It’s been a while since I’ve had the time to make a strap for myself, but this morning I decided I’d earned some “me time” and got to work. A couple of hours later and my new Aqua strap was finished and ready to be fitted to my Panerai 24C.
Ever since I launched Aqua leather earlier this year I’ve been waiting for a free morning to make myself a strap from it. It’s a beautifully soft and pliable Italian calf leather with a matt finish and a very slight pull up. The only question I hadn’t considered was what colour linen thread to use to stitch my strap with.
At this point I should make an admission – I’m not a big fan of high contrast stitching on the straps I make for myself. I know lots of people disagree with me over this, and I’m often asked to pair a dark coloured leather with white stitching, or a light coloured leather with a dark thread, but personally I prefer the stitching to be complimentary to the leather. The way I see it, the strap should support the look of the watch rather than fight with it for attention, and so I tend to have a “low contrast is best” approach to stitching when making a strap for myself. With Aqua I considered teal and grey thread, but in the end decided royal blue was the way to go. I realise it won’t be to everyone’s tastes, but I like it.
Although it wasn’t the intention, typing this post made me think about individual preferences & tastes. As a strap maker I’m often asked to make suggestions – either for a specific leather that will work well with a particular watch, or a thread colour to tie in with a leather / watch combination. I’m always happy to voice my opinion, but one thing I try to stress when I do is that it is only an opinion, and that there is no right or wrong choices. The best advice I can give is to go with your gut instincts, and if I suggest something that you don’t think will work for you just ignore me. I promise I won’t mind 🙂