I am a kid on Christmas morning Stewart. I only noticed that when I saw my own post. I compressed the leather a bit much when putting it on. I have since rolled the ends between my fingers and it has spread out a bit. There's maybe .5mm of clearance now. It may have shrunk a little but looking down at my wrist, believe me, the sliver of a gap is not what you see. You see that the stitching is the perfect compliment to the dial, and then, you really only see the dial. :-)