Aftermarket Panerai Straps Review

DaLuca Straps Review #3

DaLuca Panerai Straps

Origin: USA
Construction: Hand-Stitched
Materials: New and Vintage Leathers
Buckles & Tubes: Buckles And Tubes Included
Price Range: $60-300
Website: Click Here
Date of Review: Feb 13th, 2019

I'm back with another review of DaLuca straps. Its been a while since I reviewed some of their straps, but I have picked up many of their straps in the past few years and have to say that they certainly have some of the most varied strap designs on the market. DaLuca straps lean towards the minimalist, rustic style with some interesting hipster flair. The two straps I'm reviewing today are a Natural Shell Cordovan strap and a Swiss Ammo Leather strap.

First I'll start with the Flaire, which is a 24mm Natural Shell Cordovan leather strap with a non-Panerai style buckle that simply has to go if you're putting this on a PAM. Its a thinner strap, unlined, partial foldover construction like all of the DaLuca straps, which would be my only complaint with this strap. The Shell Cordovan is very thin so it would be nice to have it in a full foldover or with a liner to give it some more thickness. It matches well with a Radiomir case, but not so much with a Luminor.

You'll notice some patina on the strap already from storage. I've had this strap for a little while and the Natural Shell has already started its Patina.. that is one of the coolest things about Shell, especially the Natural color. The Shell also smells fantastic and is a very robust leather, even though its so thin.

As you can see from the back shot, the back is unlined. I think this thinner strap could benefit from a liner glued on before the stitching. Simple, but effective. Having said that, there is something interesting and attractively raw about seeing the back of the Shell Cordovan, especially if you see can see the Horween stamping on it, which this peice does not happen to have. I do have some other Horween Shell Cordovan straps from DaLuca that have the stamping on them. Anyway, a nice little strap, very simple and reliable, from DaLuca.

This next piece is a bit more of a treat. Vintage Swiss Ammo leather. And a beautiful piece of it too! Great stamping, and not that aftermarket fake stamping either. DaLuca only does the Ammo straps made-to-order now, so you have to order it based on the leathers they have in stock instead of him pre-making a bunch and having them on his site. However, I think their ammo straps are the best ones they have so its worth making the order.

Its a beautiful chocolate brown, with that pull-up leather quality where when you bend it it changes color to a lighter shade where you bend it. Very nice stuff. Its pretty soft and pliable too for Ammo leather. DaLuca did a good job of prepping the leather prior to shipping it out.

Here's a close-up of the original stamping. A very nice example of Ammo leather here, and one of my favourites in my collection. The blue stitching is a nice little touch too. Its very subtle but it really goes well with the chocolate brown of the strap. The buckle is a sewn-in DaLuca branded bent buckle with a brushed finish. This strap measures 22mm, so would only be good for smaller Panerais, but you could easily get the same strap made in 24mm.

This strap is unfinished on the back, which is typical of many Vintage Ammo straps, so I think it matches the style really well. The authentic vintage Swiss ammo strap leather has a certain charm to it, and it just works. I'm not really a fan of the fake vintage-style straps that seem to be everywhere these days, but I really dig a sweet genuine vintage ammo leather strap like this. Highly recommend you check these out at DaLuca.

As reviewed:

Flaire
Length: 115/75mm
Width: 24mm
Buckle Finish: Polished
Leather: Shell Cordovan Natural

Jost
Length: 130/80mm
Width: 22mm
Buckle Finish: Brushed
Leather: Vintage Swiss Ammo Leather