a PVD buckle is higher or it’s harder to source. And why do I need PVD buckles? Well, if you have a nice black PVD coated watch, pairing it with a strap that has stainless steel buckle doesn’t look that great. So I decided to search on it from eBay and found something that looks pretty alright.
When searching for an aftermarket buckle it’s important to know the hole size of your strap and also the taper width at the other end. So for example if you have a watch strap that has a 20mm/18mm taper you would get an 18mm buckle. If you have a 20mm/20mm straight without tapering, then you should get the 20mm buckle. As for the strap hole size, if it has a large hole like 4mm then you should get a buckle tongue size of 4mm. Another strategy to save cost is that for those straps that you are able to get the PVD buckle, you can always reuse that for other straps that doesn’t have a PVD buckle.
So I found this seller called cozyaccessories on eBay and initially ordered a 20mm black PVD screw-in thumbnail watch buckle with a 4mm tongue. Not sure why this design is called a thumbnail buckle, maybe because it’s related to Panerai or something. It’s pretty decent quality but I found the screw was slightly lose and the tongue was a bit too thick. The buckle has a nice matte brushed PVD finish to it. Anyway I ordered another 2 to cover most scenarios. So I ordered a 18mm PVD screw-in thumbnail with 4mm tongue and another 20mm spring bar version thumbnail buckle with 3mm tongue. The spring bar version had a slimmer thinner profile for the tongue and thus fits most straps better. The good thing is if you don’t like the tongue you can even swap it around. They were nice to have included a spring bar tool as well. I’ll be showing you how it looks like when I do strap reviews in future. So stay tuned.
I think there are better options around but I chose this because of shipping cost, good service and it’s nearer located in Singapore. If you’re interested head on to their website at www.cozy.sg. They also sell a lot of other watch accessories like leather straps, NATO straps, key holders, etc. They are also on Amazon and you can also find a bunch of other nice buckles accessories at Amazon.