The Gadgets Page

If you haven’t noticed, I love watches and have too many to really keep nearby. My favorites were thrown in a drawer, which made it difficult to find them and easy to scratch their crystals. I decided to create a watch drawer so I could easily store my favorite watches. Here are the results.

This is a fairly easy project and the watch holders can also be used for bracelets. It took me one day to complete the project from start to finish.

Tools and Materials:

• PVC Pipe (cut to the proper length at the home improvement store)
• Foam Pipe Insulation
• Scissors to cut the insulation
• Closet bar holders (one for each watch holder you want)
• Screwdriver with a short handle (to fit in the drawer)
• SHORT screws that will fit in the closet bar holders (the ones that come with them are WAY too long)

Directions:

• Measure the inner width of your drawer so you know the length of PVC pipes you need. Decide how many watch holders you want. I filled my entire drawer with them, but you can a few or many as you want.

• At the home improvement store, buy a length of PVC pipe that is enough for as many watch holders you want. They can cut the pipe for you at the store and I HIGHLY recommend that you use that service. At first, I tried to cut the pipe with a hack saw. It worked, but the edges were so rough that it wasn’t pretty, so I went back to the store and bought some MORE pipe and let them cut it for me. The edges are much cleaner.

• I used 1″ diameter PVC pipe and the corresponding 1″ insulation, which was the perfect diameter for my watches, but you might want a slightly larger diameter if you are a man or prefer your watches to be loose on your wrist.

• The foam pipe insulation should be in the plumbing aisle as well. Choose the insulation that is the same pipe size as your PVC pipe. It is meant to be slit open so it can be fitted over existing piping, but you shouldn’t cut along that mark. If you keep it intact, it will look very nice when it is slid onto the PVC pipe.

• The closet bar holders were in the closet section. You can get them in plastic or wood. Since my PVC pipe was white, the plastic matched very well. The watches aren’t going to be heavy, so you don’t have to worry about getting something that sturdy.

• When I got back home, I cut the foam insulation to be almost as long as the PVC pipe (see photo above) and slid the pre-cut pipes into the insulation.

• Make sure you measure where you’re going to put your watch holders carefully. If you notice, I have an extra hole in my drawer where I screwed up the first time and didn’t leave enough room for the watch holder AND the watch. I measured about an inch below the top of the drawer, so there would be room for the watches to fit when the drawer is closed. If you are going to have more than one watch holder, make sure you leave at least one inch between them as well.

• Attach half of the closet rod holder onto the side of the drawer. I had to buy short screws that would fit in the closet bar holder holes because the ones that came with it were LONG and made to hold up a closet rod, not a light watch holder.

• On the the other side of the drawer, I attached the other closet rod holder. Screwing in the screws was difficult for me because my drawer was so narrow that my normal screwdriver wouldn’t fit. I had to go back to the home improvement store to buy a stubby little screwdriver to use instead.

• Add watches and place the watch holders into the drawer.

This set up has made it SO much easier for me to choose a watch each day. I hope it helps you as well.