Have A Perfectly Fitting Watch Strap With This Tactile, Adjustable Strap Buckle By Roland Iten: It’s Both Useful And Relatively Affordable – That’s Win/Win!
by Ian Skellern
Watch straps and buckles (both pin and folding) are the nearly ideal way to fit your watch to your wrist, but they have two inherent drawbacks.
1. The standard holes in the strap are 8 mm apart, so unless you are very lucky you have to select a hole that either makes the strap too tight or too loose. Too tight is uncomfortable and too loose has the watch tending to roll around the wrist.
2. Even if you are lucky enough to find a hole on the strap that fits perfectly on one day, wrists tend to change size with both the weather and fluctuating weight.
Roland Iten, the master of mechanical luxury for gentlemen, has developed adjustable buckles that in different formats have been used by prestigious brands including F.P. Journe and Greubel Forsey.
And now he has developed an easily adjustable watch strap for collectors.
Roland Iten RWC09 adjustable buckle
Roland Iten RWC09 adjustable buckle
When developing any of his mechanical luxuries, Roland Iten places a high priority on providing a strong tactile sensation. The operation has to feel good, and this patented adjustable strap buckle is no exception. When you rotate the adjustment disk to tighten or loosen the strap, you can feel it reassuringly click, click, click as it moves from one micro-adjustment to the next.
Roland Iten RWC09 adjustable buckle
It’s not a toy, but it does feel nice to play with!
And you can adjust easily without removing your watch or even opening the clasp or buckle.
While the holes in your watch strap give you adjustment increments of 8 mm, the Roland Iten buckle provides infinite fine tuning between those 8 mm holes. And it’s easily adjustable on the wrist throughout the day.
Exploded diagram of the Roland Iten RWC09 adjustable buckle
Rotating the big adjustment disk turns a small cog that moves a rack inside the buckle that slides to adjust the strap. The rack locks in place in any position as the rotation of the small-diameter cog cannot overcome the friction of turning the larger adjustment disk. It’s simple and reliable.
A small spring-loaded pin slides around inside the adjustment wheel and satisfyingly clicks into tiny holes on the disk as it’s rotated. This pin isn’t necessary for the operation of the adjustable buckle, but it’s essential in providing the tactile feedback that makes adjusting the buckle feel so pleasurable.
The standard distance between holes in a watch strap is 8 mm; the Roland Iten adjustable buckle has a micro-adjustment range of 9 mm so it comfortably provides the full range between each hole.
Roland Iten RWC09 adjustable buckle
Built-in fail-safe security
The strap can only be fitted and removed from the adjustable buckle when the adjustment disk is in the fully tight position. This ensures that there is no risk of the strap ever falling off if the buckle is knocked.
Lubrication free
Crafted in titanium and steel, the adjustable watch strap buckle has been designed, like all of Roland Iten’s products, to be lubrication free. Tolerances are designed so that any dust simply falls out. I can attest to this from personal experience, having worn a Roland Iten belt buckle daily for nearly 20 years in all situations and environments. It works and feels as good as the first day I put it on.
Roland Iten RWC09 adjustable buckle
Suitable for both pin buckles and folding buckles, two sizes of strap widths
The Roland Iten Adjustable Buckle can easily be fitted to watch straps with both pin buckles and folding buckles. The tang on a pin or folding buckle is held to the strap by a removable spring bar, just like the one holding the strap to the lugs, which can be removed and reinserted to hold the adjustable buckle. You can either do it yourself if you have changed your own straps or in minutes at your local watch/jewelry store.
The adjustable buckle comes in two sizes: one for straps of 16-18 mm width (widest width at the holes, not between the lugs) and straps of 18-20 mm width.
This adjustable buckle is ideal for larger watches on smaller wrists as these tend to roll around the wrist.
Roland Iten RWC09 adjustable buckle
Customizable on request
And if you want something extra-special or unique, you can ask Roland Iten to customize the adjustment disk.
Best of all, though, is the price
And best of all, this adjustable watch strap buckle is a rare Roland Iten product in that it’s both very useful and relatively affordable. From 1,890 Swiss francs, it’s by no means cheap, but the quality is excellent. And quality costs.
For more information or to order, please contact [email protected]. Note that the buckle, which is available now, has been exclusively pre-launched on Quill & Pad.
Quick Facts Roland Iten RWC09 Adjustable Watch Strap Buckle
Diameter: 25 mm
Weight: 15 grams
Mechanism: patented RWC09 adjustment buckle
Materials: titanium and steel
Complexity: 16 components
Size of strap: two options 16-18 mm or 18-20 mm strap width, maximum strap thickness at shortest hole 2.5 mm for pin buckles, 3 mm for folding buckles.
Price: 1,890-2’290 Swiss francs depending on materials Swiss francs (excluding shipping and taxes if applicable)
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1500 euros is relatively affordable?
That’s 3-4 ABP or Fournet full-custom straps in exotic leathers….
It’s no use spending that much money on straps if they don’t fit comfortably, Craig. I did write that, “At 1,490 Swiss francs it’s by no means cheap…” but that is relatively affordable compared to most Roland Iten products and any high-end watch. It’s not something you are likely to see on a Timex.
It’s also worth noting that while leather straps last years (or less in warm climates), this adjustable buckle will last lifetimes.
Regards, Ian
A few things – Very well made and unique deployant buckles are hard to find and precious metal variants are much more expensive than this piece. Pin buckles are nice but, unless you take your watch off over the bed or something soft, the repair bill on your $50,000 watch when it hits the dresser top or worse the floor, the repair bill will likely be double or more than this beautiful “safety mechanism”. …and yes. I bought one.
Roland Iten watch buckle for a pin buckle and deployant buckle are nowhere to be found on his website. Why bring up something that’s apparently unavailable. Taking a page out rolex? haha.
The buckle isn’t on the Roland Iten website, Ron, but it is available if you contact [email protected]
Regards, Ian
“Relatively affordable”… Relative to what? Other strap buckles? You can get solid gold pin buckles for ~$200 USD. I love micro-adjustability as much as the next watch nerd, but the title of this article is very misleading.
Point taken, Jason, I did finish with relatively affordable compared with other Roland Iten products and did say at the top of the article that variations of these buckles had been used by (relatively unaffordable) brands like Greubel Forsey and F.P. Journe. It is an expensive buckle, but relatively affordable by someone spending $50k on a watch. Horses for courses.
Regards, Ian
Thank you for the interesting article. As someone who’s wrist size consistently falls between too loose and too tight, this would be ideal. However, I too am puzzled by the high price relative to a nice timepiece. For the same amount, one can purchase a very nice watch offering complications and great finish (Christopher Ward, Baltic, etc.). This is a relatively simple, although beautifully crafted mechanism by comparison, the price is difficult to justify. Maybe others will be offered, patent rights not withstanding.
I had a look at their website. It is a small number of shockingly pointless items. Once you have your superyacht, collection of old Masters and several vineyards… once your wife has given you a Rolls Royce with your initials spelt out in diamonds on the dashboard and really really can’t think of anything at all to buy you, she can contemplate a mechanical, self-closing belt buckle for many thousands of dollars.
Sigh…..
I agree with you 100% Tam, but pointless items is the very definition of luxury. You might also say the same about art (and every modern mechanical watch). That doesn’t mean that we can’t appreciate the thought and craft though.
Regards, Ian
I guess when you get it for free, it makes it easier to post that it is affordable right?
Wow, Terry, throwing out wild assumptions? That may be how you work, but it’s not how we work here. If I received one for free, I would have told you up front.
Regards, Ian
Thank you for letting us know about this novel buckle. It’s nice to see something a bit different from the norm.
As for the ones moaning about the affordability etc, he did give the caveat.
Would you be moaning about someone saying the OP was the more affordable Rolex. Or 5296 the affordable PP? Give him a break and move on.
Thanks, Chris,
There’s little in the world of haute horlogerie that can be considered cheap.
Regards, Ian
Interesting buckle, extremely expensive but cool
Thanks for your comment, Nicholas.
Regards, Ian
@Ian.
Luxury is not pointless. A little luxury is essential. 😊
pointless and essential are not mutually exclusive 🙂
Wow, that’s serious money in my opinion particularly in steel. Formed had a decent one for $100 but sold out….
lol… the usual utter detachment from reality by Ian. “relatively affordable” hahahaha. what lunacy
I just realized that I have some snowshoes with a similar mechanism, though it’s a single fold clasp instead of a butterfly. It would be interesting to know whether this is patented, or if the single clasp mechanism could be replicated for use as a watch buckle at a much more reasonable price.
It’s easy to make a cheaper adjustable buckle, Raj, just lower the quality.
Regards, Ian
Grip6 belts have an extremely elegant and simple buckle. I think it would be perfect for a watch. Since discovering them I haven’t worn anything else.
https://grip6.com/collections/mens-buckles/products/mens-narrow-classic-buckle-1
How is the clasp opened? Friction fit? Didn’t see any buttons or latch.
If a folding clasp,it is opened as normal. And if a pin buckle clasp, it is also opened as normal. The original buckle still operates as usual on the strap, the adjustable buckle has its own pin/tang that slots into the hole in the strap
Regards, Ian
I’m always excited to see a new idea for something that has been an age-old problem. I’ll have to wait until I come into my outrageous fortune before I buy one, but I take my hat off to the clever people who developed this. Yes it’s costly, but nothing worth having ever comes cheap.