Blaze stainless band change

[jjmatter23]

I bought the new stainless band what a nightmare! It's built for a midget,, the pins are mirco tiny, this is a lousy way to change bands,, whoever leaked this procedure as being "easy" must work for fitbit,, and where the hell do find the replacement pins at ,, there band replacement system is a disaster!

Moderator edit: All caps and clarified subject.

[Lgarg]

Thanks Rastadog. I did not even think about using any 22mm watch band. I just got the Blaze and am waiting on the metal band and the black leather band. It will be nice to get more that might be a bit more affordable.

[Yeepers]

I just got the metal band and I used tools I had at home to remove the pins to downsize the band.

1. small hammer

2. bench vice

3. smallest tip star/torx screwdriver

Basically secured the band in the vice then tapped out the pins. You'll see one end is flat and the other is rounded.  You want to tap on the rounded end to remove the pins. Or...looking at the clasp start at the "T" end of "fitbit". Put pins back in reverse. Took me a few minutes to remove the links I needed removed.

As an aside. I have a ton of extra links now so if you are looking for a few to make your band an XXL feel free to PM me and I'll send them to you.

Cheers!

[MeRaWi]

Adding a link is a major pain!  I already bent one pin from the extra links.  Haven't been able to budge the links on the watch band.  You pay $130 and then you have to go to a jewler. Not a good design.

[racertempo]

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@MeRaWi wrote:

Adding a link is a major pain!  I already bent one pin from the extra links.  Haven't been able to budge the links on the watch band.  You pay $130 and then you have to go to a jewler. Not a good design.

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It has nothing to do with the design, that is the way ALL steel watch bands are designed.  DO you want to walk around and just have a link come loose?  Go buy another steel band and see if you can remove a link yourself, when you cannot, you will see it is not a bad designb by fitbit.

[Alex_A]

Although all steel link watch bands are similar, they are certainly not the
same. The pins are generally 0.8, 0.9, or 1.0 millimeters in diameter. I
think the FB uses 0.8, which is the most difficult to deal with. By the
way, I had a jeweler do it, and they screwed up. They pushed the pins in
too far, and they were sliding out! I bought the proper tool kit, did it
myself, and it's been fine since. The key is to tap the loop side of the
pin flush with the outside of the link, so that it stays put.

Alex Andreadis

[Rich_Laue]

The tool to add or remove links can be found on Ebay for under 10 dollars, and doing a search of Youtube it is not hard to find a vedeo on how to do this without the proper tool. 

[racertempo]

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@Alex_A wrote:
Although all steel link watch bands are similar, they are certainly not the
same. The pins are generally 0.8, 0.9, or 1.0 millimeters in diameter. I
think the FB uses 0.8, which is the most difficult to deal with. By the
way, I had a jeweler do it, and they screwed up. They pushed the pins in
too far, and they were sliding out! I bought the proper tool kit, did it
myself, and it's been fine since. The key is to tap the loop side of the
pin flush with the outside of the link, so that it stays put.

Alex Andreadis

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The sizes my vary, but the process is literally the exact same.  If a jewler screwed it up then they are amateurs.  I used to do it myseld with a hammer and a snall nail, but after finding out on this forum about the little $4 tool on amazon  I bought that and you have try to screw it up.  Either way, a post saying it is a bad design by fitbit is a post that is fact-less.

[Wolflead6]

Pins only come out ONE WAY!  Make sure you don't try to push them out the wrong way or you will damage them.  If pushed firmly the correct way they will come out.  I used a tool that actually came with a band I purchased on Amazon (not an absurdly overpriced Fitbit metal band).  Think I paid $29 for band and frame and it came with 3 pins and the removal tool.

[bpetillo]

I agree completely.  There is nothing easy about changing the Blaze bands.  They try to make it sound like you should have multiple bands to suit your mood.  Not!

[KennKatona]

Mine is too small as well, I was wondering What you came up with. Please shoot me a message if you found a solution.

kenn.katona@gmail.com