In the early days of Swatch, they created these watches for a special event that never took place. Instead, they gave these rare watches to Swatch employees. There were only 500 in existence, so collectors are willing to pay upwards of $3500 for one.

• Swatch Velvet Underground – Special – GZ999W | Squiggly Swatch Watches and Straps

Swatch eventually came out with a consolation prize for those of us who didn’t get one of these rare watches. It was also called Velvet Underground. I have one here:

Still, I can’t help but want that exotic original piece of history, but there is NO WAY I’m paying nearly four thousand bucks for a twenty year old watch, so I decided to create my own.

Firstly, I started with Big Eclipse. Instead of its typical black band, I put on a white band. The face isn’t neon pink, but I’m not trying to defraud anyone. I’m just trying to make a Swatch that’s cool and that I love. A black face with white hands is good enough for me.

The parts I needed was some lace, needle, thread and some quilt pins.

Next, I removed the buckle and strap holder. This is easier for some brands of bands than others. I used the Swatch tool to pop the middle pin out.

I cut the lace to be slightly longer than the watch. Honestly, I should have given it a tad more length than this, so if you do this, make sure you cut a little more than I did.

The original Velvet Underground had a seam along the back, so I did the same with mine. I pinned the lace together along the back with quilt pins.

Once it was pinned securely, I trimmed the excess lace, leaving a quarter inch seam allowance on the back.

With a needle and thread, I sewed up the lace along the back of the watch. I kept the pins in until I was sewing right next to them. Don’t take them all out before you start sewing. It will make your job harder.

The completed seam looks like this. I didn’t have quite enough to go over the buckle area of the watch like I wanted. There is just barely enough to get there. That’s why you should cut more lace when you do it. Notice that there isn’t a hole for the battery case. I installed a fresh battery, so in five years, when this one runs out, I’ll have to carefully cut a hole in the lace, just like the current collectors have done to theirs.

The final step is to reattach the buckle and strap holder. The strap holder needs to go OVER the lace and then the buckle is attached. It’s nice finishing touch, I think.

You can see the final product here:

• Faux Velvet Underground – a set on Flickr

It looks great on my wrist, which is something I would NEVER do if this were a REAL Velvet Underground.

This project took me less time than it took me to wait in line at Joann’s to have the lace cut and sold (about thirty minutes). Have FUN!!