Create Your Bespoke Watch Strap
The Cuir de Russie Calf Watch Strap
This Watch Strap is made from our stocks of Cuir de Russie leather. The leather has been especially developed by one of our key English tanneries, in collaboration with leading French academics. The combination of outstanding technical know how from the tannery, renowned for their traditional vegetable and oak bark tanning, along with detailed academic research has enabled the production of a leather with all of the characteristics of the original, a major export of pre-Revolutionary Russia, which was used throughout the world for small leather goods, book binding, military items and upholstery. The birch oil used in the finishing process produced a leather with great weather resistance, as well as resistance to attack from mould, insects and other enemies of leather.
The recipe for the leather was a closely guarded secret lost in the chaos of the Revolution and its aftermath, and for many many years the leather was simply a an item of interest to scholars of the period. With the salvaging of many tonnes of it from the bottom of the Bristol Sound, sunk in the wreck of the Metta Catherina in 1786 and discovered beneath the silt of the English Chanel in 1973 a renewed interest was formed. More or less all of the salvaged leather is now gone, and many people have tried to create new versions. We worked with the original Metta Catherina leather, and have closely examined all of the new versions. This is the only one that matches the look, feel, smell, tannage and technical characteristics of the original, but without the propensity for cracking and fragility the Metta Catherina can have. A truly great leather with outstanding character.
See a review of our Cuir de Russie Watch Strap from David Evans of the Grey Fox Blog.
The strap is lined with a calf of your choice. We have a wide variety of linen thread colours available to allow you to design a strap that suits exactly the look you want. The strap is raised to around 4.5mm at the watch, tapering to 2.3mm at the holes and point end of the strap to allow for easier buckling and threading through the keepers. If you'd like to see how your strap will be made we have a photo essay illustrating how we make them here
Our straps can come complete with a variety of buckles or an RHD Deployant, all in either satin or polished finish. We recommend the RHD Deployant to minimise strap wear and give best strap life as well as being an aesthetically and mechanically pleasing fastener. Alternatively the strap can come ready for you to fit a buckle yourself or we can use a buckle or deployant you've supplied if you prefer. If you have a deployant with specific requirements, for instance a specific thickness please get in touch and we can help configure the strap as you need.
We're very happy to discuss custom options such as racing holes, point design, stitching options, etc or simply which colours and options are the best combination, please just drop us an email and we can talk through the options for your strap.
For help with sizing please see our size guide here. Every strap is made to measure so we can accomodate any size you require, if you'd like a non standard size just let us know.