As there are no secrets anymore, I want to teach you how to make a leather watch strap and how we do it at Diloy. Although, to be honest, I will skip a few steps that my production chiefs don’t let me reveal.
Types of leather watch straps
According to their production process, we can find three big groups. I sorted them out according to the difficulty level and required knowledge:
Cut edge
Remborder
Semi-remborder
Each one of these types requires different competencies, technology, and knowledge. Ultimately, this knowledge is the main restraint and what leads some producers to offer only a very specific type of leather strap.
Let’s see a bit of each of these types and what makes them different.
Leather strap produced at cut edge
This is the simplest way to make a watch strap and anyone can make it. You will understand that straight ahead. What do we need?
A piece of leather
A ruler
A cutter
Contact adhesive
Someone handy, but, as you’ll see, doesn’t need to have years of experience.
Below you can see a video that perfectly illustrates this kind of production. With slight variations, that is how the so-called “artisanal” straps are made, and I believe it is easy to understand why the quality of the finish is usually not that good. I must say that there are incredible artisans who make real works of art, but you will probably agree with me that they represent a minority.
If we put handicraft aside and talk about the industrial production of straps in some enterprises from Madrid or from the Alicante area, the production is pretty much the same, with small differences:
Presses and strip cutters are used to cut the leather into the shape of the strap, to open the holes where the buckle fits in or the hole for the strap’s tongue.
Reducers are used to reduce the strap’s thickness.
Sewing machines are used.
What is usually the problem with this type of watch strap?
Firstly, the fact that the strip cutters get damaged rather quickly and it is necessary to change them frequently, which is not done. If you have one of those so-called “national” straps (as if the others were aliens), I invite you to slide your finger through the strap’s corner and you will see that it is not soft.
The second major problem is that the glues that are used are developed for footwear, and a watch strap is not a shoe. The surfaces to be glued are much smaller, the thicknesses are not the same, let alone the strains they are exposed to, etc. In the end, they peel off. And, naturally, a glue thought to attach the sole to the shoe has no reason to take into account possible allergies that it may cause, once it will not be in contact with the skin. That is often the source of the allergies and inconveniences many clients report to us when they use one of those inaccurately called “national” straps.
When painting the strap’s corner, anything can be used. I have even seen plastic paint like Titanlux, or shoes cleaning liquid like Kanfor, etc.
The holes for the pins are often occluded with glue.
Obviously, this is a very cost-efficient way of producing. To make a strap, a factory takes usually between 12 and 18 steps.
We will see that in the following video
Diloy Factory, at cut straps?
The answer is yes, we produce several at cut straps. Specifically, our Vintage range is produced following this technic, and we do so to be loyal to the way they were produced in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. But we introduced several improvements:
We use glues that are specially developed for the watch strap industry, eco-friendly and harmless to the user’s skin. These glues fulfil all the European and North-American regulations for objects that will be in direct contact with skin.
We make sure our cutters are always well sharpened. Not least because of the cleaner the cut, the least work we have afterwards. It is a simple matter of costs because we worry about those details. Certainly, in your shop, you have one of our at cut straps and other from our competition. Take a minute to examine their edges, slide your finger through them, which one do you think has the best finishing?
To accomplish this finishing, we sand all the corners until we get a uniform surface. It is a slow step that needs to be handmade one strap at a time, but in the end, the difference can be noted.
We use special inks to paint the strap’s corners. These inks are specially developed for leather. They are not plastic paint, as it often is used.
Instead of one coating, each strap gets 5 to 7 coatings with their respective drying cycles.
Finally, while our competition justifies its high costs because it has to make 18 different steps, we never make an at cut strap with less than 40 steps. Each one of these steps adds value to the final product, and that can be noted.
Appart from the Vintage watch straps, we have some sports models that we produce at cut.
