I just can't stand this terrible design. Get in the car. Close the door. Start the car. Awful automatic seatbelt closes. Put cat in gear. Look at the dash. See brake light on dash lit......Argh. Now you have to open the door to have clearance to disengage the brake. Of course, when you open the door, the seat belt starts going the other way. Disengage the brake. Close door. Seat belt now closes. Then you want to go beat yourself for being so stupid for not doing it before you closed the door. There just is no clearance to put the brake down with the door closed. Had to rant about this.
I been there many times Actually every time If my watch is not on, i can squeeze my hand in . But the secret is to make sure the bicycle handgrip on lever is completely seated Then the button disengages fully quickly Yeah its poor but the drive lets you forget quickly! PS. How does that mouse not catch my hair every time I am always ready to scream the f word as my head alway gets hit by that mouse
Strange - I never noticed this as a problem. I'll have to look it at next time I'm in the car. I always close the door, start the car, and then when I'm ready, foot on brake pedal, and disengage the handbrake.
I can't do it without my watch scratching against the door panel. My watch never comes off my arm. It's been there for 30 years (not kidding ...Submariner just keeps on ticking ...which is fascinating by itself) I can imagine that if I removed my watch my problem would go away. So the 512tr is not watch friendly.
I never noticed this as a problem, it's tight but also I don't wear a watch. Wondering if your handle comes up too high? Mine comes up just to the seat base which is below the armrest and is centered so a hand fits ok. Regards Andrew Image Unavailable, Please Login
Why use the hand brake at all? Park the car and leave it in gear. Safer and more effective than a hand brake.
I would say that my watch makes me old (not using my cell phone as a clock) but wait until all you techies start wearing an iwatch...then you will experience the frustration.
Heh, nice watch! Point made. I doubt I'll be wearing the techy one soon since it would clearly interfere with driving
this is a weird one. i wear an omega speedmaster, so not quite as fat as the submariner but close, and i have zero issues with the handbrake. i am wondering if the usa version is different in any way - cant look myself since mine is in storage at the moment.
I was also wondering if my arm rest could be off by just an inch or so. The side door panels are clearly hand made which could cause some variation. If the arm rest was just 1 inch higher it may make a big difference. But, if you look at our 2 photos again you can see there is very little difference. Maybe I'm just big boned.
Your seat base seems to stick out wider than mine? Try taking a photo like my first one looking straight down.
Hmmm this is interesting and worth an experiment! Please add in you're experience. My Euro RHD car has a harder drivers seat than the passengers seat, even the leather is thicker. The passenger seat on the LHS side of the car points more to the middle of the car than the RHS seat which points almost straight ahead. In my Euro car there is simply loads of room to operate the hand (e) brake without scratching my Timex against the leather door panel. What is yours like????? P
Hello All, I have seen a lot of door panels scratched by watches. I release my brake after the door closes, but my watch is a slimmer design. Oftentimes I'm not wearing a watch. I notice various fashion photographs showing a cool well dressed model with a huge or nicer watch on while posing with a classic Jaguar or Mercedes and I just say to myself that if you really owned that nice collectible car, you wouldn't want that watch on, or the ring, or those buttons, scratching up your interior. Most of the time I see Ralph Lauren in blue jeans, nothing fancy. (I guess he takes his styling cues from me) Purple Label & Black Label - RalphLauren.com
