I wasn’t going to post this, but last night one of the girls at youth group asked, “Is that a knitted watch?” and I replied that I’d crocheted it earlier that day, and several people said “Cool.” So I decided it was worth posting!

I have really missed wearing a wrist watch since my current watch broke and my previous watch has a dead battery. I don’t know how much fixing will cost, but a new battery + pressure test isn’t super cheap either so I got a cheap novelty kids watch that has a face that pops out of the rubber band.

The crab wasn’t the most comfortable, probably because it was designed for a child’s wrist. So I decided while listening to a conference talk to crochet a band that was a bit more “me” than a rubber crab.

I want sure how it would work out, making the pattern up as I went, but work it did. It is more of a prototype than anything; I’ve already started on another one with lace weight yarn that will hopefully be prettier and more secure. This one is not very secure; it’s fine for walking, writing and tame activities, but the face came out while I was sleeping, and also fell out when I picked up my rabbit this morning.

If you’re interested in a pattern this is how I made this band…

Crochet watch band

Materials

• 8ply cotton or bamboo yarn
• 3.5mm hook

Method

Watch face holder

1. Start with a magic loop, ch1 (counts as first sc), 5sc, join with sl st (6sc)
2. Ch1, sc in same st, 2sc in each stitch, join (12sc)
3. Ch1, 2sc in next st, *1 sc, 2sc in next st* rpt around, join (18sc)
   This was the size of my watch face. If yours is larger you can continue creating a flat circle by reducing the frequency of sc increases by one stitch each round. So the next round would be [2sc, then 2sc in next st], the round after that would be [3sc, 2sc in next st].
4. Working in back loop only: ch3, 17dc, join (18dc)
5. Ch1, 17sc, join (18sc)
6. Slip st around top edge to create a tighter hold. Finish off.

Watch band

My watch band is a single attached band without fasteners and is stretchy enough to go over my hand, but it has gotten more stretched out already; I will make my next one with a fastener.

1. Join yarn in one of the front loops from the round where you worked only back loops. Working in the exposed front loops ch1, 4sc, turn (5sc)
2. Ch1, 4sc, turn.
3. Repeat row 2 until the band + watch face holder is the size of your wrist (for me it was 36 more rows).
4. Slip st in front loop on opposite side of the holder. Slip st through each st of band and front loops of holder to attach band to the other side of the holder. Finish off.

Finally, you need to slip your watch into the holder (it can be tricky, but it should work in there eventually) and pull the watch band over your wrist.

Modifications

You can modify this pattern almost any way you like as long as the watch face holder ends up secure enough. You can use any weight yarn with a suitable size hook for that yarn, and you can make the band as wide as you like. You can also do patterns in the band.

For the new one I’m making with lace weight yarn I’m doing double crochet rather than single crochet and starting off with 12 rather than 6 stitches in the first round. Otherwise the overall pattern will be fairly similar. I might need to do some single crochet decreases to make the holder more secure with the lighter yarn.