IBM Model M Buckling Spring vs Kailh BOX Navy

IBM Model M Buckling Spring or Kailh BOX Navy: the long answer

This pair has a fit problem to clear before feel or sound matter. The IBM Model M Buckling Spring does not use an MX style stem, so it will not drop into a standard hot-swap board or accept ordinary MX keycaps. Both are mid priced. Neither ships lubed, so budget an evening with a brush if you want either at its best.

Now the part the spec table measures. Travel differs at both ends, with the Kailh BOX Navy registering first at 1.8 mm and the IBM Model M Buckling Spring running deepest at 3.7 mm. At actuation the IBM Model M Buckling Spring is the firmer press, 67 g against 60 g, a difference you notice after a paragraph rather than on the first keystroke. Both are clickies either way, so both stack a click mechanism on a bump you already feel. Same family of stroke, so read the detail rather than the headline.

What the table cannot tell you is how either one lands in a room. The IBM Model M Buckling Spring sits at loud full clack-click with steel-chassis ring; the Kailh BOX Navy answers with the deepest, loudest, most forceful click in production. They do not even click the same way: a spring buckling against the hammer on the IBM Model M Buckling Spring against a click bar snapping inside the housing on the Kailh BOX Navy, which is most of the tonal difference you are hearing. Either way, both of these are heard by everyone in the room, so the choice between them is a choice of tone and not of volume. Worth repeating: the audio here is a simulation built from specs and community descriptions, not a recording of either switch.

So who should buy which? For gaming we lean toward the Kailh BOX Navy, because a lighter spring at actuation and a shorter distance to actuation go its way. For long typing sessions the IBM Model M Buckling Spring makes the stronger case, since the click keeps a long session in rhythm, assuming nobody nearby objects. And if your keyboard shares a room with other people, the IBM Model M Buckling Spring is the one we would trust, as neither of these belongs in a quiet shared room, and this is only the less punishing of the two clicks. Before you order either, match the volume trims above and hear them back to back.

Want the full story on either switch? Read the dedicated IBM Model M Buckling Spring page and the Kailh BOX Navy page. Or leave switches aside for a minute and run your current keyboard through the free keyboard tester.

Frequently asked questions