The Breitling Watch Blog

I’ve accumulated quite the collection of watch straps over the years, and many of the strapmakers out there also make accessories like wallets and other leather goods to compliment their straps. One of these makers is DaLuca. He actually makes some pretty nifty wallets and other leather goods. I picked up a couple of his wallets, and figured I would make a little post about them.

The first one here is the Shell Cordovan Horizontal Snap wallet in black. Its got that awesome Shell Cordovan smell, and built very ruggedly. Comes in the standard DaLuca mesh bag.

Inside is the raw Horween Shell Cordovan stamping, which is a very cool raw and authentic look. I lucked out with this one and got a nice visible stamping on the inside of the wallet.

On the back, is the DaLuca stamp. I’ve always love how this stamp looks on his wallets. Its very tastefully done, and the detail where its branded into the leather are perfect.

Second wallet I picked up is the Angle wallet in Natural Chromexcel. I really like the Horween Chromexcel leather, it has a wonderful color to it, and reveals lots of character when you bend it and use it. This one is a basic card wallet, and fits about 6 cards if you stuff it.

As you can see below, it also has the tasteful DaLuca logo branded onto the back, proudly announcing is USA Made pedigree.

Overall I think DaLuca has done a good job of these wallets, and they don’t seem like an afterthought. They’re simple, yet well designed minimalist wallets.

You can see these on DaLuca’s site here:
http://www.dalucastraps.com/categories/Accessories/Wallets/

DaLuca Straps is pretty well known in the Strap world, particularly the Panerai Strap world, for his out-of-the-box style of watch straps. He’s also expanded his business to take on third-party straps and in-house leather goods such as wallets, belts and watch accessories like the watch strap folder. I am lucky enough to own one of these in black, and its one of the best strap folders/cases I own.

The case comes in various colors and types of leather, all which are specified as “limited edition”. I’m guessing that DaLuca uses leathers of which he has limited supply for each strap folder. The stuff he uses ranges from normal shades to bright colorful ones and even one in camo canvas. I opted for the much more conservative “Black”.

The folder is held together simply by velcro strips which are sewn into the leather, which are effective at keeping the folder closed and easy to use. Once opened, the folder unfolds twice and reveals 11 watch strap slots, plenty wide enough for even thick 26mm and 27mm Panerai ammo straps. This is one of the most efficient strap cases on the market, allowing you to hold lots of straps in a relatively small package.

The DaLuca strap holder also features three tool slots, two which are half-height slots for shorter tools and a full height slot for a longer tool. The leather is an unknown type, thinner than most watch strap leathers but still pretty robust. Its a little flexible which is great for this folder. It doesn’t have much tannery smell. I am quite certain the other folders use a totally different leather, so keep that in mind if you’re browsing.

And there it is full packed with straps. I have much more than 11 straps, but this is great for storing some of them… but since this is such a great compact folder, I might have to get a couple more just to store the rest of my straps too! I do recommend this strap storage folder.. its my favourite one I have.

I have always liked having cool clocks on the wall at home, and having a home with lots of rooms, I require a plentiful amount of clocks to place in different rooms. Now, if I put Instrument clocks up on every wall, my wife would probably not appreciate it, but what I do in my office and den she really doesn’t care. I have several clocks in my den, one of which is one of these Trintec Industries Aviation Instrument clocks, and it is pretty cool.

Shown here are two of the coasters that came in the 6-coaster set as well as the 6″ clock, which is actually 6.5″. The Clock case that Trintec uses looks EXACTLY like those fake Bell & Ross dealer clocks I see on eBay. I bet those guys are using trintec Clocks to make them. Trintec makes a bunch of cool little aviation and marine instruments, as well as watches, which are less interesting to me. I am more interested in their accessories and clocks.

Here’s a close up of the 6″ clock, which retails for $29.95 on the Trinec website. The clock has no second hand, and thus no ticking sound.. which is nice. The watch also features a real glass lens, which is a nice feature. There are several different dial styles available that you can see on the website.

Here are the coasters, which come in a set of 6, with each one having a different pattern on it. Most of the coaster styles are available as clock dials as well. Trintec has some cool gadgets too.. but I only wanted the coasters are the larger 6″ wall clock. The 6″ refers to the lens size.. the actual clock is slightly bigger at 6.5″ as I had mentioned earler. All the clocks are made in Canada too, which is a plus.

Very cool stuff that would make a great inexpensive gift for that clock/watch/aviation enthusiast in your life.

Was just reminded of a 2009 Baselworld announcement from Ulysse Nardin… Those of you that have never seen the Ulysse Nardin Chairman Luxury Hybrid Smart Phone should take a peek at this thing. Its still not out yet and still on preorder, and its been over a year.

• Google Android mobile phone platform
• 3.2″ capacitive touch screen with full on screen QWERTY keyboard and physical numeric keys
• Fingerprint reader for owner identification and phone lock
• 8 megapixel camera
• High definition video replay capability
• YouTube, Google Maps, Gmail, Google talk and Facebook preloaded
• Qualcomm 3G GSM/WCDMA – 2G Bands 850/900/1800/1900MHz 3G Bands 900/2100MHz
• Smartphone platform powered by the Freescale i.MX processor
• 32 GB internal memory
• Extensive gaming ability
• Up to 8 hours talk time and 30 days standby time
• Ulysse Nardin Rotor (kinetic power system) and Crown (for winding the phone) i.e. generating additional electrical power to the battery

I have just tried out a new cleaning product designed specifically for watches called Veraet. I filmed a video of the first time I used this product, and how I felt they product seemed on first impressions. Overall a decent product. I’ll use it a few more times before I do a written review of Veraet Watch Cleaner.