Anyone ever lose or drop a watch due to spring bar failure ?

[Burlington]

Some Sunday evening musings.

Having moved past the scratch avoidance honeymoon phase with my watch, the only major risk I can see to taking it diving if I get chance to go this year (just been pressure tested too) would be a total loss due to spring bar failure.

On my previous iwc I did swap the strap once and the spring bar came out in 2 pieces, but it was holding firm nevertheless. Maybe I broke it during removal even.

Assuming there isn’t an accessible floor to the ocean wherever the dive site is, feeling it slip off my wrist and watch it descend into the deep blue would be fairly tragic.

It always seems a curious foible to have such high value items secured by only a few mm of spring loaded steel.

The obvious solution would usually be a nato, but not a viable option for the AP. There is also apparently some loctite used on the screw in ‘spring’ bars at the lugs, so that certainly mitigates some risk too.

Curious if it’s ever happened to anyone - or a near miss ? I’m sure I read about it on here before but it certainly can’t be a common occurrence.