Our Crafting Process

Eighteen steps, one pair of hands, three to five days. This is what happens between the moment you press Add to cart and the moment a strap leaves our workshop in Ha Noi.

Nothing here is unusual. Every one of these steps has been done the same way for a century, and none of them is a secret. What decides whether a strap is good is not knowing the steps — it is being willing to do all eighteen on a single strap that one person will wear, instead of skipping the four that no photograph would catch.

What a strap is made of

Four things, and no filler:

1. The outer leather — the hide you chose, cut so the grain runs down the wrist.
2. The Zermatt lining — soft and water-resistant, on the side that meets your skin. It is the layer that decides whether a strap is comfortable in July.
3. The seam — one waxed thread, saddle-stitched by hand through both layers. Not glue holding the strap together; the glue only holds it still while it is stitched.
4. The edge — sanded, burnished until the two layers read as one piece, then hand-painted in several thin coats to match the leather.

Some makers add a stiffener between the layers to hold a padded shape. We do not, unless you ask for a padded form — an unstiffened strap breaks in to your wrist instead of resisting it, and there is one less thing inside to come apart.

The eighteen steps

Every strap goes through all of them. Nothing below is optional, and nothing is done twice as fast because the order was cheap.

01 · Cutting the leather

A hide is read before it is cut. The firm leather along the back becomes straps; the soft belly does not. Each blank is cut by hand so the grain runs the length of the strap, which is what stops it stretching out of shape on the wrist.

02 · Skiving

Where the strap folds at the lug and the buckle, the leather is pared thinner by hand. Skip it and the fold leaves a hard ridge you can feel against your wrist after an hour.

03 · Reinforcement

A reinforcement layer is set inside the strap where it takes the pull — the lug end and under the buckle. It is invisible once the strap is closed, which is exactly why it is the first thing left out of a cheap strap.

04 · Hammering

The layers are hammered along their whole length until they lie flat against each other. Bond two layers that are not sitting true and the strap curls the moment it comes off the bench.

05 · Assembly

The outer hide and the lining are laid up together and aligned by eye. A millimetre out here becomes an edge that will never sand straight, no matter how long it is worked.

06 · Rolling

The laid-up strap is rolled under pressure so the two layers bond evenly end to end. Glue is not what holds a strap together — it holds it still so it can be stitched.

07 · Shaping

The strap is cut to its final profile: the taper down towards the buckle and the shape of the tip. On a curved-end order, this is where the top edge is cut to hug the watch case.

08 · Edge sanding

The raw edge is sanded through progressively finer grits. Done properly, you can no longer see where the outer leather ends and the lining begins.

09 · Punching the stitch holes

Holes are struck with a pricking iron, spaced by the tool and angled by the hand holding it. That constant angle is what gives a hand-stitched seam its slant, and it is the part a machine cannot imitate.

10 · Saddle stitching

Two needles work the same thread from both sides, crossing inside every hole. It takes about an hour per strap. It also means that if a stitch is ever cut, the seam does not run.

11 · Edge creasing

A heated creaser draws a fine line just inside the edge, following the stitch. It is decoration, but it also compresses the fibres at the edge and helps them keep their shape.

12 · Edge painting

The burnished edge is sealed and painted by hand in several thin coats, dried between each one. A single thick coat would be quicker and would peel at the first bend.

13 · Keepers

The floating and fixed keepers are cut, skived, stitched and sized to this strap. A keeper made to a standard size either rattles loose or will not slide at all.

14 · Buckle holes

The pin holes are punched to the length you ordered. That is why we ask for a wrist measurement instead of a size — so the holes land where they should for your wrist, not for an average one.

15 · Fitting the buckle

The buckle is fitted in the finish you chose and checked for movement against the leather. A buckle with play in it will wear a hole through the strap in a season.

16 · Spring bars

Spring bars are fitted before the strap is boxed — quick release if you asked for them. The strap goes onto the watch without a tool and without scratching the lugs.

17 · Quality control

Every strap is checked against the order — lug width, length, stitch colour, buckle finish, engraving — and then against itself: even stitch spacing, a clean edge on both sides, no glue haze, holes on centre. Straps that fail go back to the bench.

18 · The finished strap

The strap is wrapped, boxed and handed to the courier with tracking. From there it is 10 to 15 days depending on where in the world you are.

How long it takes, and why

Three to five days from order to dispatch. Almost none of that is waiting for materials — the leather is already on the shelf. It is glue curing, edges drying between coats, and the hour of stitching that cannot be shortened.

We do not hold finished stock in your size, because your size is the point. Every strap on this site is cut after you order it, to the lug width, length and thickness you chose, in the stitch colour you chose, with the buckle you chose. That is the trade: a week of waiting for a strap that fits one wrist.