Have a watch that you love and whose band has cracked, and therefore cannot wear it?

In this project you will give your old watch a new life; a life of adventure and awesomeness.

I loved my watch. But when its strap cracked, I was heartbroken. I tried all kinds of things, superglue, tape, stitches. And finally the strap just broke in two. I wanted to continue using it, (toy story feeling), I wanted to make something awesome. I wanted to make a survival-watch, whether it be for surviving in school/office or surviving outside.

The reason I chose the watch as a survival kit apart from the apparent fact of giving a broken watch a new life is, portability.The tendency to have a watch on you is more than an Altoids tin can survival kit, or any other type of survival kit.

This watch has some tools useful in an outdoor survival occasion on one side of the strap.

The other contains some tools for surviving in a school or office.

This survival watch can be worn even when the rope and all tools are removed. The only issue might be that it would be unaesthetic.

Feel free to throw in some tools of your choice, as long as they are small and flexible, they will work just fine.

Step 1: What You Need

MAIN FRAME

A broken watch

Some paracord (or any rope that you have present, it should be supple, and strong)

A nylon string (the kind used in a clothesline, It should be supple yet strong)

A scissor

Any strap strong enough to take some load and has to be flexible ( I used some packing strap)

Some hot glue

Hook/buckle/clip/karabiner (whatever you have present)

Strong insulation/duct tape

Flexible sheet of plastic (I used the kind used in photo lamination)

OUTDOOR ITEMS

Hook/buckle/clip/karabiner (whatever you have present)

Matches with box

Flexible hacksaw blade

Plastic bag

Paracord

SCHOOL AND OFFICE USE ITEMS

Flexible pen refill semi full

Paperclips

Plastic bag

Rubber band

Paper

Emergency money

Step 2: Main Primary Strap

Wrap some nylon string around your wrist and through a buckle/hook/ to measure you wrist size and mark it with a marker. Bend the nylon wire by heating it mildly on a heat gun, or on a cooking stove. Be careful not to melt the wire. Once you have done this, it would look like some thing in the picture.

Glue the loose ends with superglue or rubber glue. For extra precautions wrap some insulation/duct tape around the wires. It would look like something in the picture.

Tape the back of your watch to this strap and your primary watch strap is ready.

Step 3: Survival Compartment

Take the two plastic sheets, cut them into rectangles of width ‘a’, and height ‘b’. Where ‘a’ and ‘b’ represent the width of the original watch strap and the (perimeter of your wrist – the diameter of your watch)/2 respectively.

Take your matchbox and cut out the striking surface and stick it to one of the plastic sheet.

On the other side take your hacksaw blade. Break the blade into the dimension of the plastic sheet. Wrap it with a duct/insulation tape. Wrap some duct tape around the blade and the striker and plastic sheet. This is the slid-able compartment.

Step 4: Survival Compartment Holder

Take the strap and cut section twice the length of the plastic sheet. Fold it in the middle, put your plastic sheet along with the taped tools into the folded strap and tape the whole thing. This part is essentially for the plastic sheet with tools to slide in and out. Caution: Don’t tape the compartment holder too hard. And leave some space to pull the plastic sheet out from the compartment holder.

Step 5: Waterproof and Flexible Matches

Waterproof matches are expensive. So I made my own. Turpentine is water repellent. Take normal matches and soak them in turpentine, dry them. Wax the heads of the matchstick, wrap it with some sticky tape. And break the match. There you go, you have waterproof flexible matches. Tape it to the compartment holder. Caution: Tape into the shape of your wrist, otherwise it will not bend.

Step 6: School/office Compartment

Follow the same process as the survival compartment. The tools I put in were: a flexible refill, 4 paperclips, a plastic bag folded into a tight stick-like shape, 2 rubber bands. Some paper and some emergency money. Feel free to throw in any other tool you want. They should work as long as they are small and flexible.

Step 7: Assemble and Make

Put these compartments between the nylon wires on either sides. So you know which compartment is on which side of the watch. Put the closed side of the compartment in (towards the watch). Essentially you should be able to pull out the plastic along with the tools out of your strap without affecting any other arrangement. The only issue is that you cannot remove matches without opening up the weave. Follow any other paracord bracelet instructables out there to make a cobra weave (any weave is not possible).

I used this: http://survivallife.com/2014/04/28/how-to-make-par...

Step 8: Finishing Up

This model is a more aesthetic one than the one I made previously. But if utility is the number one priority then you could make a modification of this project. You could attach pipes on the outer surface of the watch strap. The pipe could be of length of the width of the watch and you could put additional tools inside. Some of them could be: pills/medicine, torch, earbuds, needle, magnet, string, fishing line, hook… etc.

Feel totally free to customize the model. And please let me know if you have any question on making the project. And let me know how you have customized it. It would mean a lot to me. Thank you.