A introductory guide to strap ordering (101 level)

I've been helping a lot of my friends order some custom straps. It seems (and quite rightly) that a majority of their time is spent choosing materials and colours, but they didn't have the knowledge to provide the technical specs (fitment) to the watchmaker. As a result, while the straps looked good, there were issues with how the strap specs matched up with the watch head and their wrists.

After speaking to several friends and strapmakers, I decided to write this guide. Originally, like all projects, it was going to be a short summary. As I got into it, I kept expanding on new sections until it became a mini-novella.

So, I'm sharing this to the broader community, in the hopes that others will find it useful.

Happy reading!

PS: While mentioned in the guide, I'll mention it here. I am NOT a strapmaker but have asked a few of them to review the material. While you see *some* online guides, it's usually written by a strapmaker who may not necessarily suggest things that he/she cannot do. And that's where my guide comes in. It's a (somewhat) comprehensive guide to most strap making aspects that will probably require a customer to go to different strapmakers, depending what's needed. I haven't found a strapmaker that can do everything in the guide. Or, to phrase it differently (and from a strapmaking friend), there aren't many out there that can do everything in this guide well.

Nicely done. The part about length--getting the buckle to sit in the middle of the wrist--is critical, and almost never addressed. On every strap I own the buckle sits WAY off center. I've even bought two identical straps of different lengths and then swapped out the short ends to try and improve the fit.

Great stuff

Good stuff, though I disagree with your characterization of quick release bars. It's pretty easy to get them in and out of a strap without destroying the bar or the strap.

Fantastic guide - thanks OP

I read about your strap material guide - what do you think of Cardovan in terms of quality and long term wear?

That's fair. I found a huge discrepancy on this. For some of the "better" makers, the opening in the lugs is small. Barely enough to fit the speed pins. Definitely could not force them out and had to cut them out.

I've also noticed some where the lug opening was too loose. (Cheapest NATO) Probably too easy to get the speed pins out.

Shell cordovan is nice. I've used it, unlined, as a pull through Zulu strap. I haven't had it as a normal strap but I expect the longevity to be there.

Very usefull! Thank you!

So...... I received a "free" strap from someone who reached out to me on IG - Has No Bounds. Probably not because of this guide but my penchant for (sometimes) posting custom straps on my account. As you can probably guess, I'm a bit of a strap nerd so I was interested in what he offered. I thought to post my thoughts but also thought it didn't need a brand new thread, so am posting it under my existing custom strap guide thread (although the strap was not custom).

Also, full disclosure, I'm writing what I think to be a balanced opinion. Not all of it is going to be roses, but, whatevs. I'm not a blog site that relies on paid ads.

So, Has No Bounds (HNB) seems to be a relatively new provider of straps. I was drawn into the website because of it's similarities to Delugs. Meaning, I think it follows the same business model. I believe most of the straps are made in Asia (China?) and centrally distributed from elsewhere. Like Delugs' early days, only certain pre-fabbed sizes are available. As many of you know, Delugs offers a custom-sizing service now.

Being early days, HNB doesn't offer the exotic leathers - croc, etc. They offer the more normal leathers but, to my surprise, also stocked a leather that I had been wanting to order from Delugs for a while - Russian leather hatch. Delugs no longer carries this material and is selling off whatever stock they have left. HNB offers the real Russian calf (J & FJ Baker) as well as the Pioneer Hatch Grain (Horween). What is refreshing is the transparency of HNB's material sourcing, which is rarely found with the vast majority of strap makers.

So, being an owner of the Delugs Russian Leather Hatch (Horween) in pasture green, I decided to order one from HNB in Chicago blue. The blue was what I wanted to order from Delugs anyways, and it's a great opportunity to compare the two straps. I took a bit longer than expected to order the strap as there are only 2 lengths offered - 70/120 and 65/105. The short sizing is as expected but when I saw the "regular" length, I knew that's pretty weird. I'll speak more on that later.

One surprise is that HNB sent the strap from Canada. I actually thought they were located somewhere in Asia (as the shipping charges on their website shows the lowest prices were within Asia). The straps were sent with Canada Post tracking, so that was a plus, and arrived within a week.

Packaging came as expected. Everything is recyclable, so that was nice.



A pic of the strap, itself. It's blue, but doesn't look blue due to the lighting. The cut and stitching are clean. Hand stitched. Very exact cut. I ordered the 20/16 and it was exactly that.



The side profile. The edge painting is clean, probably sanded a few times. Better than some custom (cheapie) straps that I've ordered from VN. It is a bit thick, though. Thicker than what I normally custom order. It's also their flat (Lagoon) strap. HNB offers another line with padding.



A pic of the underside. Backing is Zermatt leather, the gold standard. Again, the stitching is clean. Very clean for a pre-fabbed strap. Of note is the quick release springbar. I personally hate them but have received straps with them. One reason for the hate is that every one that I've received seem to be of low quality. This springbar seems to be of a much higher quality than I normally see.



Here's a side-by-side with the Delugs strap (pasture green). In this pic, the HNB strap definitely looks more blue. The leather is from the same factory, so no difference there.



The next is a side profile comparison. The HNB strap is significantly thicker than the Delugs. This is my pet peeve and, to be fair, personal preference. I hate thick straps. Period. I think they make a strap seem unrefined and can be uncomfortable because of the increased inflexibility. Another reason (and for some strap makers, the main reason) why it's done is that it's a much easier strap to make. With a thinner leather, as the strap maker is hand stitching the strap, the different tensions in each stitch can have an effect of pulling the leather. So, if it isn't done correctly and consistently, the final product won't be a perfect straight strap and it'll seem wobbly. Thicker straps hide stitching imperfections like that and resist the wobbling better.



And, a back side comparison. Both Delugs and HNB use Zermatt lining, so no major difference.



I never use tang buckles but I see HNB had their generic tangs engraved. Nice touch, as many makers don't even do that.



Now comes the real-world testing. Here's the watch that I originally ordered the strap for. A vintage-ish (80s) Squale. Did I mention I hate thick straps? One offshoot is that the leather around the lug area can get pretty thick, especially if the source leather isn't properly skived. There was no way I could fit that strap onto my Squale, although it currently has a canvas strap on it.



So, off I went to find another watch with more clearance in the lug holes. Enter the Autavia 2446C. This time, it fit without issues.



I've spent several days test driving the strap. Overall, the strap is well made. Quality wise, probably same as Delugs. Yes, it's a little more stiff, but that's expected from a thicker strap.



Would I order from them again? The answer is no. This comes down to a preference, but straps are all about personal preferences. For me, the strap is too thick, at least for the Horween hatch grain. I can't speak to their other materials. But, what really throws me off is the sizing. I have about a 6.75 inch wrist. Remember my write-up started with mentioning the weird length sizing? The 70/120? This is the result. The buckle is centred on my wrist but I had to twist it to take the shot, since the tail is so long.

I don't like it and normally would never order a custom strap like that. So, while it may work for others, it doesn't work for me.




Sorry, Mr HNB (who may or may not be on this forum). It's probably not the review you wanted.

Great info... thanks for putting this together.

50 Shades of gray…. and rouge, and turquoise, and….

NB. I have no business relationship with the strapmaker noted. I’ve just ordered straps from her and am extremely happy with the results.

As many of you can tell, I love straps and finding new strapmakers to help create my ideas for straps. Recently, I was searching for strapmakers who had access to toad skins. Yeah, don’t ask why. 🙁 I’m always searching for the perfect trifecta of choice, quality, and price. And, sometimes, I find it.

The search led me to Ms Trinh Lemai (7strap.com, trinhlemai.7strap) who had an IG account and website. She seemed to have access to a good variety of leathers, was able to do custom patina (and carving) work, and had pictures of her finished straps. So, I engaged in a conversation with her and was very pleased to hear what she had access to and what she was able to do. She also sent me pics that weren’t on her IG feed.

I contacted a couple of other strap fiends… err…. friends and they were interested in joining me for an order. We started with 3 straps each (for a total of 9) but as ideas flowed, the order quickly expanded to 14 straps. We could have ordered more but realized we’d never actually receive the straps if we kept adding to the order! So, we had to rein in our enthusiasm and give Trinh the space she needed to complete our order.

The order ranged from “Hermes” leathers (e.g. swift) to chevre (goat), stingray, ostrich, and custom patina croc. I was quite interested in custom colours (or, rather, colours you normally do not see offered from strapmakers) using the Hermes colour guide, and she had them on hand. We were all over with other requests in terms of stitch size, thickness around the lugs, etc, etc. She actually had to buy some new tools to be able to satisfy some of our requests.

Long story short, she was able to finish all the straps to our specs and sent off all the straps. From the order, I had 5 straps – a combination of swift and chevre leathers. I already have quite a few croc straps, so wanted to experiment more with other materials.

The finished product is excellent. In speaking with a strap making friend, what I thought were some production issues were actually normal in the course of strapmaking. While possible to make it absolutely 100%, the cost would go up exponentially to get that extra 1% in perfection.

All in all, I would not hesitate to order from her again – and we’re already planning our next group order.

As for cost, I won’t mention our final costs but she is very, very reasonable. Extremely reasonable.

Here are the 5 straps that I ordered. I hope you enjoy the following picture essay.





Note: All of my straps used an aubergine epsom leather backing. While Trinh has the gold standard, Zermatt leather, I thought to the aubergine colour was more visually interesting.


Strap 1 - Lichen coloured chevre leather








Strap 2 – Turquoise swift leather








Strap 3 – Mustard ostrich belly leather








Strap 4 – Dark grey swift leather








Strap 5 – Rouge grenat swift leather