Aftermarket Panerai Strap Review

Panatime Straps Review

Panatime Panerai Straps

Origin: Various
Construction: Lock-Stitched
Materials: New Leathers
Buckles & Tubes: Included
Price Range: $15+
Website: Click Here
Date of Review: January 30th, 2012

Who doesn't know Panatime? Seems like Panatime is the go-to strapmaker for those that are interested in affordable straps for Panerai, and now they have ventured into Breitling and others as well. Panatime was started by Stan Betesh, who went on to start Deep Blue watches, a popular Dive Watch Company. Panatime is now owned and operated by Robert Cappa, who is a great guy and I think has really taken Panatime to the next level. Robert has been great responding to emails and fantastic to work with, so I now have this big bunch of straps from Panatime that you can see that need some reviewing!

From left to right: (1) American Shark Pan C Style Dark Brown, (2) Leather Vintage Style Camel, (3) Leather Vintage Style Oxblood, (4) Leather Vintage Style Deep Oil, (5) Shark Skin Vintage Style Blue, (6) Crocodile Skin Pan C Style Rouile.

Nice closer-up shot of the finish and the texture on the straps above. So the Panerai style straps come in a Vintage or "Pan C" style, "Pan C" being OEM style with the padding/taper and Vintage being straight and flat with no padding. While there is a time and place for the OEM style straps, I personally prefer Vintage style straps on most of my Panerais.

The smooth finish of the Vintage Deep Oil strap above is very nice and reminds me of Shell Cordovan a bit - This one is my favourite. The leather doesn't have that nice Italian Tannery smell, but then again we are talking about $30-40 straps here! The vintage straps do have a filler layer, though not as soft and spongey as some of the other straps out there. It feel good and keeps the straps reinforced, while still pliable and coule even be made of leather itself.

There's a close up of the glossy Alligator strap. Relatively inexpensive for Alligator, but this is the belly hide, which is generally not as desirable as the side or back of the Alligator. Still a decent strap that would do a Radiomir justice on an evening out possibly and for $50 it is a bargain for real alligator.

As you might have noticed, all these straps have constrast white stitching, which Robert tells me is by far more popular than matching stitching. I personally prefer matching stitching generally, but constrast stitching has its place as well. As a guy that grew up on Breitling watches, contrast stitching is just par for the course, but with Panerai watches, I kind of tire of the constrast stitching sometimes.

The finish on the Oxblood strap above looks like it isn't that good but it looks fine in person. The camel strap is very well made and has a very nice overall feel and finish to it, especailly for a $40 strap.

Finally a couple shots of the Sharkskin straps. Really nice job on the OEM style nubuck Sharkskin strap, I really like that one. The blue sharky is not really my cup of tea on my Panerai's, but I think it will find a home on one of my divers, possibly an Ocean7. You'll notice that the stitching style on the OEM style straps is a straight stitch while the Vintage style straps has an angle stitch - interesting! Tubes are included with all straps as are entry level spring bar buckles - I prefer screw-in buckles personally, but hey they're free.

Panatime has been going through huge changes in the past couple months due to the ownership change. Robert has been bringing some awesome new straps and ideas to expanding the business and I commend him for being proactive. The new Horween Shell Cordovan straps look awesome as do the Mustang straps. Very happy with what I've seen so far, and above all the service has been exceptional.