Parametric Open Hardware Watch Band

Here is a parametric watch band which can be customised (in Fusion 360 with the parameters tool) for any size watch. I added an Open hardware logo (courtesy of lamer https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:22445) design. 

No supports are required. 

This was uploaded to MyMiniFactory in 2021 and now I have moved it here as well.

There are two different Fusion 360 models, one for a straight pin watch and one for a curved pin (mine is curved as seen in the pictures).

There is a printed buckle design included which uses a piece of 1.75mm filament for the pin. The filament needs to be 4mm longer than the width of the band e.g. 26mm long for a 22mm band. The filament simply pushes into place and is self retained; you will need to cut it with a craft knife to disassemble it.

The printed buckle is less robust than a metal one of course, so use it at your own risk. The buckle tang has broken on me once when made from PLA after a year of use, so I have adjusted the file to make the tang 40% thicker (double the bending strength). Or you can just use a commercially available metal buckle (or recycled from an old band) if you want to be extra safe.

Other features:

• You can make a watch strap without the pattern, set the Pattern_thickness parameter to a very low value (see below).
• A loop to hold down the excess strap is also included, and should be added when assembling.
• The pattern is slightly different to the one shown in the pictures (which was custom made for myself) to get the parametric design to work; a bit less pattern on the buckle side strap.
• There are small gaps included on the edges of the pin holes to ease removal of watch pins.
• There is also a small test file, Watch_strap_test_1, to get your TPU quality settings right for the pattern.
• I have included .stl files for a straight pin, 22mm wide watch band, between 120-165mm length adjustment (excluding the watch).
• Since the design was produced with a non-commercial licence, sadly this design isn't actually open source, but you can do what you want with it within the free Fusion 360 licence.
• The multicoloured pattern was simply achieved with a material swap at the appropriate height.
• Strange combinations of parameters will cause the model to not generate properly.

Parameters which can be customised:

The location of the parameters menu in Fusion 360 is shown below if you are not familiar with the software:

Basic settings ('Favourites' parameters):

CurvedPinDiameter - For the curved watch pin file only, the diameter of the curve of the watch pins.

Strapwidth - The width of the band.

Linethickness - The thickness of the pattern lines.

Straplength1 - The length of the long strap with buckle holes.

Straplength2 - The length of the shorter strap with the buckle.

Number_of_holes - The number of buckle holes.

Hole_spacing - The spacing between the buckle holes.

Hole_position_tweak - Moves the starting position of the buckle holes.

Buckle_hole_length - The length, long dimension, of the buckle holes (plus a bit more for the rounded ends).

Buckle_hole_width - The width of the buckle holes.

Buckle_pin_width - The width of the buckle pin, generally should be the same as Buckle_hole_length.

Dot_size - The size of the dots on the pattern.

Finish_chamfer - The size of the chamfer applied around the buckle holes and pin holes.

Advanced settings:

Strapbasethickness - The thickness of the flat base of the band.

Watch_pin_hole_diameter - The diameter of the hole for the watch pins. The default 2mm works fine for thin metal pins (approx 1mm in diameter).

Buckle_pin_hole_diameter - The diameter of the holes for the buckle pin. The default 2mm works with both a standard thin metal pin and 1.75mm filament for the printed buckle.

Watch_end_strap_thickness - The diameter of the strap around the watch pins.

Buckle_end_strap_thickness - The diameter of the strap around the buckle pin.

Pattern_thickness - The thickness of the pattern on the band. Set this to a very low value e.g. 0.01 if you want the band to print flat without the pattern.

Strap_clip_width - The width of the strap loop for holding down the excess strap.

Pattern_tweak - Adjusts the position of the pattern on the band.

Buckle_gap - The length of the gap for the band to pass through the buckle.

Exporting Meshes

Once you have chosen your parameters, you can export meshes of the parts by simply right clicking on the model in the model tree (the selected model will highlight in the window), and select ‘Save As Mesh’ from the drop down menu. All parts are oriented correctly for printing.

Then simply select the desired settings from the prompt window e.g. Refinement, Unit Type etc. and then click OK to save the mesh to your computer.