Best Brand for Leather and Rubber Wrist Straps for watches.

Crown and buckle!

I’m happy with some Barton bands. Their silicone options are good.

Rubber or Leather? Thoughts!

I will look into the Silicone ones.

Geckota Zuludiver Watchgecko

A really good leather band will be $50+, otherwise I find that $25 from Barton or Crown & Buckle is about the same quality as $5 - $10 on AliExpress. (Makes sense, you would expect most "American" budget brands to just be selling rebadged crap.)

I just bought an assortment of 5 $10 AliExpress straps based on random Reddit comments and all five of them were winners. In particular, a $5 fake alligator print strap feels almost identical to Barton's $30 alternative. The buckles are often lacking in quality, but with the money saved you can buy replacements and switch them out with the spring bar tool you already own. I am never looking back because I've been really disappointed by Barton and C&B products either falling apart or having bad hardware.

If you are looking into good leather straps you apparently get the best quality for cheap from Vietnam, this brand gets consistently recommended although I've never bought from them - https://ziczacleather.com

For rubber just search for “fkm rubber” and buy whatever is cheapest at the time.

For leather in that price range I go would go with anything from colareb. If you wanna spend a little bit more, which is worth it in my opinion, check out Finn watch straps. They do sales on their Etsy store that they don’t do on the site so check that out as well and there may be some stuff in that price range.

Cheers and happy hunting 🍻

Anything other than steel are consumables that are expected to wear out. Sweat and skin oils break down the material along with external wear. The good ones wear out as fast as the cheap ones. Go with comfort instead of price. Ostrich looks good at any price and cow has to be carved to look like alligator. If it feels good wear it

If you want good FKM rubber straps then look into Juelong stores in Aliexpress. $5-10 for fkm straps which are usually rebranded and sold for higher price. I have quite a few tropic and waffle straps which have been very comfortable and held up well.

For real and good quality leather straps under $50, check on ETSY. @sagebrush is right about the quality of leather you get from Vietnamese sellers and most will be happy to customise the strap for you based on your preferences and odd lug widths. My personal favourite seller is Harpyleather.

TUNS Leather online shop. Excellent!