Help - Can this vintage watch strap be adjusted?

[turboslippers]

Morning all, mate of mine is getting married and has a family Vacheron Constantin watch he'd like to wear on the day as his dad gave it to him recently. Thing is, he can't see any obvious way of getting the bracelet size down to fit his slim wrists. Apart from the adjustment in the clasp itself, the bracelet doesn't appear to have any removable links. Is it possible to make the bracelet smaller?

regards
Ben

[Variomatic]

Yes it can, but it means cutting and re-soldering the bracelet. So any shortening will be permanent, or at least very difficult to have reversed in future.

[Johnniem]

Could he consider taking the existing strap off and replacing it with a leather one for the wedding? At least he will retain the metal strap unaltered for the time being.

[Variomatic]

Not easily from what's visible in that photo - it looks like the strap is integral to the case.

Probably the two least destructive ways to do it would be to either:

have a goldsmith remove the strap and fit lugs for a leather strap, which would allow the original to be reattached in future if wanted, or

eat loads of KFC and maccy D between now and the wedding.

[Hoofy]

How loose is it? If it's only mildly loose and the watch head just sits high on the back of the hand, I wouldn't worry about it. If it slides right off or jams with the thumb then that's different.

[turboslippers]

Cheers for the info gents. Can't see him piling in the Maccy D's until the big day....he's going back to get his wedding suit altered as his current thai-boxing routine is shedding the kilo's.

It's definitely waaay too big though, his dad has pretty large wrists and matey has pretty slim wrists....it would be hanging off him.

Tricky one I guess, if he gets the current strap modified then he pretty much precludes it being reversed should some future member of his family wear it and have larger wrists.

Ben

[Hoofy]

Could he clip it securely using something like a paperclip or even string just so it fits for the day?

Edit: if you can get a needle through the links, how about using some elastic and sewing it to both ends so it becomes a loop that can stretch to fit over his hand and then be worn securely. You can then tear off the elastic afterwards without any damage to the bracelet.