What’s your success rate with ordering straps online?

95% success

I have way too many straps so most dont get used that often 😂 what kind of straps are you looking for? Happy to share some recommendations. 

Interesting ask. I’ve bought some just to have, and like many, once went through a nato hoarding phase. Any watch meetup in the future, I should take my unused and certainly unloved natos to give away.

I experimented with ordering straps online a fair bit when I started, but now I have a couple of go-to straps I know I'll wear and enjoy. 

I know any Erika's Original MN I order will be awesome, and I've had great luck with Colareb straps. 

I do pretty well, maybe 60% or so.  I know I don't like NATOs and most of my failures have been color related.

I fall flat on my face with most online orders of straps.  So almost all my watches are on their original bracelets.  Lots of unused straps.

I find it really tough matching my minds eye (awesomenes) to how it looks when I lay it down in front of myself (Meh). 
 

usually a color doesn’t quite match, but also when if narrows to fast or the material looks cheap.  

Sadly it can be around 50% which is too low.

I've definitely got better over time. It was mainly through finding what types of strap I actually liked rather than colour. 

Good question, I like to mix straps up on some of my watch's others I keep to the original bracelet or leather strap. Consequently I have quite a few which get no wrist time. Mainly NATO's which don't get used so much as I find that they only work on a couple of my pieces.

Also when I find a watch strap combination that works well they tend to stay together.

Every now and then I will dig out something that hasn't had much use and give it an airing and that's quite refreshing sometimes and can give a watch a different perspective. So while I have many strap some with little to no use I know that sooner or later I'll give it a try on one of my strap friendly watch's. Not sure if this is helpful but it's what I do. 

I like to have many options as well so I have alot of different colours and materials of straps, just going through a Luna pilot phase right now.

Sadly I have a box full of them and probably 20% get regular wrist time. It's just so easy to buy them when they are $15 to $35, but it starts to add up. I don't even want to know how much that box of failed experiments has cost me. 

Probably 60% but that's including some I bought in various colors since I liked the fit and will use on future watches. There's a few that I bought that were too short before I figured out what all I needed so those stay and go on watches I sell. 

Id say 50% I have a strap bag of failed experiments that I give away whenever I get a chance. I am a leather strap hoarder, I love them! Thats probably the ones I cycle through most.

Most. Less than percent go unused.

I think it is 8 out of 10 success as most of them are better than OEM strap 😅😅

from my personal experience around 70% goes into everyday wear. mostly i bought aftermarket strap because i dont like the stock strap or bracelet

I don’t have any experience with this in particular, but have a bunch of great straps from Crown & Buckle who recently came out with a tapering 2-piece nylon strap 

Ha! I just bought that one and another from Crown & Buckle that I like a lot. So excellent suggestion 😉

Whoa dude. If you don’t have a chevron from them, it’s worth it too. I’ve got a black knit one arriving in a couple days that I’m pumped for

Sometimes a Strap just doesn't look the way you thought it would. Most of the time I can find home's for the oddball's. I've been gifted some NATO's but I just don't use them as I don't like how the watch rides on the strap.. Now I'm having a little love fest for my Vario Bund straps though. They are super comfortable!

Just got done swapping out straps on my Bulova Surfboard. Which is a great example, It comes on the most comfortable and good looking black rubber strap and has an amazing deployment clasp. But I wanted a little more pop on this one so I went with a Nylon strap and now I have it on a Vario Bund strap. Straps can really change up a watch but also reignite interest in a watch. 

This is the only disappointment so far, even though almost anything goes with a SNK809. The watch looked fine on this burgundy croc:

but after a couple of days I had to ask myself "why is there a big round scab holding the watch on?". So, the strap looks wrong on me. Maybe with the right attire the burgundy would work but otherwise it is a fail.😢

My observation is that the specialists selling straps above £80/$100 have good websites with great photographs (and buyers submit their own photos). I am more likely to invest and more likely to be satisfied.

The £15/$20 Ebay sellers have simplier pictures of just the strap, and this is more likely to lead to mixed buyer satisfaction 

He he. I will have to pick up one of those 

Agreed. I’m ideally interested in more mid-tier sellers.

Whoa, Strap Bandits has some that might fit my new-in-December watch. Thanks!

Most straps I find new place for them if I do really like it I won't change it. there are some nato straps that I hardly use. But save them just incase.

My success rate for third party straps is not great. That being said I have found a few that worked out very well.

It looks sharp in the picture.  

Once you convince yourself that something looks like a scab, you'll never be able to see it as anything else.

I like having a drawer full of options, so regardless of whether the straps are used immediately, they will be used eventually.

True dat! Just like my taste in watches changes over time, so does my taste in straps 😄

There is that. Also, while a strap might not work on the watch you bought it for, a watch might come into the collection later that becomes a perfect combo.