Staying away from watch buying for a while, so I am going to try to rotate all my straps one by one - most of these trials will be on the watch of choice, which is a Smiths Everest PRS-25, irrespective of whether the strap matches the watch. I will post details about where I got the strap from, and what I think about the strap and the strapmaker, as much as I can. I will group the nato straps together at the end, because there are too many of them

This is going to take a good while, but there will be something fresh to look at every day or two. Chime in with your thoughts and if you have the patience, stay tuned. Hopefully, I can also update this thread with new additions in the future. Probably also helps me figure out which straps I don't use and would like to purge.
There will be another long thread on all my 20mm straps later. I don't own/regularly use straps in any lug widths other than 20 or 22 (might have one or two in 18 and 24), and I prefer not to buy watches with other lug widths too.

Let's begin, this is gonna take a while

Strap #1 - 'Visciola'

To start, it is one of my best (and more expensive) straps - here we have the Visciola strap by Emre from Turkey - http://www.emreleatherworks.com/#!blank ... 4205694465
This is a very nice red strap - it was originally ordered for my white dial glossy red bezel C60 Trident but I sold the watch around the time the strap came in. No problems, it also fits the Smiths well I decided to go with the rather unconventional Kampfschwimmer style stitching here, as I was a little bored of the straight and box stitching on most of my other straps. In the link above, you can see my exact strap as the third pic in the photo slideshow (below).


Emre is a great guy to work with, but the shipping of the strap took a few weeks from Turkey.

One thing to note here is that Emre is good at making Panerai straps (which is most of his business) - so this strap is also in the same spirit. It is thicker than regular, still soft though and not as thick as his other Panerai straps, and has a large space for the springbar holes (as they were made to take tubes or fat springbars) - which is not something I knew, but doesn't make that much of a difference. The buckle is also pretty massive and in the pre-V style. In fact, I was unable to fit this strap on my white Trident because of the tight fit between the lugs and case and the thickness of the strap as well as large springbar holes. This strap would absolutely go great with something like a Seiko Tuna - which takes fat springbars, or any Panerai, or a tool diver like a Sinn U1 or Halios Delfin. It also goes well with the Everest on the thinner springbars. The strap itself feels 'very' high quality, and the day I buy a Panerai, I will be going back to this guy for another strap.

Love the Visciola, it's a nice rich red-brown colour. On the other hand the beigey coloured rally strap on the sub, while it matches the lume, does nothing for me. I like a strap with a bit more colour in it... like the strap you supplied with the Eterna.

Looking forward to the next instalment!

Right, I shall be following this thread.

If your strap box is anything like mine (and I really hope that it isn't!!) it'll comprise take-offs some being fit only for the scrap bin, some good ideas and some oh lumme - what can I do with this? examples. Photos available on request.

Thanks Gary, and I agree with tikkathree. The 20mm strap experiment will be on tikkathree's (-ex) C9 FLE 2011
Think I have to do two-three straps a day to go through all. Here is the next one.

Strap #2 - 'Footballer'
This is a 'Footballer' strap from Helmut Atelier in Canada - http://www.helmutwatches.com/collection ... 9534907075
Football leather, football being referred to in the American sense. Thick but very soft and nice to wear, complete with a roller buckle. The strapmaker (Aaron) is also present on numerous watch forums (but not here). I was lucky to buy this one for about half the regular price as it was a sample strap he was getting rid of. Aaron also kindly included an extra keeper in red color with yellow edges (along with the standard white leather keeper). The red/yellow being my university's colors. Nothing much to say here, a good wear for anything football related

I DO like the roller buckle, it's a great option to minimise wear on a chunky strap .

really love the stitiching on this football strap! I wouldn't choose it in a contrasting colour, but in a similar colour to the leather it would give the strap a great textured look.

looking forward to the next one blowfish!

I've been looking forward to this thread

Two interesting straps so far, can't wait to see the rest, or the 20mm thread.

I like the one on the Sub - partly because it's not normally the type of strap you see on a vintage Sub.

The other 2 do nothing for me - but that's probably because I think they look too chunky for the watch.

I think this will be an interesting thread to see what's out there, cause you do seem to cast your net wide with a great variety of straps. I am hoping there will be a few that may tempt me away from my normal - lets just get another Hirsch or JPM from Watch Obsession!

Neil

Thanks missF, Christa and Neil.
Hopefully, this thread does not turn into a soliloquy.

Strap #3 'Louis Vuitton'

This is one of those, what the Britishers call 'marmite' straps - you either like it or you hate it. Irrespective of the case, it adds some variety to the strap collection. This strap is made by Costas Kastantona in Cyprus, he mainly sells his stuff on ebay and Facebook, link to this strap - http://www.ebay.com/itm/watch-strap-LV- ... 1885224532
According to him, the strap is from old LV leather bags from Japan, and he always claims that he has very limited stock in this strap, though I doubt that is true. Kastantona has also been known to uproot high-quality user pictures on watch forums and the internet without asking them for permission and using them to sell his straps on ebay.

I like the strap, its not the highest quality I have had, but the leather has a gritty/pebbled texture and it feels good. Slightly on the thicker side again, due to some padding (if you are a thinner strap lover, you will have to wait for the 20mm series). He makes two types of LV straps - this is the one with the LV logo, there is another design without the logo - http://www.ebay.com/itm/watch-strap-for ... 1973769691

Couple of pics from my BB archives too.

Woo hoo, that is interesting. Timely too. I was browsing straps on eBay last night for the Sub and I added one of these to my watch list.

I don't know how sure I am that I'd wear it, as the whole Louis Vuitton thing is a bit... well... full of replicas and cliched, but I found the watch strap very appealing - and I liked the thought that LV bags are being cut up to produce watch straps. Upcyling.

I really like this one, despite my inner self saying I shouldn't.

gaf1958 wrote:Woo hoo, that is interesting. Timely too. I was browsing straps on eBay last night for the Sub and I added one of these to my watch list.

I don't know how sure I am that I'd wear it, as the whole Louis Vuitton thing is a bit... well... full of replicas and cliched, but I found the watch strap very appealing - and I liked the thought that LV bags are being cut up to produce watch straps. Upcyling.

I really like this one, despite my inner self saying I shouldn't.

Lol, I think it will look great on the PAM 512 - all the straps above will..

Something is really wrong - the number of views of this thread went from 100 to 1000+ in the last two hours. And I see a Google_Bot viewing this forum, as well as guests

Back on topic

Strap #4 'Accent'
One for the rainy season. Hirsch Accent is the best natural rubber strap you will find, particularly for water activities. Period. I like mine more than Isofrane (I had one of those) as its not as thick and I really like the look with the design. The strap is curved on the underside the right way to let the strap 'breathe' (air between wrist and strap), and the first keeper is held in position by a small extended flap on the strap - nice touch. It is also flexible to any extent and very very comfortable. It is an expensive strap, but it has been worth it to me, and whenever I need a strap for swimming - this is it. I also had a Hirsch Pure for a brief period in the past, but I like the Accent much, much better.
Best prices on Hirsch straps from Spanish AD 'worldstrap' on ebay, but will take a while to arrive. Quicker and better service from Watch Obsession in the UK and Holbens Fine Watch Bands in the US, among others.
http://www.hirschstraps.com/products/hi ... trap-black

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