Homemade Watch Pouch

Scooterino36

I know a lot of people like to travel with a collection, but I keep it simple. One watch when traveling.

pw92676

To be honest I wouldn’t use something I made for an expensive watch. I’d just feel safer using a travel pouch made by a professional, and I wouldn’t trust my own craftsmanship lol. So only asked out of curiosity. But nonetheless I think it’s cool and a nice project.

Pazzo

You should have more faith in yourself. ... 😀
I think what schoolboy is doing are safe enough to be used.

janice&fred

I've always been bopping around with a load of watches with me, whether island hopping in the Philippines hunting down watch treasures or bounding around in NYC at the diamond district or Chelsea markets, and the best method to carry high-end watches for me has always been individually in padded hard plastic flip top eyeglass cases. I slip one of our calling cards in between the case and bracelet as an insulator, slide the watch into a small sealable plastic bag, then into the eyeglass case. To carry them all around I use a laptop computer bag with zipper closing and shoulder strap. I could fling that bag or slam it around while traveling and those plastic eyeglass cases will never fail protecting the watches. Even better when packing watches in a suitcase for long distance travel as they wont get squished unless the suitcase got run over by a truck. Decent size eyeglass cases are also perfect for those types of watches that have bracelets that cannot be laid flat, like for instance Cartier Santos and AP Royal Oak style bracelets. Squash them flat and they will be damaged.

Scooterino36

I’m a simple man Fred, on my wrist is the only safe place for me (and in a travel case for airport security). But you are a wheelin’, dealin’ son of a gun so I see why you travel the way you do.
👍

Scooterino36

I know a lot of people like to travel with a collection, but I keep it simple. One watch when traveling.

Lurk41

+1 😀

I basically followed the same path than @schoolboy a few months ago because I wanted a few things for my motorcycle
1/ a pouch behind the flyscreen to put my garage remote and the company badge, to not struggle 10min to get them out of my jacket each time I need to open a door or a gate😁
2/ a water bottle pouch strapped onto the frame as I do no want to have anything stronger than my bones in my backpack...
3/ I also wanted a strap to prevent my U block from moving, but I used an old nato strap instead. It turned out to be a very good idea 😀

Asking for custom made would have cost a lot, and even if I needed to buy tools and everything, trying to make it it with good quality leather scrap would be way cheaper, and way more funny! So I gave it a try (total beginner too) and... it was easier than I thought! Pretty confident about how robust it is too: it wouldn't be fasten to my motorcycle otherwise...
The only real trick is to read a bit about how to stitch leather and the different stitches that exist (thank you Internet), then try. For example: saddle/box or baseball stitches are quite simple, and even at first try you can end with something robust.

Having said that, I will not try a french seam anytime soon and even for something as simple as saddle stitches, it is not that easy to make them look very nice. You have to be careful, repeat the exact same gesture on each stitch... Only experience can teach you that. Craftmanship is not a given, it comes from hard work. 😉


And as I had some leather scrap left, I thought... how do you make a watch strap? 😗

Lurk41

I'll try to think about taking pictures next time I'll ride 😉

Regarding the straps...

The black one is my 1st try. It looks better than the De Ville 🙁 (but the De Ville looks also way better IRL and with this strap)
Beginner's luck too 😁 My second try was less successful ^^

The blue one may not look like it, but it is ostrich (the lining is made with veal). I really like the color: it looks a bit dark under low light, but it is a very vivid blue when the Sun shines. It should be a good match for the Snoopy 2 😀

For now, I only tried 2-stitch flat straps (the easiest ones to do), and no finish on the side (it would require more material). Also, I am really struggling to do nice knots: I had the amazing idea to use flax yarn instead of synthetic, so I cannot burn the ends to seal them... (I used synthetic yarn for the pouches, but it was too big to be used for watch straps). The good news is that you cannot see the knots while wearing the watch, so, they look ugly but I am the only one knowing it.


Regarding leather, I have old boots too but I did not try with them as I think I found a better way to get leather 😀 I bought it from a french online boutique that sells leather hide, as well as scraps from the luxury industry.

When buying scraps, you pay for a certain weight (if you do not know how much to order, 500g is enough, trust me 😁): it does not cost much and the leather is nice. For example, I received pieces hot stamped with "Longchamp" (which sources its leather from the same tanneries than Chanel and Hermes)
The trick is, as you pay for the weight, you are never sure what you will get (except the type and color). It could be plenty of small pieces - always big enough to cut 2-piece straps in them - or one fairly big. To give an idea, I received one in which I can cut in it a rectangle like 60x50cm in size. It is veal, full-grain... and cost me 5€!

For me, it is the best way to get leather for small projects without paying much and without the hassle of dealing with used leather (even if I like the idea of recycling old leather). I ordered 2 times, cost me 40€ overall and I could cover about 2sqm of floor with leather pieces of different colors and type. That is a lot of potential straps 😁

Lurk41

I'll try to think about taking pictures next time I'll ride 😉

Regarding the straps...

The black one is my 1st try. It looks better than the De Ville 🙁 (but the De Ville looks also way better IRL and with this strap)
Beginner's luck too 😁 My second try was less successful ^^

The blue one may not look like it, but it is ostrich (the lining is made with veal). I really like the color: it looks a bit dark under low light, but it is a very vivid blue when the Sun shines. It should be a good match for the Snoopy 2 😀

For now, I only tried 2-stitch flat straps (the easiest ones to do), and no finish on the side (it would require more material). Also, I am really struggling to do nice knots: I had the amazing idea to use flax yarn instead of synthetic, so I cannot burn the ends to seal them... (I used synthetic yarn for the pouches, but it was too big to be used for watch straps). The good news is that you cannot see the knots while wearing the watch, so, they look ugly but I am the only one knowing it.


Regarding leather, I have old boots too but I did not try with them as I think I found a better way to get leather 😀 I bought it from a french online boutique that sells leather hide, as well as scraps from the luxury industry.

When buying scraps, you pay for a certain weight (if you do not know how much to order, 500g is enough, trust me 😁): it does not cost much and the leather is nice. For example, I received pieces hot stamped with "Longchamp" (which sources its leather from the same tanneries than Chanel and Hermes)
The trick is, as you pay for the weight, you are never sure what you will get (except the type and color). It could be plenty of small pieces - always big enough to cut 2-piece straps in them - or one fairly big. To give an idea, I received one in which I can cut in it a rectangle like 60x50cm in size. It is veal, full-grain... and cost me 5€!

For me, it is the best way to get leather for small projects without paying much and without the hassle of dealing with used leather (even if I like the idea of recycling old leather). I ordered 2 times, cost me 40€ overall and I could cover about 2sqm of floor with leather pieces of different colors and type. That is a lot of potential straps 😁

amcclell

In response to the OP - nice work. Your second design with the softer leather and lighter cross loop has my vote!

Lurk41

I'll try to think about taking pictures next time I'll ride 😉

Regarding the straps...

The black one is my 1st try. It looks better than the De Ville 🙁 (but the De Ville looks also way better IRL and with this strap)
Beginner's luck too 😁 My second try was less successful ^^

The blue one may not look like it, but it is ostrich (the lining is made with veal). I really like the color: it looks a bit dark under low light, but it is a very vivid blue when the Sun shines. It should be a good match for the Snoopy 2 😀

For now, I only tried 2-stitch flat straps (the easiest ones to do), and no finish on the side (it would require more material). Also, I am really struggling to do nice knots: I had the amazing idea to use flax yarn instead of synthetic, so I cannot burn the ends to seal them... (I used synthetic yarn for the pouches, but it was too big to be used for watch straps). The good news is that you cannot see the knots while wearing the watch, so, they look ugly but I am the only one knowing it.


Regarding leather, I have old boots too but I did not try with them as I think I found a better way to get leather 😀 I bought it from a french online boutique that sells leather hide, as well as scraps from the luxury industry.

When buying scraps, you pay for a certain weight (if you do not know how much to order, 500g is enough, trust me 😁): it does not cost much and the leather is nice. For example, I received pieces hot stamped with "Longchamp" (which sources its leather from the same tanneries than Chanel and Hermes)
The trick is, as you pay for the weight, you are never sure what you will get (except the type and color). It could be plenty of small pieces - always big enough to cut 2-piece straps in them - or one fairly big. To give an idea, I received one in which I can cut in it a rectangle like 60x50cm in size. It is veal, full-grain... and cost me 5€!

For me, it is the best way to get leather for small projects without paying much and without the hassle of dealing with used leather (even if I like the idea of recycling old leather). I ordered 2 times, cost me 40€ overall and I could cover about 2sqm of floor with leather pieces of different colors and type. That is a lot of potential straps 😁