Now on my ~4th Ironman watch - I love the functions, size, etc. but detest the wretched band “keeper”, the little rubber ring that holds the tail of the band in place. I lost two other perfectly good watches because of keeper failure, $40 watch plagued by a 2c piece of rubber!
When my 4th (and sworn LAST!) band keeper failed a week ago I finally found a cure after trying a bunch of fixes, nothing worked for long. What IS working (so far…): snip two thin (~5 mm wide) “rings” from a cast off butyl inner tube, make sure its a small diameter tube, like for a 23mm or less tire. Put both butyl rings next to each other on the band, in place of the keeper. One doesn’t work perfectly but two adjacent seem to help keep each other in place. Been working great, and cosmetically ~same as original. Needless to say, ya need the black band version to stay color coordinated.
Nice thing about the butyl tube fix, the tube is very thin, so has low profile, no rubbing/catching on clothes etc. If you cut tube into rings of med width (~5 mm) it won’t pull on your wrist hair like a narrow rubber band does. Also a discarded 700c tube has about 1000 free replacements for inevitable rubber rot.
Hmmm, I’m a few years in Tri now and my old casio watch broke. I picked up a very nice TimexIronman for about $40-$50 that I LOVE. Big display, big buttons, great for lap timing, etc. etc.
Anyway, I’m not 100% sure what a band “keeper” is…I assume its the rubber ring that you normally slide over the tail of the band. On my watch, the tail of the band has a little rubber stump that grabs the rubber keeper ring so it holds the very end of the tail, which I love so there is never any tail dragging on the other end of the rubber keeper. Not sure if all that makes sense, or if this is exactly what you’re talking about.
My question, how did you lose a watch because of the keeper failure? Did it break? Even if it did, did the metal thing also then come out of the band hole?
Just want to make sure I don’t lose mine, I love the watch…
Whatever you do, don’t buy the Velcro band for the Timex Ironman HRM watch! My Velcro band is a little over a year old, and the Velcro barely works.
You can buy a replacement velcro band at walmart/target for less than $5. They have lots of different sizes. My wife replaces her’s about once a year cuz they start to smell.
You can also buy non-velcro bands for any of the Timex watches if you are sick of replacing them or tired of repeatedly smelly watchbands. I replaced my velcro one with something else and love it (including the keeper band). http://www.voguestrap.com/
My question, how did you lose a watch because of the keeper failure? Did it break? Even if it did, did the metal thing also then come out of the band hole?
One I for sure lost swimming in a lake, it was about 2 days after noticing that little rubber ring that you describe that I called the “keeper”, because without it the watch is a loser.
I never noticed the second one drop off, but was also soon after losing the keeper. I was just walking with wife in a store on the weekend and noticed I didn’t have the watch anymore. Also lost a nice swiss army watch this way ~15 years ago, after they first came out. Lose the band holder ring, and the watch isn’t far behind.
I think I’m on my third Ironman watch. Was hoping that the new apple watch would be waterproof, but … apparently not, so as a swimmer, it might be cool, but my ironman will be the workhorse in the water. I too have had the same issues with keepers, but your post gave me an idea that so far has worked perfectly. I forced a small o-ring over the buckle onto the strap and voila - new keeper. non intrusive, made of rubber, just no idea how long it will last. I’ll update this when the thing breaks to give an idea of expected length of performance. O-rings are much cheaper than a new watch.
Now on my ~4th Ironman watch - I love the functions, size, etc. but detest the wretched band “keeper”, the little rubber ring that holds the tail of the band in place. I lost two other perfectly good watches because of keeper failure, $40 watch plagued by a 2c piece of rubber!
When my 4th (and sworn LAST!) band keeper failed a week ago I finally found a cure after trying a bunch of fixes, nothing worked for long. What IS working (so far…): snip two thin (~5 mm wide) “rings” from a cast off butyl inner tube, make sure its a small diameter tube, like for a 23mm or less tire. Put both butyl rings next to each other on the band, in place of the keeper. One doesn’t work perfectly but two adjacent seem to help keep each other in place. Been working great, and cosmetically ~same as original. Needless to say, ya need the black band version to stay color coordinated.
Well, you must not use the watch in the water very much, as I am on about my 30th Timex IM watch, as they typically last around 9 to 15 months for me, prob bc over the past 28.5 yrs of tri-ing i’ve kept swimming an average of 20,000 yd/wk, and use the watch to time my splits in the water. If you operate the buttons in the water almost every day, eventually they stop working. I’m a very frugal person but never minded spending $40/yr for a new watch. In sum, i’ve never had one keep working long enough for the “keeper” to wear out.
Pushing the buttons under water seems to kill about any watch after a while. That’s what got me to start using the pace clock. In the summer I swim at the outdoor pool with no pace clock. I set a cheap analog watch on the deck as my pace clock.
Pushing the buttons under water seems to kill about any watch after a while. That’s what got me to start using the pace clock. In the summer I swim at the outdoor pool with no pace clock. I set a cheap analog watch on the deck as my pace clock.
Back when i was “just a swimmer”, i used the pace clock exclusively but then when i started training for triathlon, someone gave me the Timex watch and since then i’ve become addicted to being able to recall my exact splits for every repeat, espec now that they have the 50 and 100-lap watches. I’ve tried going back to just using the clock but miss that digital recall:)
revived 6 yo thread, funny. Shortly after that post I found out about the $10 Timex “band repair” which is essentially a new replacement watch, I’ve never had to worry about broken band since
You’re right about the water, I never purposely wear the watch in the pool - pace clock only, thank you. Usually don’t wear it for tri’s either, ever since I found out a few years ago I never look at it while racing
revived 6 yo thread, funny. Shortly after that post I found out about the $10 Timex “band repair” which is essentially a new replacement watch, I’ve never had to worry about broken band since
You’re right about the water, I never purposely wear the watch in the pool - pace clock only, thank you. Usually don’t wear it for tri’s either, ever since I found out a few years ago I never look at it while racing
So, you’re a “no watch at all” guy, no Garmin or anything??? I’ve known 1 or 2 other guys like you, but not many:)
