Horween Derby leather watch strap by Toshi Straps

Since I’ve had all of the new leathers up on the store pages I’ve been asked a few times which are my favourites. Anyone who read my blog posts last week will know that African Kudu and Emerald are two of them, but over the next few weeks I’ll write a short post about a couple of others, starting today with Horween Derby.

I’m a big fan of the Horween tannery in Chicago. They produce some fabulous leathers, and I’ve always been very happy with the quality of the leather I’ve bought from them. Derby is a leather I’ve been looking at for some time and it ticks all the boxes for me – it’s a pure vegetable tanned full grain leather which means it takes a long time to produce, only natural products are used in the tanning process, and being full grain it shows the natural texture of the leather. It’s also  very soft with a slight pull-up to it, and this makes it perfect for watch straps.

Horween Derby leather watch strap by Toshi Straps

Some years ago I had a leather called “Saddle”. If you’ve been following me for some time you’ll remember that Saddle was a hugely popular leather but that I had a limited supply, and it soon ran out. Although Horween Derby is quite different (it’s a heavier weight and a steer hide, whereas Saddle was a lighter horse hide) it looks very similar indeed, and I believe it will be just as popular. I actually prefer Horween Derby to Saddle and I highly recommend it.

The straps I’ve made from Horween Derby so far have all been with natural thread, and in my opinion this is the best thread colour for this leather. You could go with olive drab, pale blue or another light coloured thread, but for me the way it works with natural stitching means I’ll never use anything else when making a strap for myself. It results in a traditional, natural looking leather watch strap which works beautifully with any watch with a black dial.

Horween Derby is available to order now via my store page. I’m sure you will love it!

Horween Derby leather watch strap on a Panerai Luminor Zero

If you’ve been following me on Facebook you’ll have seen that on Saturday I made some ready made straps available. I don’t normally have any straps ready made as it’s simply not practical for me to work that way (there are too many choices available) but these are the straps I made to be photographed for the store pages. When I made the announcement there was one of each of the 19 new leathers available. Of course some are now sold, but at the time of posting this there are 8 left – and Horween Derby is one of them. So if you want a 24mm Horween Derby strap and 130/80 length works for you, if you’re quick you can save £30 off the normal price by buying the strap photographed for the store page and this post – full details on my Facebook page.