I’ve been using shell cordovan leather for many years now, and as any of you who have purchased one from me will know it makes a beautiful watch strap. Shortly after I launched this latest version of my website in 2016 I wrote a blog post explaining what shell cordovan is and why it is such a good choice for watch straps – if you haven’t read it you can find it here (it is worth a read, even if I do say so myself).
Until now I’ve always sourced my shell cordovan from Horween in Chicago – they have a fine reputation for shell cordovan leather, and as I’ve always been very happy with the quality of their product I’ve never looked elsewhere. I am still very happy with the quality of all Horween’s leather (not just their shell cordovan – they’ve never let me down and they supply me with quite a few leathers now, across my range), but when I was contacted recently by a UK tannery offering a blue shell cordovan I was interested enough to ask for a sample. The sample arrived last week.
My initial response after inspecting the shell was that I was impressed. It is soft and supple and has a good even deep blue colouring with a bit of a shine. I’ve found over the years I’ve been doing this however that the only way to really tell if a leather is going to work as a watch strap is to make a strap from it and wear it hard for a while. So last week I made a start on building myself a strap and it was finished this afternoon. It’s now mounted to my Panerai zero and on my wrist.
This blue shell cordovan a very dark blue colour, similar to the Typhoon leather, but being shell cordovan it has a slight shine to it, is supple and should be very hard wearing. I’ll wear it for a couple of weeks and see how it feels after it’s broken in a little, but I must say I like it. For anyone wondering, the strap has been stitched with “pale blue” thread.
At this stage I’m undecided whether it will be something I offer in my store on a permanent basis, but there is some leather left from this shell so if anyone wants one please email me to let me know you are interested (it will be a month or so before I can decide if it’s good enough to use for paying customers, but if you let me know you’re interested I’ll get back to you when I’ve worn this strap for a while and decided. Prices will be the same as for all the shell codovan leathers I stock). You can email me at rich@toshi-straps.com
Update on 22nd August 2020 – To avoid any confusion please note that this blog post was written a year ago about a leather I was sampling at that time. A few straps were made from the shell I had then, but it wasn’t stocked and it was never launched in my website store. The blue shell cordovan leather I used to make the strap featured in these photographs is different from the “Intense Blue shell cordovan” now available via the store. The Intense Blue shell cordovan I have now launched has been produced by Horween in Chicago, and is a slightly different colour from the strap shown here. Please be aware and check out the colour of the leather available via the Intense Blue Shell Cordovan store page.
Update on 25th November 2020 – Intense Blue shell cordovan has now sold out