How to preserve the beauty of your leather watch straps
How to preserve the beauty of your leather watch straps
Most of you will have leather in your strap collection. Excellent choice.
Now that you’re feeling satisfied and happy about matching the perfect strap to your watch, let’s talk about making that feeling last…
This means treating your leather strap with love and respect so that its quality can be preserved, and gradually allow the development of a precious patina that we love so much.
Here’s how…
Tip #1: Change it often
Just like leather shoes or even socks, leather watch straps have direct contact with your skin. Instead of throwing your strap in the washer and dryer as you would do with used socks, leather straps obviously can’t be dealt with in the same way. One of the easiest ways to preserve the condition of your strap is to not wear it 365 days of the year. Logical right?
We won’t go so far as to say get yourself 365 straps (although…). Just give your strap the occasional break to breathe without being wrapped around your skin.
Tip #2: Keep it away from humidity
Leather is a natural material, hence “alive.” It ages, changes, grows patina. Humidity and therefore sweat is a crucial element to take into consideration. As mentioned before, you can’t just wash your leather strap like dirty socks, so change your strap regularly to avoid wearing it continuously during warm/hot summer months, when we all sweat significantly more.
It also goes without saying: never swim with it on, and protect it from the rain if possible.
Tip #3: Remember to nourish it (and not just with love)
Leather needs to be nourished and moisturised regularly like skin. It is skin. What happens to you hands when you don’t put lotion on them? It gets dry, and sometimes so dry that they crack, am I right? It’s the same with leather straps. To avoid them drying out and crackling we suggest hydrating them with a cream for leather like Universal Cream.
It’s a cinch and it smells good. After you swipe away the dust, take some cream and very gently massage it into your strap in small circular motions until its smooth and matt. Trust me, your leather will be thankful for it.
Tip #4: Handle it with care
What’s worse than swimming with your leather strap? Yanking and folding it violently each morning while fastening it on, and the same each night when you take it off. Each time your strap takes a beating, and will quickly deteriorate and show particularly unattractive markings at the place of assault (usually the fold). The leather and edge dye will suffer the consequences. You wouldn’t hurt your beautiful leather strap consciously… so let us all stop doing it unconsciously.
When fastening on your leather strap, remind yourself it’s a noble material and relatively fragile so be kind and respectful in your movement and everything will be fine.
In short: try to change your strap often, avoid humidity, moisturise it, and finally treat it with respect by handling it with care. Believe me when I say it makes a big difference in the long run and will help preserve the condition, hence the beauty, of your leather companions.
