Hi strap lovers, I have been have been building some custom straps for Herbert Mayer, a high-end watch boutique here in Munich (a wonderful store with friendly staff – be sure to stop in if you find yourself in Munich or Augsburg) and wanted to share photos of a just-completed strap of one of their customer’s stunning Audemars Piguet watches. It’s a very rare limited edition platinum Royal Oak Chronograph and while it’s 39mm, it weighs like a brick due to the solid platinum case!! Thankfully they were able to provide me the watch in order that I can make a perfect fitment, which I think turned out really great. Made with our exclusive SuperMatte Teju Lizard and featuring our superfine hand saddle stitching with Steel Grey French linen thread and lined with Grey Kidskin.
All our AP straps are reinforced with vegetable-tanned kangaroo at the lugs for strength and stability, which I feel, while making these straps much more labor-intensive to build are a better long term solution to using brass inserts (as on the OEM straps) because the sharp metal edges cause premature strap failure when combined with the fact that the metal inserts require the leather used to be exceedingly thin (.3mm), which weakens the leather at the lugs.
