For normal daily wear I find a large watch uncomfortable. So I replaced the watch strap on a ladies watch with a new watchband that is large enough to fit my wrist. I am very happy with the resulting watch and I thought I would share this info with the group.
You could probably get by without buying any tools, but I like adding to my tool collection and so I bought a watch spring tool (it is cheap and mades the job a lot easier) and a cheap caliper (not really necessary, but I liked to be able to measure my watches). I bought these tools from harbor freight because they are cheap and there is store nearby. I bought item # 66176 for the spring tool (about $5) and item # 47256 for the 4" digital caliper (about $15 on sale).
The first thing you need to do is to figure out the size watch band you need. The watch I was working on used a 14mm watch band. This measurement is the the width of the opening for the watch band. This is where a caliper comes in handy, but if you want (and have good eyes) you could instead use a ruler marked in mm.
Next you need to order the replacement watch band. You will need to get an extra long watch band since the normal length of a 14mm watch band is sized to fit a woman's wrist. I ordered the band from esslinger.com (a great site that has complete instructions on how to do various watch repair tasks including how to change the band). For my wrist size I needed to order an extra long length and they had only a few options in this length. I bought a simple plain black leather band (Item Number: 131-14XL) costing $12 and I was very happy with the quality for the price.
Swapping out the watch band was easy (i followed the instructions on their site) and took about a minute. For me spending the extra $5 to buy the tool was totally worth it, but you could probably get by without it.
I have enjoyed having the digital caliper (used to measure the watch band size). If you are going to buy a watch online or on ebay it is handy to already know the thickness and diameter of an existing watch to compare to the the online dimesnsions. Personally I like knowing that the thickness of a thin seiko watch is 6.4mm thick and that the diameter of the eddie bauer "ladies" field watch is 26.6mm, but that is probalby just me.
Also, FYI, i also bought tools and such to replace watch batteries, but I'd recommend against going down that path. There is enough differences between watches and enough special tools that it is really more cost and hassle than it is worth. If I had it to do over again I would recommend just going to a shop that does this all the time and already has all the tools and know how.
You could probably get by without buying any tools, but I like adding to my tool collection and so I bought a watch spring tool (it is cheap and mades the job a lot easier) and a cheap caliper (not really necessary, but I liked to be able to measure my watches). I bought these tools from harbor freight because they are cheap and there is store nearby. I bought item # 66176 for the spring tool (about $5) and item # 47256 for the 4" digital caliper (about $15 on sale).
The first thing you need to do is to figure out the size watch band you need. The watch I was working on used a 14mm watch band. This measurement is the the width of the opening for the watch band. This is where a caliper comes in handy, but if you want (and have good eyes) you could instead use a ruler marked in mm.
Next you need to order the replacement watch band. You will need to get an extra long watch band since the normal length of a 14mm watch band is sized to fit a woman's wrist. I ordered the band from esslinger.com (a great site that has complete instructions on how to do various watch repair tasks including how to change the band). For my wrist size I needed to order an extra long length and they had only a few options in this length. I bought a simple plain black leather band (Item Number: 131-14XL) costing $12 and I was very happy with the quality for the price.
Swapping out the watch band was easy (i followed the instructions on their site) and took about a minute. For me spending the extra $5 to buy the tool was totally worth it, but you could probably get by without it.
I have enjoyed having the digital caliper (used to measure the watch band size). If you are going to buy a watch online or on ebay it is handy to already know the thickness and diameter of an existing watch to compare to the the online dimesnsions. Personally I like knowing that the thickness of a thin seiko watch is 6.4mm thick and that the diameter of the eddie bauer "ladies" field watch is 26.6mm, but that is probalby just me.
Also, FYI, i also bought tools and such to replace watch batteries, but I'd recommend against going down that path. There is enough differences between watches and enough special tools that it is really more cost and hassle than it is worth. If I had it to do over again I would recommend just going to a shop that does this all the time and already has all the tools and know how.
Especially since I see more ladies wearing man sized watches, its as if no watch is too big to wear. 
