How Your Strap Is Made
FROM OUR WORKSHOP
How your strap is made
Thirteen steps. One pair of hands. About a full working day from the first cut to the closed box.
Cutting
The pattern is traced onto the hide and cut by hand with a fresh blade - one steady pull per line.
Skiving
Each edge runs through the bell skiver, shaved to a fine ramp for a clean, tapered finish.
Saddle stitching
Two needles and waxed thread, stitched by hand - a saddle stitch that holds even when cut.
Reading the hide
Not every part of a hide makes a strap. The belly scales need to fall straight - centered, regular, no skipped rows. We walk the template across the panel until the rows line up under it, then mark where the cut will go.
Drawing the pattern
The pattern goes on kraft paper at full size. Tail length, buckle end, taper, pin holes - all set on paper before a blade touches the leather. Mistakes here are cheap; mistakes after this point are not.
Cutting
The kraft template is traced onto the back of the hide with a fine awl, then cut by hand with a fresh blade. One steady pull per line. If the line wavers, the piece goes to the scrap pile - we never try to save a bad cut.
Stacking the layers
Six pieces make one strap: top exotic, a calfskin underlayer, closed-cell foam for the curve, the lining for the wrist side, plus two thin strips for the keeper loops. Everything is dry-fit first, before any glue touches anything.
Skiving
Each edge runs through the bell skiver - a small rotating disc that shaves the leather down to a fine ramp. Hold the piece wrong and you cut through. We have been over this machine thousands of times; the hand finds the angle on its own now.
Glue and assemble
Latex contact glue, brushed on both sides, left to tack. The layers go together once - the bond is permanent, so the alignment has to be right the first time. The strap takes shape between two thumbs.
Trimming the blank
The glued blank is trimmed back to the pattern line and the edges flattened with a fresh blade. This is the first moment the strap looks like a strap - one clean shape, ready for the stitch line to be marked.
Marking the stitch line
A brass pricking iron is struck with a poly mallet down the edge, walked forward one tooth, struck again. Every hole is set in advance - so the needle never has to guess where it is going next.
Saddle stitching
Strap clamped in a wooden pony. Two needles loaded with waxed polyester thread, both hands moving in opposite directions, locking each stitch in place. Hours per side. The result is a stitch that cannot run - cut one and the next ones hold.
Edge painting
Edge paint is mixed to match the strap colour, in small batches. A fine applicator lays it down in a thin pass. The edge is heat-set, sanded back with very fine grit, and the next pass goes on. Three to five passes - until the seam reads as one piece of edge.
Attaching the buckle
The buckle is set at the tail end with a pin that locks through the leather. The keeper loop - the small leather sleeve that holds the tail in place on the wrist - is fitted last with a final saddle stitch.
Finished strap
Twin pieces, hand-burnished edges, saddle stitch in matching thread, and a polished buckle ready for the watch case. We hold each finished strap in the hand for a final look-over before it goes into the box.
Boxed and shipped
Last check: stitch count, edge finish, leather grain, buckle alignment. Anything off goes back. The strap is laid into a Moc Goods box with a handwritten thank-you card, sealed, and shipped from Da Nang to your door with tracking.
Thirteen steps, one pair of hands, one full day on the bench. — Moc Goods Workshop, Da Nang