Bead and Chain Watch

If you’re looking for a fun and involved project — something that allows you to stretch your creativity and create something you’ll actually wear — few things are more fun and practical than making your own watch.

You can pick up a watch face from many stores and bead shops. You can often choose from several styles and colors, and the possibilities are endless. You can make your watch as quirky, elegant or understated as you’d like. Sometimes the watch face gives you an idea of where you might like to start.

I’m more of a silver than gold kind of girl, so I opted for a silver toned and light purple watch face. I had a few ideas about what I’d like to do, but once I found the beads I really liked, everything else just fell into place. I’m sure you’ll find some funky or wonderful beads of your own that will inspire you in your own watch creation, but here’s where my watch creation journey led me.

I thought I might like some chain on my watch, because I’ve recently come to really enjoy using chain, but I also wanted the added color of beads. So, I sort of mixed the two. I found wonderful beads that form a spiral oval shape and — get this — the wire is flexible so you can actually put a bead inside the spiral oval. I’m sure I’m not the first person to discover this bead, but it sure felt like it! I was excited about these beads, and I knew they would allow me the option of adding color while still having chain and wire be a big part of the look.

First I attached a jump ring to either side of the watch face, and connected that jump ring to my first spiral ovals. I used another, smaller jump ring to connect the first spiral ovals to the second spiral ovals. My wrist is pretty small, and I knew I wouldn’t have much length to work with, so I made sure to get my favorite parts on first.

Once I got my spiral ovals on, I cut some silver chain — four short pieces of equal length. I put two of the chain pieces side by side and put a jump ring through the top and the bottom of the two chains, which connected the chain pieces to each other and also to the bead before it and the bead after it. I did the same with the other side. This just gave a little more width to the chain, which was pretty thin to begin with. The jump rings that were at the bottom of the chain segments were the ending jump rings to which I connected my ‘S’ clasp, which I made from 16 gauge sterling silver wire.

Now that I was done with the wire and chain portion of the watch, it was time for color! I opted for round blue glass beads for the inside of the spiral ovals closest to the watch face. I used my pliers to pry the wire apart and put the bead inside. I chose light amethyst Swarvovski cubes for the spiral ovals closer to my wrist. To add more ‘splashes’ of color, I added purple E beads to jump rings and attached the jump rings to some of the links in the chain and also to some of the smaller jump rings throughout the watch’s length. The silver jump rings served as extra ‘danglies’, and the purple E beads spread additional color throughout the length of the watch. I liked my end result — an interesting, delicate and whimsical watch!

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