Garmin Forerunner 210 Strap Repair

I have a problem with e-waste. For example, I can’t stand throwing away this perfectly working GPS watch simply because the strap is not replaceable.

Sadly, this seems to be a common problem with the Garmin Forerunner 210. As far as I can tell, spare parts were never available for this model. I bet quite a few ended up in the bin over the years. On the bright side, I did find a few ways to repair it. I’ll be recreating this one:

I took a piece of plastic that seemed reasonably soft and not too brittle and cut it to size. Then I drilled some 1.5 mm holes. The bottom ones were drilled at an angle to match the curve of the watch body.

I bought a simple 18 mm wide watch strap online. It is “NATO-style”, meaning it is one long band instead of two separate ones. Using the plastic pieces and the original screws I then attached the strap. Finally, the extra piece of strap was put in place to cover the plastic pieces. This little strap is meant to keep the watch from sliding off on a normal watch. Here, it came in handy here to keep the plastic edges away from the arm.

I am pretty happy with the end result. It’s not too obvious and should hold up to normal use. But I’ll still be a little extra careful not to get the watch caught on anything.

Go repair something!