High End Straps:

Nice submariner!

Delugs do a good high end strap!

Love the sub! Erika’s makes a great strap.

I've been meaning to try Erika's. I saw there's also the NDC marine national straps. I was thinking of trying a cheap one to see if I like the elastic style.

BTW, It's not my tudor sub! Lol just a stock photo from the veblenist strap website.

Thanks! I'll give them a look. Also, just for clarification the sub isn't mine. It's a photo from Veblenist who does the waxed canvas straps.

Don’t try a cheap one, they’re not the same. I thought the same thing so I tried a CNS elastic strap. Night and day difference. Accept no imitations.

I have both the original NDC strap and their single pass that has a traditional buckle and keepers. I do not find the original that comfortable, but the single pass is an amazing strap. It is a little pricey at $83, but well worth it in my opinion.

Love that color combo!

This is my Atelier Kai Jade Gold Special Alligator Strap. www.ateliakai.co He has lots of unique materials.

Love that!

JPM for off the shelf.

ABP Concept for Parisian bespoke hot pink elephant hide.

A beautiful dial on your #tudor! Their #divewatch variety knows no bounds!

I agree on the dial! but for clarification it's not mine. It's a photo from Veblenist, the strap maker.

I typically buy affordable straps and they are hit and miss. But I still think it's worth buying affordable. Spending anything more than $60 for a strap sound crazy to me. Go on etsy and you will find custom straps for less than $60 and they are of good quality, I usually buy from Hatacreations on etsy. CNS is good for nato straps. And recently I've tried Alixpress and have gotten great results, belive or not. Just pay attention to reviews and ratings on the straps/seller.

What I've done with my misses on straps is sell them on fb groups as strap bundles, I still feel like I came out ahead vs just buying expensive straps.

That strap just goes great with any diver, but I think blue has to be the best. A good nod back to the Tudor Subs the French Navy would wear with them.

Watchgecko make great straps from affordable to expensive

https://www.watchgecko.com/

The strap tailor are also good

I try not to make comparisons like that. Lol I've owned knives worth more than my car. Lol

I've got a ton too, but they're mostly inexpensive straps I bought just to see what I like and what the basic differences are.

I am in the same boat. I have bought a few expensive ones, but I mainly have cheaper ones.

I can highly recommend the seller 7Strapart on Etsy. I’ve had 5 custom made straps from this seller and all have been absolutely perfect.

I stand by Rios 1931 ostrich leather straps. They’re 🔥

In my opinion, length and shape (padding, taper, style of buckle) are more important than "quality". Well, as long as you don't buy crap. It's like with clothing, first and foremost it has to fit and if it fits it almost always looks nice.

My most expensive strap is a "custom everything" Camille Fournet square alligator with round scale alligator lining and folded-in edges. It is a very fine strap, no doubt. But, ignoring the material, one has to look very closely to see a difference in terms of execution compared to the straps I have from Tuns or DNLeatherhandmade (both Etsy). The stiching isn't as nice, the spring bars seem to be of lower quality and there are fewer options from the Etsy sellers but unless it's a very special watch or you really want some super crazy material (like horntail alligator) I would not go balls out on custom straps. The returns are diminishing, at best.

Case in point, I have two Jean Rousseau straps that came with my Ming. Those are high end straps from the OEM supplier to the likes of FPJourne. The leather strap is okay, well made and soft but arguably not worth the price. The rubber strap is a piece of garbage. They didn't even properly execute the cutouts for the quick release bars. I hurt my fingernail each time I use it because I have to press like a maniac. It is in the box now and will remain there for as long as I own the watch.

Yup. 😂. I don't buy as many watches anymore, so straps switch things up...😜🤏🏻.

Great minds and all that! 🍻

To @seasidesavage, also look at Nick Mankey Designs. Don't have one since I turned towards non elastic single pass.

I have lots from watch gecko and a couple from hirsch. My favorites are my 3 from twostitchstraps. If you're looking for leather ones I'd check them out.

Lots of good examples listed. At the risk of repeating other submissions, here are some brands that are worth looking at (disclaimer: I have NOT owned all of these personally):

RSM Watch strap

Artem

Delugs

Bulang and Sons

David Lane Design

Atelier Romane

Jean Rousseau

Has No Bounds

The Strap Tailor

Weltmann Munich

Rubber B

Avel and Men

Anachronistic Zero Pass (hi @Max !)

Full Disclosure: in addition to the above, I’m dropping in my own shameless plug: if you are looking for something unique I’m launching a new brand of premium watchstraps etc. later this year, so keep an eye out for those. The name is Boundary Layer Studio LLC.

Happy Hunting!

I can understand where you're coming from.

That said, I can notice and appreciate those small differences, and I do have a sense for when I might be paying for exclusivity, branding, artisan vs machine made, and so on.

As long as I'm informed as a buyer, I won't regret my purchase. This makes me open to having some really nice straps. My primary two watches are both 20mm with a similar style, so in theory the straps can swap around too.

When it comes to this watch space, I would think most of us can see the similarities of diminishing returns between a high end strap and a high end watch. For example, a 75 dollar field watch vs a 5,000 dollar field watch. There's a similar situation going on there as well.

It’s not “for” someone in the West. The cost of living is higher in the West. You see this same phenomenon in graphic design. You’ll pay more to someone living in the same country as you vs someone living in a country with very different cost of living. This isn’t complex stuff.

I think a small but crucial difference between straps and watches is that watches are machine made and straps are hand made. With machine made products there is less noise in the sense that each one is identical up to a very small tolerance on spec. So diminishing differences can be spotted. Straps are not like that in my experience. Two identical (hand made) straps made by the same person on the same day can be quite different in terms of how consistent the stich is, how neatly it is folded, how uniform in thickness at the lug ends is, etc. I strongly suspect that this would also be given as a reason why one cannot return it for it being not withing spec as there is some "expected variance" due to the nature of the product.

Take the Jean Rousseau straps I have as an example, one is MUCH better than the other and they are supposedly made to the same spec by the same (high end) brand albeit a different material. Granted, I would argue the rubber strap is out of spec (it is that bad) but it just comes to show how much variation there can be. I also have a pair of blue and black canvas straps from DNLeatherhandmade. I believe that is a one person operation so the same material and style strap is made by presumably the same guy and yet I would say the blue strap is a little nicer than the black one. The "run-to-run variation", which doesn't exist in machine made products but is inevitable in hand made ones, makes spotting those diminishing differences next to impossible unless there is a huge skill gap between the artisans. Hence I just get one that is "good enough" and hope the dude making it won't be having a bad day 😉