Strap Thickness

The Importance of Strap Thickness and How to Match It Perfectly with Your Watch

Standard Unpadded Flat Strap Thickness

Our standard unpadded straps have a thickness of approximately 2.2mm. At the spring bars, the thickness increases to around 2.8mm to accommodate the spring bar's 1.5-1.8mm thickness.

This 2.2mm thickness achieves the ideal balance of softness and comfort without being too thin and flimsy. It's well-suited for dress watches, field watches, some pilot watches, and slimmer dive watches.

Standard Padded Strap Thickness

A padded strap is defined by its extra bolstering in the center, providing added comfort and dimension. Our standard padded straps taper from 4.5mm in the center to 2.2mm towards the buckle holes.

This design ensures a balanced look and feel. The padding is made from vegetable-tanned leather, which is hand-cut and skived to achieve a rounded shape.

Shiny leathers such as shell cordovan are especially well-suited for padded straps, as the additional padding accentuates their natural lustre, enhancing the overall shine and elegance of the strap.

What happens if my watch needs a different strap thickness?

With there being many different strap brands out there, we aim to tailor our ready-to-wear straps and standard thickness to best cater to the widest range of watches possible. However, we also cater to those with much thicker watches and like a chunkier strap, as well as those who require a thinner strap for thin dress watches or for those with foldover deployant clasps.

All of our Made-to-Order Straps can be customised to suit your thickness preferences.

Increasing Base Thickness

One way to increase the thickness of the strap is to increase the overall or 'base' thickness of the strap.

Increasing Padding Thickness

Increasing the padding of the strap creates a thicker and more pronounced bulge in the centre of the strap.

"Top-Loading"

Allowing the strap to sit higher above the spring bar hole without adding too much thickness

Thinner Straps

For vintage dress watches that require extra thin straps, we can reduce the thickness of our straps to a minimum of 1.5mm.

"Top Loading"

Some watches, especially those originally equipped with metal bracelets, have spring bar holes drilled lower or further from the edge than usual. This can cause standard leather straps to leave the watch lugs protruding, which we refer to as 'Ears.'

To address this issue without excessively thickening the strap, we use a technique called 'Top-Loading.' As shown in the image, this method involves layering additional leather over the spring bar hole to align with the watch's profile, creating a seamless transition between the lugs and straps, eliminating any overhang

Strap with Top-Loading

A strap with top-loading allows the the strap below to sit flush with the thicker lugs of the Grand Seiko 45GS-Style case while maintaining a slim profile on the strap

Strap without Top-Loading

For watches with lower lug holes or long lugs, top-loading is a necessity to achieve a clean flush look. The photo belows shows the overhanging lugs when a regular strap is attached.