I posted some photographs of this strap I made for my Panerai 233 last week on my Instagram. The feedback from those photos was such that I’ve decided to choose Bubble Gum leather as the leather in the spotlight this month. I realise that a bright pink leather may not be to everyone’s taste, but life would be very boring if we all liked the same things. Trust me – if you look at your straps and they’re all blacks and browns, you need this in your life!
Bubble Gum
“Bubble Gum” is a leather I’ve used for some years now. It’s a veg tanned “nubuck” leather that really pops in a bright pink colour. Being a nubuck, it is a strong and durable leather, but it’s also very soft & pliable. It makes a perfect watch strap. Being bright pink I’m not sure if this is one for the office, but if you’re looking for something a bit different for more casual wear then you can’t go wrong with Bubble Gum. It will get noticed – of that I have no doubt. Of course, as it is the leather in the spotlight this month it’s available with a £20 discount – see below for details of the offer and the discount code.
Oh, and please don’t confuse a nubuck leather with a suede. The fact is, although they have a similar appearance, structurally a nubuck is a far superior product to suede. Both are sanded / buffed to produce a “nap” of short protein fibres (and leave the leather with a velvet like feel), but that’s where the similarity ends. The important difference between them is the stock they are made from. A nubuck is always produced from a top grain leather (the grain side is sanded), whereas suedes are produced from splits. As a result, suede leather is a far cheaper product, and doesn’t have the structural strength of a nubuck. If you are interested, this blog post I wrote some years ago gives a brief overview of the differences between the various types of leather.
Why can’t I find pink stitching on the order form?
My reason for making the strap shown in these photos was not because I’d decided to make Bubble Gum the leather “in the spotlight” for September. That decision came last week, after the posts on Instagram. Actually I made this strap because I’ve recently been sent some samples of a new thread to try, and one of the samples was supplied to me in a shocking pink colour.
When I saw the sample of pink thread I immediately thought it would work fabulously with Bubble Gum leather, and hence this strap was made. The “shocking pink” thread is not actually a stitching option via my website at the moment (it may be soon – I haven’t decided whether it will be stocked yet). I do have enough of it left for a few more straps however, so if anyone wants to take advantage of the Bubble Gum offer at the bottom of this post, and wants me to use the same thread on their strap, please let me know when you order* and I’ll be happy to oblige.
* if this is the case, when you place your order, select any thread colour from the drop down list for the strap (it won’t matter) and email me to let me know you want me to use this pink thread with your strap. When I confirm the details of your order I’ll state the stitching will be in shocking pink.
A promo for September 2022 and the T’s & C’s
During the month of September 2022 you can use the promo code BG20 when ordering to get £20 off the cost of a Bubble Gum leather strap. Simply enter BG20 into the “coupon code” box at the top of the checkout page and click “apply coupon” – doing so will reduce the cost of your Bubble Gum strap by £20 (my website will recalculate the total cost automatically).
The coupon code BG20 is active from now until midnight (BST) on Friday 30th September 2022. This offer is applicable to online orders placed in September 2022 where the promo code is used at checkout, and applies only to straps made from Bubble Gum leather.