I’m often asked to make suggestions for straps for specific watches, and it seems the dial colour that many people seem to struggle with most is white. I’ve recently made a new strap for my Panerai 114, and so I thought I’d take the opportunity to share my opinions on the subject of what makes a great strap combination for a watch with a white dial.
Of course this is just my personal take on the white dial watch strap conundrum, but I feel that a strong colour is needed here. I’ve owned my 114 for about 7 years now and as you might expect it’s been on a lot of straps in that time, but I’ve always found that it works best when the strap is dark and bold. White will go with anything, but a strong, bold colour somehow seems to lift the watch where a lighter colour struggles. I’ve tried my 114 on tan and cream leathers in the past but it never seemed quite right to me. A dark brown leather works (Mushroom being a strong contender), but there’s nothing like a bit of colour to really make the watch pop!
One of my personal favourite leathers is Emerald, and a while back I posted about making myself a new strap from Emerald leather for this watch. Since I made that strap my 114 has been on little else, but recently I fancied a change. I decided that a Lapis Blue strap was needed, and so one Sunday morning I got up early and went to work. This strap is the result – hand stitched with pale blue waxed linen thread and fitted with a polished sewn in Pre-V buckle. I’m very happy with the result, and would recommend the combination to anyone.
So if anyone is thinking about a new strap for their white dial watch, here is my advice. Remember, this is only my opinion (there is no “right” or “wrong” when choosing the right strap for your watch), but for what it’s worth I think there are two main aspects to getting a good balance:
Firstly, go for a darker colour leather. With a white dial watch I think contrast between the light dial and a dark leather works best, and the eye is then naturally drawn to the watch. I believe the strap should act to frame the watch and show it at its best rather than draw attention from it, and a darker colour leather will do that. I’ll make some suggestions – as well as Emerald and Lapis Blue that I’ve already mentioned, I can highly recommend Mushroom, Burgundy, Violet & Crimson. I’ve tried all of these on my 114 and been happy with all of them. There are others that look great too of course, but these are my favourites with my 114.
Secondly, when deciding on the colour of the stitching try not to choose something that will contrast too much with the leather. It may be tempting to go with white stitching with a white dial watch, but I find that a lower contrast thread works better with a dark coloured leather. If you want some suggestions I’m always happy to help, so by all means get in touch and tell me what leather you have in mind.
Of course this is just my opinion, and (as I’ve said many times before) the best advice I can give anyone is to listen to their gut feeling. You should go with what you think will work for you – it is your watch after all. For me though, this Lapis Blue strap with pale blue stitching is pretty much perfect (until I fancy a change again!).