It all began months ago
I was getting fed up with buying loads of straps, none of which had the 'Heuer Rally' holes quite right. Then, David D gifted me one of his great straps, and I swapped it onto pretty much every watch I was wearing. ‘How hard can it be to make another?’ crossed my mind.. and it all went from there.

I come from a traditional fine art background, watercolours, drawing, and consider myself handy with art and crafts, I’ve always taught myself and manage OK. I think it comes from my grandfather, he was a master goldsmith and that side of my family descend from the artisan French Huguenots. So, buoyed with confidence, I decided to give it a go. (coincidentally, I’ve just discovered via a thread on here, that the Huguenots were implicit behind the founding of the Swiss watch industry – how freaky!)

Armed with the appropriate tools, I began to teach myself, and although it was a steep learning curve, I took to it like a duck to water. Despite being handy with a paint brush, I never really got that much of a kick out of it, but I absolutely love working leather, maybe it’s my calling, all these years collecting watches and I never thought about crafting a strap.

Perfecting the Technique
Each strap has to be made differently depending on the leather, but by far the toughest part is stamping the holes. It appears simple, but believe me, it is extremely difficult, which is probably why there aren't many (any?) strap makers that do it on a regular basis. Each strap has around 39 holes, and if one is misplaced, the strap is ruined, hours of effort down the drain.

The leather puckers up as you stamp the holes, it gets pulled on way, then another, this causes a real headach. Even if alignment is correct, the pattern needs to be just right, the choice of hole size needs to be balanced with the distance between each hole. There are many other factors too.

I can't tell you how many beautiful straps I've ruined over the past 8 months – and it’s sickening, all that effort wasted in one mis-aligned punch. The good news is that I've perfected my technique, I’ve customised some tools, and I can get them pretty damn perfect now, each hole is aligned and punched individually with great care. The technique has to be modified to match the type and thickness of leather.

Old & Vintage Leather
As well as using superior quality English saddle leather, I have sourced more exotic Italian & patterned leather, including some 25 year old Irish leather, striped from a beautiful old saddle. Sizes will cover all our beloved Heuers and other vintage models, including the awkward 19 & 21mm sizes. I'm lucky enough to have a wide range of Heuers, so I can see what fits & what doesn't, which thicknesses work best etc.

There will be a ‘Classic’ saddle leather range, in light tan, chestnut, mocca brown & black. Plus a vintage range with old leather, and some other exotics, like Stingray pattern, burgundy, cream and blue.

It’s not a business, but a pleasurable hobby, I don’t plan on taking commissions or anything like that. I will be offering them for sale on here to fellow collectors when I've created a batch.

Vintage tang & Heuer Buckles
I have a limited supply of Heuer Re-Issue 16mm buckles (some 18mm too) as well as vintage plain 16mm buckles, that I have collected over the years, scouring the internet.

So, this is a kind of 'soft launch', I haven't got any for sale just yet. I have a loose plan on what will be available.

Here are some previews, I believe them to be of the highest quality and should suit our vintage Heuers perfectly.

Some examples of my past art..

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And some of the straps..
The tan straps are new aniline tan saddle leather. The darker brown straps are made from 25 year old Irish saddle leather...

Cheers
Stewart