Speidel Twist-O-Flex

My sweetie gave me a new wrist watch for Christmas. After thanking her and kissing her, I promptly discarded the crappy band it came with, and mounted it on my venerable old Speidel Twist-O-Flex watch band. She looked on in horror!

I realized that I have owned dozens of cheap wrist watches since coming of age in the seventies, but ALL of them have been attached to my wrist with the exact same Speidel Twist-O-Flex band. The damn thing just won’t wear out! Not to mention being the most comfortable watch band I have ever had the pleasure to experience.

But… am I a dinosaur? Am I the only person left on the planet who uses this engineering marvel? Do they even still make/sell/admit to ever making them? Certainly, they are hopelessly out of style, but man oh man, are they comfortable!

Anyone? Beuller? Anyone else out there still own/wear/love this fabulous watch band?

I had to Google to make sure we were thinking of the same thing, but Twist-o-Flex is the only watchband I will ever wear. You can adjust it to the exact right size and you can whip it on and off quickly. (This is important to me because I’m a pharmacy technician and you’re not supposed to wear watches in the IV hood [sweat, germs, whatnot] - I don’t need to be fumbling around with a buckle when someone needs a STAT amiodarone drip while having a heart attack.) Also, regular leather/plastic wristbands get all sweaty and gross - ew!

Apparently.

Is this the band that removes your wrist hair where the band is, using the same basic principle as waxing (i.e., ripping the hair out)? If so, I had one about 30 years ago.

I have a couple watches I haven’t worn in decades which still have that type of band. I always liked the way they worked. (And ZenBeam, I’d wager I’ve got more arm hair than you & I’ve never had a problem with those bands tearing out hair. I agree that the watchband area just always seemed clean-shaven somehow; not that I did anything to make that happen.)

My watch of choice these days is a black plastic Casio. Which would look terminally dorky with a Twist-O-Flex.

We used to call those “Twist-O-Flesh.”

That’s exactly what my new watch is, a black world-time Casio. And it DOES look terminally dorky on this band! But, terminal dork is my personal style, and I embrace it.

I inherited my grandfather’s 1920s wristwatch (a Paul Ditishein), which he had put onto a 1960s Speidel Twist-o-Flex band–I *adore *it. It’s very art deco (the watch, I mean, not the band) with diamond numbers on a platinum face, and this *ghastly *but very comfortable watchband.

If Grandfather knew I was wearing it, he would reach up from hell and *snatch *it off my wrist.

[Dirty Harry]A man has *got *to know his limitations.[/dh]

“Give your watch a new twist…Twist-o-Flex! Give yourself a new feeling…Twist-o-flex”

My dad’s always worn those types of watch bands. I remember when we were kids going to the flea market and helping him find a back-up (or new) Twist-o-Flex watch with a Ford logo on it (He worked at Ford).

I know he still wears that style band but I wonder what the watch face is these days? Hmm…perhaps he figured out how to change a watch battery.

Anyway, I inherited his habit of wearing a watch on the right hand even though we’re right handed, but I never could hang with that type of band. No sir.

My dad is a dork though. He wears Velcro shoes too. :slight_smile:

Cool! Can he walk on walls?

I’ve got one!

My watch itself is a lovely Citizen EcoDrive, very simple … just a horizontal oval pearl dial with a roman numeral XII at the top, and gold dots at the 3, 6, and 9 positions. No second hand, no day/date window. The watch is surrounded by a clover-leaf-like design of chrome, overlaid with another clover-leaf-like band of Swarovski clear crystals. Very elegant. It came with a black silk strap band that wore out after a year. I could not find a replacement (from Citizen or elsewhere), so the spouse found “shoulders” (for want of the correct term) made of Japanese sterling that are a Black Hills gold knockoff design with red coral and turquoise accents. These are held together by …

my silvertone Speidel Twist-O-Flex band :smiley:

It would have been easier to shoot & upload, a photo, I suppose :smack:

RE: the above post. I should mention that he got the watch itself from Sportsman’s Warehouse at a very deep discount. The Japanese parts and the Twist-O-Flex (and about a dozen leather bands in different colors) were gotten on eBay. He’s Scots-Irish, which explains it all. And he got all these wonderful bits together for me, because I had been whining that the battery in my el-cheapo Timex had gone bad … true love!

Is there an actual term besides “shoulders,” does anybody know? I have a watch I haven’t worn in 20 years because the clasp is broken and no replacement band will fit it. I took it to probably 10 different jewelry stores over the years. I love that watch too! I got it for my 16th birthday.

Watch band of the gods.

I have a very large watch (to go with my very large wrist, duh) which for some odd reason has normal-sized pins. After replacing more than a dozen pins over five years or so (having the watch fall off whenever the pins failed), my jeweler suggested we go with an expandable band. Five years later, I have yet to have a pin die.

Hate, hate, hate expanding watchbands, Twist-O-Flex included. I have, in the past, used leather bands (not bad) and infinitely adjustable velcro bands from REI (also not bad, but oh-so-dorky), but my current favorite is the double-sided folding clasp on my Seiko. I can’t find a picture, but the double-sided clasp fits better on my skinny wrists than the usual Z-clasp found on most bands of the type.

My dad liked Twist-O-Flex watch bands. Maybe it was a '50s/'60s thing. When he got his Seiko Bell-Matic in '74, he kept the stock bracelet. But he wore a gold-tone Twist-O-Flex band on his Zodiac (before my time) and a silver-tone Twist-O-Flex band on his Vulcain Cricket. I don’t know what happened to the bracelets, but when I had those watches overhauled after he died I put Twist-O-Flex bands on them.

Last year when my grandfather died, I got one of his watches. It is on a Twist-O-Flex band and was for as long as I can remember.