Fluoroelastomer Straps - IMO, the best "rubber" straps
Posted: Sun Jan 05, 2020 10:58 pm
A little unsurprising but I've noticed the popularity of silicone and silicone-rubber hybrid straps over the last couple years.
In my quest to find the "ultimate" watch straps, I've probably spent hundreds on different varieties because of the lack of actual material composition from sellers.
One specific area that I found no one discussing was fluorine-treated polymer straps, which was a little surprising. For those who don't know, fluorine rubber, fluoro-rubber, fluoroelastomer, etc are rubber materials that have been chemically treated with fluorine to produce desirable properties; these include a combination of better tensile strength, flexibility, reduced reactivity to other chemicals, etc. Viton, seeing rising popularity in the watch industry for gaskets, is also a fluoroelastomer variant. Flurorubber has been reviewed to be significantly better in terms of performance over traditional vulcanized rubber.
Found that Apple also uses such in their stock Apple Watch straps. While I do not know the percentage and other chemical treatments each manufacturer claims, I ended finding something that I was happy with.
How about a polymer strap that is extremely pliable, doesn't attract dust, doesn't develop a "shine" and absorb smells like silicone? One difference that I noticed from traditional vulcanized rubber (sulfur-treated) straps is that these don't even really feel like rubber. Closer to polyurethane or resin but just feels... different. Found this on AliExpress some time this summer (from a different seller) and was pretty amazed. I hated silicone straps due to their eventuality in becoming "oily" due to the nature of reactivity.
If you guys are willing to risk $15 on a new material, I urge you to try them. They're available with quick-release springbars (you can remove them) and tail keepers by the buckle. These are IMO the "ultimate" rubber straps, it's such a shame that they only come in a single style.
I've only tried the blue and black in 20/22mm sizes, so I'm unsure if the others are identical in material.
AliExpress is notorious for lost-in-translation items so do order other colours/size variants at your own risk.
This style is the only one I can guarantee to be actual fluoroelastomer.
I will say one negativity, they are slightly less breathable than your typical rubber straps, likely due to the molecular structure difference.
In my quest to find the "ultimate" watch straps, I've probably spent hundreds on different varieties because of the lack of actual material composition from sellers.
One specific area that I found no one discussing was fluorine-treated polymer straps, which was a little surprising. For those who don't know, fluorine rubber, fluoro-rubber, fluoroelastomer, etc are rubber materials that have been chemically treated with fluorine to produce desirable properties; these include a combination of better tensile strength, flexibility, reduced reactivity to other chemicals, etc. Viton, seeing rising popularity in the watch industry for gaskets, is also a fluoroelastomer variant. Flurorubber has been reviewed to be significantly better in terms of performance over traditional vulcanized rubber.
Found that Apple also uses such in their stock Apple Watch straps. While I do not know the percentage and other chemical treatments each manufacturer claims, I ended finding something that I was happy with.
How about a polymer strap that is extremely pliable, doesn't attract dust, doesn't develop a "shine" and absorb smells like silicone? One difference that I noticed from traditional vulcanized rubber (sulfur-treated) straps is that these don't even really feel like rubber. Closer to polyurethane or resin but just feels... different. Found this on AliExpress some time this summer (from a different seller) and was pretty amazed. I hated silicone straps due to their eventuality in becoming "oily" due to the nature of reactivity.
If you guys are willing to risk $15 on a new material, I urge you to try them. They're available with quick-release springbars (you can remove them) and tail keepers by the buckle. These are IMO the "ultimate" rubber straps, it's such a shame that they only come in a single style.
I've only tried the blue and black in 20/22mm sizes, so I'm unsure if the others are identical in material.
AliExpress is notorious for lost-in-translation items so do order other colours/size variants at your own risk.
This style is the only one I can guarantee to be actual fluoroelastomer.
I will say one negativity, they are slightly less breathable than your typical rubber straps, likely due to the molecular structure difference.
