I love nice watches, but I’ve decided to use Apple Watch Ultra as my daily driver. It’s relatively cheap compared to my other watches, it has sapphire glass, and it’s useful get reminded about upcoming meetings at work. I’ve been thinking about trying to make a watch strap at some point, but I’ve always been a bit intimidated by the fact that people are saying that it’s really difficult. I decided to make a simple sketch for a strap for the Apple Watch and not spend a massive amount of time preparing for it in case it doesn’t turn out good.
I’ll let the pictures do the talking about how it turned out. I spent a total of three hours on this simple project, and I think I’m ready for the “proper” strap next. I’m thinking about some natural veg tanned leather with tooled pattern on the outside…
I’m really surprised how good this turned out. I spent a minimal effort on the preparation, but the result looks professional.I don’t understand why custom watch straps cost so much compared to the prices of bags and wallets. This is much more complex design than a normal strap would be.As I made this for myself, it doesn’t need any adjustment. There is no keeper for the end of the strap, but it is held in place by a snap instead. This is how the strap looks when it is flat. It is closed with a quick release so you would never see this view usually.
Build Log:
As this is such a small project, it was easiest to make the template with my 3D printer. For the upper layer I used soft nappa leather. It was cut to the size, and the large hole was punched out with my fly press and a die.One end was skived down so I can bend it over the lug of the watch.The lug side was looped over, and the inner lining was glued in place. I used natural veg tanned leather for that.I will sew all around it with a 2.5mm stitch distance.To make the edges nicer, I creased them with 2mm spacing. The stitch line is 4mm away from the edge, so it’s nicely balanced.At this point I sewed around the strap with 0.7mm synthetic thread. First test with the clasp.After finishing the edges with tokonole, the strap is ready.I can’t believe how good it looks with this little effort. This won’t be the last watch strap I make… With the next one all the small details will be perfect though!
