Venu 2 Plus Watch Bands

Sounds strange. I've bought to additional 20mm watchbands and both fits without any issue.

I always use the original pins with new bands.

Yes very strange.  I did a google search and found that other users of the Venu had similar problems, not sure how wide spread.  All my bands are 20mm and fit the Watch 5 Pro no problems.  The Garmin band fits without a problem.  So if facing the Venu 2 Plus the buttons on the right it is just the top part where I normally place the buckle portion of the strap and the strap goes on bottom.  Bottom works fine it is just the top.  If I switch and put the buckle on bottom and strap part on top then the strap falls off.  I have 10 Barton 20 mm watch bands and 2 Ritchie bands.  The top strap falls off on all of them with a little movement or you can just pull them off, but again the Garmin strap fits fine.

If you're watch is pretty new I would contact support or your local dealer and try to exchange it. On german website garmin mentions: "quickrelease wristbands, 20mm Standard". In this case and my opinion, 20mm bands should work fine.

Will contact Garmin support on Tuesday.  I ordered 20mm, 21mm and 20mm 1.8 diameter watch pins from Amazon along with a 21mm Ritchie band.  Two different vendors for the watch pins and none of the 20mm bands fit.  The 21mm fits perfectly.  So I swapped out a couple of my Barton bands that I do not like so much and put the 21mm pins in so I could have a couple of different bands.Definitely seems to be something off on this.

I did the same with several bands I have. To me it seems that the various vendors have pins that are slightly inconsistent and the Garmin's require the pin to be exactly long enough or they will fall out.

I used a digital caliper and measured the exact width of the watch and watch band - 20.42mm for the watch side and 20.48mm for the band. I ordered around 10 different 3rd party 20mm watch bands, and found out that 2 or 3 of them actually don't fall off. The problem seems to be the width of the band itself, because actual 20mm bands have a very small gap on the sides and allow the band to twist and the pin falls out. I put the original pin on a 3rd party band, it still falls out under (more than normal) load.

Interesting.  I just bought a set of digital calipers but have not measured yet.  All the bands I have are either Garmin or Barton bands.  The two Garmin ones work fine.  The Barton ones are the problem, but a few I bought last year work.  The new ones that i purchased the last few months are the problem.  I also purchased a 20mm Ritchie band last week which just falls out,  found the watch on the floor did not even realize it came off.  It seems all 20mm bands are not created equal, or the pins being used are narrow. 

Hi, I have a new hook & loop nylon band that initially failed to engage reliably in the Venu 2 plus horns. I have an electronic micrometre and optical head loup and get the following measurements.

Garmin Original band & pin/Cheapo hook & loop band & pin. (all in mm)

Watch, space between horns 20.40.

Pin total length     22.71/22.38

Pin inserts       1.48/1.25

Pin ex inserts 20.16/19.72

Band width     20.16/19.50

The hook & loop band is noticeably looser on the watch but when I give it a good wiggle in my hand it remains firmly located. I did notice when fitting the new band pins using the magnifier that the spring-loaded pin was a little reluctant to engage in the hole in the watch horn & eventually "clicked" into place. The pin ends do not appear to be as neatly finished as the Garmin originals. I suspect this may have been the reason I had problems yesterday.

I'll wear the new band in the house today and see how it goes. (it is very comfortable)

Cheers

Update - I've been wearing my new band for 24 hours now without any problem. As a precaution, I've ordered some replacement pins paying particular attention to the size (some have 1.5mm barrels compared to 1.8mm barrels) and the state of the pin ends, I'm looking for a smooth slightly rounded tip with any burr taken off.

Cheers

Hi,
I wrote my findings here:
https://forums.garmin.com/sports-fitness/healthandwellness/f/venu-2-plus-964331130/293851/metal-wrist-band---pin-lug-not-holding-quick-release-20mm

In short: Bought 21mm pins and sanded them a tiny bit, until they fitted.