Aftermarket Panerai Strap Review

Celdy Straps Review

Celdy Straps Panerai Straps

Origin: Indonesia
Construction: Hand-Stitched
Materials: Mostly New Leathers
Buckles & Tubes: Tubes and Buckles Extra
Price Range: $80+
Website: Click Here
Date of Review: May 4th, 2014

Celdy straps are handcrafted by an architect-by-day, strapsmith-by-night named Dy, who is very passionate about handmade leather goods. His straps feature hand-dyed color, and fully hand-stitched construction, and are usually customized from the ground-up for the customer.

The two straps I got were the Dark Ruby and the Black Series. Both are fantastic, hand-finished and dyed calf-leather straps with tons of character and include a hand-written note explaining the strap. I'll start the review with looking at the Dark Ruby.

Two adjectives that I use over and over again when I describe great straps are care and attention to detail, and the Dark Ruby has these in spades. The Ruby is a three-layer sandwich construction strap that uses what I believe is the same leather for the sandwich layer, so you don't have an inferior filler. While the Dark Ruby doesn't have the tubes included, serial numbers, and fancy stamped buckles it is an very meticulously crafted strap.

The back of the Dark Ruby is the same calf leather as the front. Its a beautifully finished reddish brown, with a nice wrinkly texture on it that gives it an interesting character that I don't see often. The hand-dyed color is also lighter towards the middle of the strap, and darker on the edges.. a very nice custom coloring job. The Celdy logo is prominently stamped on the back.

Here's a nice shot of the color and gradation that is achieved by Celdy on this Dark Ruby. The calf leather is also very soft and pliable, among the softed straps that I have owned. The stitching is nicely placed, and tight and straight. Stitching is one of those funny things.. when its done right you don't really notice it, but when its done wrong, it sticks out like a sore thumb. Celdy does it right. Another thing Celdy gets right is the spacing of the holes.. there are lots of them so you're less likely to be in-between holes for sizing.

Next up I have the Blackwood Series strap, which is also superbly crafted but is slightly different than the Dark Ruby. Its got a darker blackish-grey coloring job on it, with what appears to be some of the natural tan color of the leather poking through where the wrinkly textureing is. Its actually a very cool effect that is new to my strap collection - I really dig it! It matches up perfectly with the ercu/antique stitching. I think color-wise, this is one of the coolest I have ever seen.

The Blackwood Series features a different type of backing, which is a natural leather. It appears to be the same calf leather as the top, but without the coloring on it. It features the same prominent Celdy stamping on it, and like the Dark Ruby has one fixed and one floating keeper, though Dy is willing to customize this for you if you prefer different.

The Blackwood Series features 2.5 layer construction, as Dy calls it. This is an interesting variation on a padded strap, with is like a typical foldover construction, but the fold over piece only goes halfway, and there is a backing leather that is applied to the entire back of the strap. This makes the part closest to the lugs thicker than the rest of the strap, simulating a padded strap in some ways. While I like it and its a bit different, I found that it is a bit too stiff compared with the softness of the two-layer potion, and the strap is difficult to get curved around the wrist properly at first. With some time and break-in I think this will resolve itself, however.

Here's close-up of the coloring and and wrinkly texturing that Celdy has applied to the strap. I really love the way he finishes the straps, giving them a vintagized look yet still maintaining a clean and tidy feel. Not only that, his prices are very competitive for this level of quality and handiwork.

And finally, a shot with the Blackwood Series strap mounted on my PAM320. This is a good looking combination, even though the Ecru colored stitching probably matches an antiqued lume model a bit better. In general, however, the overall look of both straps suits the 320 in style, which means it probably works on the majority of basic Panerais.

Straps As Reviewed:
Model: Dark Ruby
Thickness: 4mm
Keeper Type: 1 Fixed, 1 Floating
Stitch Color: White
Edge Finish: Smooth Burnished
Price: $110

Model: Blackwood Series
Thickness: 4.54mm tapering to 2.5mm
Keeper Type: 1 Fixed 1 Floating
Stitch Color: Ecru
Edge Finish: Raw Burnished
Price: $90