A few weeks ago, I ordered this cute Hello Kitty watch from a seller in China via Shopee. The strap was of seriously poor and defective quality as the PVC was broken after I tried on the watch for the first time. The watch cost around RM16 but I’d got a discount voucher and some coins to redeem so the cost came to about RM10. When I informed the seller about the awful strap, he agreed to a RM2 refund. I had to scout around for a replacement watch strap.
In the good old days, there were independent watch shops around but there are less and less of those nowadays. Most of the watch shops now are expensive ones and I didn’t expect a replacement watch strap to be affordable, let alone cheap. I went to 3 watch shops in Mid Valley, the cheapest was RM63 & even Mister Minit’s ones cost RM83, all leather. I didn’t think it was necessary to spend that much when the watch itself was cheap. If the watch didn’t work any more which is a distinct possibility given its price point, then I would really be kicking myself for splashing out on a watch strap far exceeding the cost of the watch.
Finally out of desperation and lack of choice, I turned to Shopee and was surprised to find so many sellers offering replacement watch straps. I chose a purple one which one seller offered at RM4.25 with a 50 sen discount too but that went below RM4 and I couldn’t get free shipping so I had to go to another seller offering it at RM6.
Although purple doesn’t replace the original rose strap in colour, this one met my expectations. The seller shipped out quite fast. I took it to Style Watch in Mid Valley yesterday and they helped me change the strap within less than a minute. I couldn’t believe how quick it was. Best of all, they didn’t charge me a sen for the service. It’s such a relief to find replacement watch straps online at a fraction of the price in watch shops.
