Name: BlueShark Straps (Run by Joe Scarpati) Website: blusharkstraps.com Amazon storefront: Link What do you sell: Watch bands, primarily nylon and silicone
What are the origins of the company: I started the business in 2015 with the goal of providing nylon watch bands comparable in quality to luxury manufacturers’ offerings, but at a fraction of the price
What are your best selling straps? AlphaShark collection (especially the Bond pattern)
BlueShark Kwik Series 2-piece NATO style strap
Do you have anything new coming out? We recently launched elastic “Pajama” straps. These watch bands are made of a stretchy nylon that has just the right amount give to it. The straps are strong enough to keep your watch securely on your wrist while stretching enough to ensure the perfect fit.
BluShark Straps and an Omega Speedmaster
Any fashion advice for strap buyers? I always recommend balancing the style of the watch with the strap. Meaning, if you have a very colorful/flashy dial, wear a subdued strap and vice versa.
This month we’re featuring watches under $500 and the watch straps that go on them, along with a few pictures from some custom strap makers. You can find links to the watch strap makers and most watches in the captions.
Today’s strap is from a small custom strapmaker in North Carolina, OleksynPrannyk. It is a custom Apple watch strap with a double band. Like most 3rd-party watch straps, it comes with the hardware to easily put it on your Apple watch.
Check out their Etsy shop or their website for more great custom work including other leather goods like dopp kits, groomsmen bags and of course, watch rolls and watch straps in a variety of leathers for most watches. You can also find more strapmakers on our Custom Strap Maker page.
Today’s strap is from Haveston Tool Watch Straps, maker of fine canvas and premium nylon weave straps. If you’re looking for a high quality “seatbelt” NATO-style strap, then Haveston is a place to check out. They have a large selection of military inspired color schemes.
The strap shown is a M-22 A2, based on the 1942 US Navy camouflage scheme “Measure-22” utilized on battleships in the Pacific and European theater. The watch is a Hamilton Khaki Mechanical, a well reviewed military/field style watch which will run you about $400.
Today’s awesome watch strap is from a small custom watch strap maker in Spain. Jose Manuel Martín and the shop MANSAREA have some pretty fabulous straps, which of course can be customized for any watch. This particular strap is a heavy duty brown calf leather.
Check out their shop on Etsy if you’re interested in ordering a custom strap. Prices for most straps range from $50 – $100.
What: We handcraft watch straps for just about every brand out there and have a line of leather goods as well that we design and manufacture in house. These items include wallets, belts, handbags, keychains, dog leashes and collars as well as some custom one off items.
What materials do you use in your bands? We mainly use various leathers that range from most of the Horween line of leathers such as Shell Cordovan, Chromexcel, Dublin, Essex, latigo, etc all the way to reclaiming vintage ammunition pouches from the Swiss and French armies. Sometimes we incorporate various new and vintage canvas materials into the straps as well as offering rubber, nylon and Perlon straps too.
What are some of your best selling straps? Our leather military straps are definitely one of the crowd favorites as well as our one of a kind handmade leather watch straps that we individually name and sell in five sizes that include 18mm, 20mm, 22mm, 24mm and 26mm widths. If a client needs a width other than those, then we have a custom watch straps section that they can use to place an order for the strap of their dreams with a very quick turnaround time of 3-8x business days.
What advice do you have for people buying a new strap? It can be a very overwhelming process with all of the various options in the marketplace. Start off by finding out the lug width of the watch which will tell you the width of the strap needed to properly fit in between those lugs and be the correct size strap for the watch. The second main piece of info to need to know is the length of the strap needed. We always say that something around a 115mm/75mm length is a good starting point for most average wrist sizes. If you think you have a “small” or “large” wrist then we can adjust that length accordingly. Beyond that its pure fun on our custom watch straps page as you can select the material and its color, the thickness, stitching preference, stitching color and edge coating or lack of. People love to stand out and what better way than a true one off handmade watch strap!
What style of bands is your favorite to make or wear (personally)? I personally love shell cordovan straps. On my Panerai 233 I use a green Horween shell cordovan military style strap. While on my Rolex Air King I have a vintage ammo pouch strap that is made from a vintage French ammo pouch from the 1960s and we made it a tad thinner to match the case height of the Rolex watch so everything was proportionate. Subtle nuances like that are very important in the overall end result of the watch and watch strap combination.
Do you (personally) have a favorite watch? Patek Philippe Nautilus 5980/1A
DaLuca Straps Women’s Wallet in Dublin LeatherDaLuca Straps Apple Watch StrapDaLuca Straps Handmade Lizard Watch StrapDaLuca Straps Swiss Ammo Stamp DetailDaluca Straps Rolex Milgauss – image courtesy of @owenau89 DaLuca Straps Green Shell Mil Strap Wrist Close Up
Today’s strap is a ZULUDIVER (MKII) 400 rubber strap in black, by Watch Gecko, shown here on a Seiko SKX009 watch. The rubber is embossed with a carbon fiber surface treatment and it comes with a folding buckle that allows micro adjustments for a perfect fit.
Additionally, the strap is reversible for a different texture and you can cut it to length (the buckle hides the cut). Made by Italian manufacturer Bonetto Cinturini.
You can find the strap on the Watch Gecko store, and some of their other straps are also sold on Amazon on their Amazon storefront. As they sell many other straps, Watch Gecko is a good place for E.U., U.K. or U.S. strap buyers.
