Emperor Kudu on a Tudor Black Bay Bronze: A Customer’s Story

At the beginning of September, I received an email from Allen asking for strap suggestions for his Tudor Black Bay Bronze (the 43mm). I'm always happy to offer an opinion on a good colour combination, and I know from experience that bronze watches look fantastic on brown leather, so I recommended brown as the base colour. I offered a few options: Emperor Kudu or Brutal if he wanted something darker, and Dark Kudu or Bruiser for a lighter brown.

The buckle dilemma

Allen’s main worry was the buckle, and it’s a good one to explain, because it catches out a lot of Black Bay Bronze owners.

The 43mm Black Bay Bronze has 23mm lugs, which is an unusual width. The watch can be bought with either a fabric strap or a leather strap, and both come with a 23mm bronze buckle. The catch is that only the leather strap’s buckle is suitable for leather. The buckle from the fabric strap is designed for a very thin fabric strap, too thin for a handmade leather one. Allen had the fabric strap, so unfortunately he had a lovely bronze buckle that simply wouldn’t work with one of my straps.

I gave Allen two options. I could try to source a true bronze buckle, though I warned him that might take a while and cost a little more. Or I could use the 24mm bronze PVD buckle I keep in stock.

Now, a 24mm buckle on a 23mm strap might sound wrong, but I assured Allen that once the strap was finished, the extra millimetre wouldn’t be noticeable. After talking through the options, Allen chose the bronze PVD buckle, along with an Emperor Kudu strap with butterscotch stitching. I booked the order in, confirmed everything by email, and promised it would go out on or before 1st October. It was actually posted a day early, which is always a nice feeling. I think the photos he sent show that the 24mm buckle works.

The review

When the strap arrived, Allen emailed to say how pleased he was. He also took the time to leave a review on Trustpilot, which means a great deal to a small business like mine. Here’s what he said:

"Rich's straps are works of art. He helped me through the selection process and is very prompt at responding to questions. I selected the Emperor Kudu strap. Upon receipt of my strap, I was blown away with the hand-tooled craftsmanship. Hand-cut from natural hides, hand-stitched, and natural scars on the strap from the tough life of the kudu on the Savannah. My heavy Tudor Black Bay Bronze watch, is now light on the wrist, perfectly balanced, smells wonderful and a favorite in my collection. Its a 10 of 10. Go after artisan quality. Treat yourself to Old World excellence and fantastic customer service."

Thank you, Allen. Messages like this are what make the work I do worthwhile, and I’m delighted the strap has become a favourite in your collection.