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Aftermarket Panerai Review
Toshi Straps Review
Toshi Panerai Straps
Origin: UK
Construction: Hand-Stitched
Materials: New Leathers
Buckles & Tubes: Buckles And Tubes Included
Price Range: £55+
Website: Click Here
Date of Review: June 27th, 2010
One of the handful of British strapmakers to achieve popularity among Panerai Strapaholics is Rich from Toshi Straps. Rich has a strong following on our small Forum here, so I guess it was just a matter of time until I reviewed one of his straps. Two things strike me when I view the Toshi Straps website - the first is the low prices given the location and method of manufacture and the second is the simpleness of the designs and simpleness of the strap construction in the photographs. The photographs really don't show how well-crafted these straps are!
Toshi straps are all completely sewn and assembled by hand, and the quality shows it. The stitching is perfect and runs tight near the edge of the strap. Construction of the strap is standard folded leather method, with no filler and cheap backing leather like you will find with many of the cheaper straps. The edge is not painted to hide anything. The leather you choose is the leather used in the entire strap construction. While this is not especially unique, it is a testament to Toshi's purist strapmaking methods.
This particular model is the Papaya which is oiled with a waxed finish and emerald green stitching. The green stitching looks FANTASTIC with the oiled and waxed papaya. I noticed that this one is significantly darker than the Papaya on Rich's site, and he told me that the oiling darkens the strap quite a bit. I like the waxing. The leather of the strap gives off an great natural smell, and it forms a curve around my wrist very nicely. Again I have to say, the photographs make Rich's straps look very similar to Strap Culture or Heroic 18's straps, but the quality of the leather and the quality of the construction is much better and for less money!
Toshi straps are all made to order with your choice of stitching style, keeper style, tail shape, etc. This model comes with one fixed and one wide floating keeper, pointed tail, sewn-in buckle and normal stitching. I really like the comination of a fixed keeper and a wide floating keeper. Thickness is pretty standard at around 4.5mm according to my measurements.
Mounted on my PAM90 this Toshi strap looks fantastic. For what seems to be a rather non-descript strap, it actually draws a lot of comments, usually because of the great color and the green stitching.
In closing, I have to say without a doubt, in my opinion, Toshi's are the BEST VALUE I have seen yet in a strap. At £55 a piece, they are cheaper than any other quality handmade strap out there. Don't let the photographs fool you, these straps are really stand out pieces with tons of character and old world handmade feel. The great smell and attention to detail in the stitching is great. Rich also does not charge anything extra for most options such as stitching, tubes and spring-bar buckles (with the exception of sewn-in buckles and screw-bar buckles, which do cost a bit extra). I highly recommend trying out Toshi Straps.