I'm tempted...not many places have good short straps. Have you ever tried this one?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/18mm-SHORT-...984?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item51a12cc9c0Purchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network

 

Unfortunately, the legal aspects of shipping exotic leather items over national borders makes domestic-only sales a necessity in a lot of cases. There are a lot of resellers who ignore these laws, but I can't fault someone who actually complies.

http://www.cites.org/eng/disc/parties/index.php

You good folks down under have plenty of crocs to harvest for watchbands, I understand.

Take care,
gatorcpa

 

Volume, paperwork, costs, all comes into play. Importing/exporting single straps .

 

I have not. I'm more of a matte, meditum-to-large grain guy. But I can tell you that nothing will dress up your formal pieces like their "flat Ultra-thin" unpadded no-stitch straps. Goes great with Connies.

 

Yes, I am a matte gator large grain guy as well and I must have cleaned out Rustwatches of all his artisanal straps that fit this description. Looking forward to checking out these straps with this new seller that fit this description.

 

The numerous Rustwatches posts have been moved to their own thread so that this one can get back to topic.

Another very popular strap for black dial watches is the Hirsch Medici line. Particularly popular with Speedmaster Owners.

Hopefully Fr John won't mind displaying his beautiful Speedy on Gold Brown. (aged)


Here is another Speedy on Hirsch Medici

 

These bands also now come with contrast ivory stitching and they are available on the bay from a UK vendor and in the US from Freda, aka Kenny.

 

Steve, did you happen to get this from Kyle, who got it from Dennis, who bought it from me? If so, I remember that buffalo-grain leather well, and thought it worked better than a black strap for this gold-shell case. If not, well then I made an identical choice...

 

I'm not sure which ones you are refering too but the ones I mentioned, the Hirsch line, specifically the Medici, seem to be widely liked by Speedy and other users. They are available on eBay here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/39039415945...eName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649Purchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network

and also here: http://www.watch-band-center.com/shop2/index.php/user/watchstrap/suche/1/

 

No you're not.

The watch brands are able to get blanket licenses for their bands from CITES after it is determined that the import/export is of a "legal beastie". It's red tape, but not so bad when you are spreading the cost over hundreds of bands.

For a small dealer, I would think the cost to comply with that law is horrendous.
gatorcpa

 

Nope! both the strap and the watch are different. But I liked Dennis' strap so much that I set about finding one that looked the same. I think I did pretty well

 

I looked up that strap I used Adam. It is a DeBeer Europa model.

 

Dennis, yes, I was the one. I had tried a number of straps after taking it off the (somewhat worn) BOR bracelet.