Got a couple of straps in from my friends at Total Watch Repair in Los Angeles. These are some very well-made straps out there for the money. I’m usually reviewing the hand-made stuff and what not, but the big production strap houses make good stuff too and often at a better value. Companies like Hadley Roma and Hirsch actually probably offer more value at the low end than most boutique watch strap makers. These two straps are prime examples of affordable straps that are of superb quality.
Packaging is uneventful, but at this price point I wouldn’t want to see any “added value” wasted on packaging. We’re looking for no-nonsense straps at this price right boys?
First lets take a look at the Hadley Roma strap. Its a nice tan color, flat and unpadded with a Panerai-esque style to it. At 20mm, this wouldn’t be for a Panerai, but would definitely let you get some of that Panerai style on your Seiko or similar diving watch. Leather is of a good quality, and the strap is made in China though the overall quality is very good.
Nice texture on the leather there, giving it some character. The stitching is very straight and nicely done and overall the production of the strap is top notch. No complaints, especially with the $50 price tag. The strap is fairly stiff, and will take some time to break in.
A shot of the back, it is a foldover style construction, with a sandwich layer in-between. Two keepers, one fixed and one floating. The buckle is a polished chrome, with a mini-Panerai bent buckle style. Overall a superb bang for buck at $50, especially when compared with most of the handmade stuff at $50 out there. This is a fully finished, complete strap.. all the edges are finished, the back of the strap is foldover instead of raw. More and more I see handmade straps offered at lower price points but they don’t line the back of the straps, or they don’t provide two keepers among other things to cut costs. Lets look at the next strap.
This strap is from “The Collection”, which I am not too familiar with. Its a really nice strap though, and even nicer than the Hadley Roma for a few bucks more at $65. This is a nice oil-tannded pull-up leather, which gives a nice color when you bend it as seen in the photo below.
Sort of a Chocolate brown in color, it has contrasting white stitching which sets off the brown nicely. This is more along the lines of a Breitling style strap and is even made in the USA. Stitching is perfect, and certainly presents as a solid value OEM replacement for Breitling straps or other similar brands.
This strap is much more flexible than the Hadley Roma, and features a more common production construction style with the soft leather liner on the back side. This usually results in a more comfortable strap, though less durable and rustic than a foldover style construction – though realistically you probably aren’t going to break either of them! Its plenty robust just the way it is.
Overall a nicely made pieces and both present a solid value to buyers. Thanks again to Total Watch Repair for providing us with these great straps!
Specs:
Reference: Hadley Roma TAN 20R MS913
Size: 20mm
Color: Tan
Length: 130/80mm
Thickness: 5mm
Material: Leather
Price: $49.95USD
Reference: The Collection Brown Oil Tan
Size: 22mm
Color: Brown
Length: 120/75mm
Thickness: 4mm
Material: Leather
Price: $64.95USD
Latest Blog Posts:
Strapsco & Dassari Watch Straps Review
Strapsco is a US and Canada-based strap seller that produces a wide-range of straps for all sorts of different types of watches. I reviewed another strap from Strapsco a little while back, it was a Bell & Ross strap. Today I’m taking a look at a couple of their general straps that are good for replacement on a range of different watches.
The two straps I’m reviewing today are a Patina Distressed Italian Leather strap in Grey and the Belize Nubuck Suede in Tan. Both are well-made straps with professional finish for very affordable pricing. As of this writing they are both on sale but that might not last long – at the sale price they are a no-brainer for sure. These straps are made with fine Italian leather on swiss machinery in China.
Let’s take a look at this Grey distressed strap first. Great little distressed piece with vintage-inspired stitching. The different colored stitching at the tip of the long tail is an interesting touch. The straps also all come with buckles and spring bars which is a nice little bonus. The straps construction feels like a very solid piece of leather, which makes it feel robust. I quite like the feeling of the strap overall. I also really like the distressed finish on the strap, it looks great. While it may not be for everyone, I do like these types of straps.
The back of the strap is lined with a soft black leather that feels great on the skin. Finishing is really good on this strap, and I’m actually quite impressed with it. The style of this strap would really suit a Panerai actually! The smell of the leather is also very nice which is an important feature for me – probably because it is Italian tanned leather. Let’s take a look at the next strap.
The second strap I’m looking at today is their Tan Nubuck Suede. Its a similar construction to the Distressed strap above, but has a cleaner look to it with finer machine-stitched thread. This is a very flexible and comfortable strap, with an extremely fine and soft nubuck finish on the surface of the strap.
The back of the strap features the same black leather backing that the distressed strap features. Double keepers with one fixed and one floating keeper is always good feature in my books. Again, a nice smelling strap, unlike a lot of other straps that are made in China. This is a solid piece.
Overall these are two great straps that offer exceptional value to anyone looking to replace their existing straps or just add more straps to their collection to give their watch a little bit of a different personality every once in a while.
Specs:
Reference: DASSARI PATINA DISTRESSED ITALIAN LEATHER WATCH BAND
Size: 20mm
Color: Grey
Length: 120/80mm
Thickness: 3.5mm
Material: Leather
Price: $54.99USD
Reference: DASSARI BELIZE NUBUCK SUEDE STRAP
Size: 22mm
Color: Tan
Length: 120/80mm
Thickness: 3mm
Material: Leather
Price: $49.99USD