About Me

I was given my first wristwatch when I was ten years old. I can still picture Christmas morning in 1976, opening a box to find a Commodore “Sport Time Master LED” inside. I was overjoyed, and incredibly proud of that watch. Fifty years later, my fascination with watches hasn’t faded — I still get excited about them.

I began making watch straps as a hobby in 2006. My early attempts weren’t exactly beautiful, but I found the process relaxing and enjoyed wearing the results, so I kept going. Over the next few months I learned a lot about working with leather, and towards the end of 2006 a friend asked if I’d make a strap for his Panerai. That became my first true commission.

For the next six months I made straps whenever I had the time — mostly for myself, but gradually through word of mouth I began receiving emails from other watch collectors asking if I’d make straps for them too. Then, in the summer of 2007, I was made redundant. It happened suddenly and was a shock. It also left me with a lot of time on my hands, some of which I used to train with a master saddle maker. Towards the end of the year I realised I didn’t want another corporate job, so I took a leap of faith: I stopped looking for employment, bought a copy of HTML for Dummies, taught myself to build my first website, converted the spare bedroom into a workshop, and launched Toshi Straps in January 2008.

Close-up of a person's hands sewing or stitching a brown leather or wood object with a needle and green thread.

In 2013 I left London and moved to the West Country. I found a house in North Devon that I fell in love with, somehow convinced the owners to sell it to me, and we've now almost finished renovating it. I’ve converted one of the outbuildings into a workshop and office, and after 23 years in London I’m finally working in the perfect setting — surrounded by trees, fields and nature.

Over the last 19 years I’ve kept one simple principle: every strap I make is crafted to the very best of my abilities. Attention to detail is everything, and I will never send out a strap I wouldn’t be proud to wear myself. I still do everything myself and entirely by hand — no outsourcing, no machines, no shortcuts. It means there’s a waiting list, but when your strap arrives I’m confident the care and detail will be obvious, and you’ll agree the wait was worthwhile.

Every strap I’ve ever made has been hand‑stitched. Some people wonder why I’ve always resisted the temptation to use a machine, especially when it would make economic sense.

I’ve made thousands of straps since I started in 2006, and even now it takes me around two hours to build a strap from scratch. Hand‑stitching alone takes about 45 minutes, so investing in a machine that could do the job in five would certainly speed things up.

The simple truth is that a hand‑sewn strap is far superior to a machine‑stitched one. I take pride in my work and want my straps to last, so I’m happy to spend that extra time — even though it limits how many straps I can make each month. Most of my competitors use machines, but I believe hand‑stitching is central to the idea of a truly handmade leather strap.

When I sew a strap, I use 4‑ply waxed linen thread and traditional saddle stitch — exactly the same method saddle and strap makers have used for centuries. It’s sewn with one piece of thread and two needles: the first stitch is the main stitch, and the second locks it in place. This means that if a stitch ever breaks, the seam won’t unravel the way a machine‑stitched strap will.

It’s a time‑consuming process, but regardless of what others choose to do, my promise is simple: every Toshi Strap will always be hand‑sewn, and always by me.