Ever heard of “spring bar pins”?
If you wear a watch — and that’s a big “if” in the cellphone era — then you might know that spring bar pins are the small metal pins that hold your watch straps (watch bands) in place. They have internal springs that hold the pins tight in much the same way as the springs in bathroom toilet paper rollers.
Over the past couple decades, I’ve had a few watches that eventually came to the end of their useful lives. Before I threw them away after they broke or stopped working, I removed and kept the straps and spring bar pins, putting them away in my desk drawer.
Recently my son told me he needed a new watch. In fact, all he needed was a spring bar pin. He had bumped his wrist against something and the impact had pulled the pin loose, disconnecting the strap. The pin was lost, leaving him no way to re-attach the strap. I showed him my spring bar pin collection and, luckily, one of them was the right size. A minute later, he had fixed his watch. No trip to a store. No money spent. I felt a little rush of parental satisfaction having given him a demonstration of how saving things like buttons and bolts can save time and money.
As usual, there’s a video that shows you how:
