Aftermarket Panerai Strap Review

Alfa Leather Straps Review

Alfa Leather Straps Panerai Straps

Origin: Hong Kong/China
Construction: Machine-Stitched
Materials: New & Vintage Leathers & Canvas
Buckles & Tubes: Buckles Included
Price Range: $20+
Website: Click Here
Date of Review: March 15th, 2017

I've reviewed Alfa straps before on Strapaholics, but decided they should have their own listing on the directory here at Panerai Source since they produce quite a few Panerai specific designs. This one here was generously provided by one of Alfa's North America distributors, Total Watch Repair.

Alfa produces quality, affordable watch straps in all shapes and sizes in Asia. They're well-made, though you're not likely to mistaken them for hand-made artisan straps. This particular model is all black leather with a soft tan calf leather backing. The black leather is nicely textured, and feels like it is quite durable.

The back of the strap is marked with the Alfa logo, and the lug width 24mm as well as the "genuine leather ant allergic" declaration. The gold stitching is not full on this strap, but only extends to the nosing of the long tail as well as across the lug area. The tan backing leather is very soft and comfortable and the leather is relatively pliable.

The strap comes fitted with a 24mm steel buckle that is quite chunky. It bears the Alfa logo engraved on the center of the buckle, but most likely if you're putting this on your Panerai you're going to swap that buckle out for a bent buckle or something similar. The leather actually smells pretty decent on this strap and doesn't have some of that glue/plastic smell that straps from Asia sometimes have.

One final shot of the strap here in the original 'packaging', which really is just a paper wrapper around the straps. Overall this is a great strap for $45. It feels like a quality made strap that's going to last quite a while and quite frankly compares quite favourably to many of the Asian-made artisan strapmakers out there producing straps for twice the price. While it doesn't have quite the look that some of them have, I think it would not look out of place if they just slapped a nicer buckle on this. Hope you enjoyed the review!

Straps As Reviewed:
Model: Smooth Black Anti-Allergic Leather 24mm
Length: 115/75mm
Thickness: 3mm
Keeper Type: 2 Floating
Stitch Color: Gold
Edge Finish: Painted
Price: $44.95