At the beginning of the year I promised that in 2022 every month I would select a different leather and write a quick review of it in my blog. That leather would be the leather “in the spotlight” for the month, and would be discounted for the whole month. Over the year I’ve chosen some of my personal favourites, and to finish the series I’ve decided to showcase Raven, the leather I think makes the perfect black strap.
Raven
“Raven” is a soft and pliable Italian leather that I discovered early last year. It is produced by a tannery in Tuscany using a pure vegetable tanning method centuries old. Tuscan people understand the importance of history and tradition, and as such the tannery will not take shortcuts in their work. The process of producing this leather is a long one, taking several months, but in my opinion it is worth it. This leather is probably the best naturally tumbled leather on the market – certainly the best I’ve seen in my 16 years of making watch straps. I was so impressed when I saw it that I bought a couple of skins immediately, and after using it for a month I bought more. Obviously it goes without saying that I would never offer a leather to my customers that I don’t rate highly, but of all the leathers I have worked with, I think Raven is my favourite.
If you’ve been reading my blog over the last few years you’ll know that my personal preference is for low contrast stitching, so when making a strap for myself I always stitch Raven straps with black linen thread. Being a black leather however it will work with any colour stitching, so if you’re keen to highlight an accent colour on your watch then take a look through the 20 thread colours I have to see which will work best. If you want a classic black watch strap for your watch there really is no better leather than Raven in my opinion.
A promo for December 2022 and the T’s & C’s
During the month of December 2022 you can use the promo code Raven20 when ordering to get £20 off the cost of a Raven leather strap. Simply enter Raven20 into the “coupon code” box at the top of the checkout page and click “apply coupon” – doing so will reduce the cost of your Raven strap by £20 (my website will recalculate the total cost automatically).
The coupon code Raven20 is active from now until midnight (GMT) on Saturday 31st December 2022. This offer is applicable to online orders placed in December 2022 where the promo code is used at checkout, and applies only to straps made from Raven leather.