The Breitling Watch Blog

Mays-Berlin is an outstanding German strapmaker that I just reviewed a couple straps from, and they also offered a 10% off coupon code (Use coupon code ‘paneraisource’ at checkout on their website) that is good on every vintage strap on their site! Its a great opportunity to try out their stuff and if you check out my review of Mays-Berlin, I think you’ll see that they are indeed a fantastic value and truly superb strapmaker.

As you can see their straps are pretty incredible.. fantastic vintage reproduction pieces here.

I’m super enthusiastic about these straps from Mr. TipTop in Denmark. Got three more from him (including some Belts that are absolutely insane!!!) and just had to post about them here as well as on Paneraisource. These guys are even cooler than the first three I got and have even more personality to them. Great for strap collectors like me that have just about every strap under the sun and need something different to round out the collection! Three ultra cool straps, the Bomber strap in particular is really cool and I can see a lot of guys wanting something like that!

I discovered this fantastic old school strapmaker from Denmark named Mr. TipTop. They are an old company, started in 1954, creating some wonderful hand crafted straps in their workshop. I reviewed three of their Double Croupon leather straps, and they are all very well crafted out of some of the finest leather I have seen used for straps. This is great stuff.

I had a couple made for my PAM288, and they look fantastic on it:

Check out the review on Paneraisource here:
http://www.paneraisource.com/aftermarket_straps_tiptop.shtml

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.