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Some home made bands

Hamish

By Hamish
in Watch Repairs Help & Advice

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Hamish Member

Hamish

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Hello everyone. I thought I would upload a few picks of some of the bands I have been making. This started a few years ago when I bought a couple of medium priced bands on line and was not too happy with them. I have been able to make and insert brass sleeves for additional durability and have sourced leather from lots of places. The easiest is to get old handbags, but in Japan there is a shop called Tokyu Hands and some of their cow leather is very fine grained. Overall though and by far and away the best leather to both work with and for feel is kangaroo which is easily available here and on line as well (they aren't endangered at all, poor skippy!). It is very close grained, almost no blemishes and is very strong. One of these will sure last a long time. I get the buckles from eBay and they are cheap and of good quality.image.jpeg

From left to right is dark brown roo that is padded, next is crocodile (I like the chunky texture but not everyone's cup of tea), then light roo, not padded and finally crocodile that I stained myself.

image.jpeg

Japanese fine grained leather and to the right of that a nice blue croc one (scrap croc skins of good quality from Thailand that was cheap) and finally the hardest to make, sting ray, lots of learning making that, but it can be done.

i will try to get the photos better next time

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Endeavor Distinguished Member

Endeavor

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That's very nice quality you are producing ! Hats off :thumbsu:

I was, just like you, very dissapointed with bought "Leather" straps and just started making my own straps (read: Genuine "leather" watch straps). I'm now sourcing other leathers and perhaps you could give us some links / suppliers for (peferable "cheap") full grain veg tanned leathers.

Looking at the quality and level you are, I would love to take contact with you and learn more !!

Regards: Roland.

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Hamish Member

Hamish

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Thanks folks for your comments. Happy to let you know as much as I do Roland. They take around 4-5 hours to make and so I really could not sell them and keep everything fair, but there is a large amount of satisfaction once a watch repair/service is done and in the making one of these.

There is a lot of subtlety to making them as I am sure those of you who have done this will agree. 

Firstly examine the watch, you need to evaluate the lugs carefully. How thick are they, what is the distance from the hole to the case. These are factors that need to be considered  for thickness of the bands leather. You need to use strong leather that will last. I tend to use kid leather for the lining, suede side out as this is very comfortable. I also use leather for padding if I need to.

Consider stiching colour and length of the band. Try to get the buckle to lie on exactly the opposite side to the watch once the band is on your wrist.

I have made up some simple templates for the bands depending on lug width. You may have a lot of tools already, but these are readily available and cheap from eBay etc. In my view the glue is critical as you need the band to be flexible, so I use Japanese Seiwa glue. It has a long shelf life, dries at the right rate remains flexible and locks on.

For a long time I used a hand awl for the stiching holes, but now use the prongs you can get from eBay. Get a 10 and a 2 one. You will need the small one for curves.

Think how you use the leather, I try to get matching patterns for both sides, if it has these. I use scalpels rather than knives etc. These are just my ideas, the rest you will pick up easy enough. You sure won't have any problem with Christmas presents...In my view nothing sets off an old watch like the band.

Here are a couple more. I like the orange ostrich, but I think I am alone here. And thanks again for the kind words.

image.jpeg

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