Vintage Watch Straps

The place to find straps and bands for vintage fixed wire lug military trench or officers World War One era wrist watches.

This page contains some detailed photographs of the leather colours and finishes available, and some pictures of my own watches to give you an idea of how they look on the wrist.

The two basic designs - Type A below, Type B above

The picture above shows the two basic designs of my watch straps - The broader Type B with the notch for the winding crown at the top in black and chestnut, and the narrower Type A at the bottom in chestnut and dark brown.

Type A in five colours

The picture above shows all the available leather colours. You can have any strap made in any of these colours, or any combinations of these colours if you wish, or in the tan morocco illustrated below.

Omega watch on Type B tan morocco

An early Omega watch on a Type B tan morocco strap with double slots.

My grandfather's and grandmother's Rolexes

My grandfather's 1918 silver Rolex with white enamelled dial alongside my grandmother's 1917 gold Rolex, which has a silvered guilloche dial. My grandfather's watch is in a silver case marked W&D for Wilsdorf and Davies, whereas my grandmother's watch is in a gold case by Dennison. Note that there is no maker's mark on the dials. At the time these watches were made, maker's names were not generally known to the public, and so it was more usual for the retailer, such as Asprey, to put their name on the dial. As these were screen printed onto the enamel dial supplied by the maker, they were easily removed or rubbed off. It was not until 1921 that Wilsdorf and Davis started putting Rolex on their dials, and not until several years later that all Rolex watches were so marked. However, I can be certain that these watches are genuine Rolexes because the movements are clearly marked "Rolex - Swiss Made - 15 Jewels" and the cases are hall marked with their import dates.

Type B tan grained

A 1915 Electa watch on a Type B tan grained

Type B Dark Chocolate

A 1915 Electa watch on a Type B Dark Chocolate

Type B Chestnut

A gold watch by Stauffer, Sons & Co. on a Type B Chestnut with 12mm strap - special

If you have any questions, suggestions, or comments, then please drop me a line at You don't need to copy the email address, just click on it. I look forward to hearing from you!

Regards - David


Copyright © David Boettcher 2006/2007/2008 All Rights Reserved.
Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional Valid CSS!