Bas and Lokes Stockholm Medium Grey Nubuck Padded Watch Strap

Bas and Lokes Stockholm medium grey nubuck Padded watch strap ($165.00)

Part of the fun of reviewing watch straps is that it can familiarize you with people and places from around the world you would have never known otherwise. I have talked to family owned watch strap producers who make every strap in house and some are just a company of one person who does everything from selecting the leather to cutting the patterns to sewing the whip stitches and shipping.  Craftsman from around the world who love to work in fine leather goods produce watch straps out of love for watches and a passion for the material they are working with. At the end of the day we all cannot all afford to have a one off JLC or Patek watch.  But, we can all have a strap from skilled artisan who put his or her soul into what they make which gets the human touch and emotion back into the products we buy.  I truly believe this is part of the magic of working with an organic material like leather as the spirit of the animal and artisan together are present on your wrist.

This weeks strap is one I have had for quite a while.  It has been on a great many watches as I tried to find a perfect companion for its particular color and texture.  It is a deceptively complex strap that has a very unique personality.  The company, Bas and Lokes hails from Sydney Australia as a purveyor of high end watch straps, and from what I can see they do a very good job of making exactly what the customer wants with an incredible amount customization possible, but more on that later.  Here is what Bas and Lokes says about their marvelous Stockholm strap:

“Stockholm” is handcrafted from medium grey beautiful buffed nubuck leather and have a very velvety smooth like texture. A very soft and comfortable strap. This handsome tapered strap will lend a handsome steely look to your favorite watch. It is hand saddle stitched with light grey waxed linen thread, has two narrow floating keepers, has small hand punched buckle holes to suit its elegant slim buckle, is beautifully padded for a refined look and has impeccably hand finished edges. Extremely well built to impress.

 

Handsome, steely, elegant, beautiful, impeccably built to impress, etc. Lots of flowery language there right? Well yes, and well written to boot.  It was enough of a description to get me to drop 165 dollars and bear the long wait for it to be made to my specs and then flown completely around the world to my front door. Was I rewarded?  Let us get into the review to find out.

DIMENSIONS

The strap I ordered was a 20mm strap that tapered to 18mm and was made to fit a 6.75” wrist person (125mm/75mm), which I just so happen to be. Mine came in just about spot on to those dimensions.  Which means on my wrist I am on the middle adjustment hole in the strap. Sufficed to say when you order your strap you can completely trust their sizing chart on line. Just measure around your wrist and choose the strap length you want.  The thickness of the strap varied along its length from 3.9 to 4.1. This is a heavily padded strap surrounded by soft buffed nubuck (think suede like in texture but with almost zero nap, almost like an Alcantara suede steering wheel) so the dimensions will vary depending on how compressed the padding is and how tight the hand stitching is.

DESIGN

The Stockholm is a joy for the tactile part of your brain.  That nubuck leather they chose to produce this strap practically begs to be touched and rubbed.  Its texture is very pleasant and depth of color varies along its surface depending on which direction you rub your finger over it.  Before I get too far ahead of myself here, we should take some mystery out of the term ‘nubuck’.  According to Mr. Google:

Nubuck (pronounced /ˈnjuːbʌk/) is top-grain cattle leather that has been sanded or buffed on the grain side, or outside, to give a slight nap of short protein fibers, producing a velvet-like surface. It is resistant to wear, and may be white or coloured. … The word nubuck probably comes from new + buck(skin).

Now that we have our word of the day taken care of we can look at the construction of the strap. The padding done on this strap is the main visual centerpiece next to that beautiful leather.  The padding is carried out in a definite raised center portion of the strap that stands confidently proud of the stitching around it. The padding is surrounded by waxed linen thread stitched along its full length on three sides of the free and buckle end of the strap.  The stitching is evenly placed and very purposeful while still looking hand done which adds to the human made aspect of this strap.

The sides of the strap are sealed very well. The sealant on my strap matched the color of the leather remarkably well and like all well sealed straps, gives it great abrasion resistance and a ‘finished’ look I admire.  The sealed edges are so well done, I had a hard time seeing the dual layer construction of this strap until I closely examined the way one piece of leather wraps around the spring bar.  This is an elegant way to make a strap, as gives the underside of the strap the same velvety texture as the top (which your wrist will love).  Another particular feature I liked was the way Bas and Lokes addresses holding onto the spring bar.  Most strap manufacturers give you a small hole in the leather to put the spring bar and that is it. While this is fine and works, Bas and Lokes gives you a larger loop to hold the spring bar which has plenty of free space. This allows the strap to move with the watch and your wrist very easily and lets the leather flex with you instead of fight you. Intentional or not, that is brilliant.

The underside of the strap is the same soft supple leather as the top of the strap, only with a very distinct Bas and Lokes embossing done. Just enough to let you know the people who made it care enough to put their name on it.  I would have loved to see an Australian flag embossing on it as well, so give that beautiful country some of the credit.  The leather treatment is done so well on the backside, if you were a bit inclined to spend 10 minutes with a spring bar tool you could make this a full reversible strap with the padding on the inside.  You would have the Bas and Loke embossing on the outside, but I would be proud to have that name showing.

 

KEEPER AND BUCKLE

The buckle on the Stockholm strap is fully brushed with no markings on it at all (hint this would have been a splendid place for the Flag motif wink, wink). The buckle is rather thick without being bulky, and has a graceful shape to the clasp.  IF I had one point of contention on the buckle is that the pin or tang of the buckle is flat and the holes in the strap are perfect circles.  While they work perfectly fine together, I get the feeling I am always putting a square peg in a round hole.  As an engineer, that makes my teeth itch.

Moving on to the keepers, the Stockholm uses two floating keepers versus the standard one fixed and one floating that is the industry standard. They are sized to be just barely big enough to work and are made of the same wonderful suede nubuck and sealed with just as much care as the main strap.   The velvety nature of this leather means you must insert the free end through the keepers with some force.  When the strap is new as suede on suede carries with it a bit of friction but gets easier with use as the surfaces wear together

HOW DOES IT WEAR

I really hate to say this, as the cliché is terrible and overused, but this strap wears like a glove. And not a new glove. A glove that you have worn in for 4 years and it knows the shape for your hand by memory.  The leather moves so effortlessly it feels like another layer of skin.  It flexes and bends and conforms to every curve with silken ease. Also, the strap holds its place on your wrist without a hint resistance or discomfort.  I have been wearing it during the rain as well as outside on humid days and it does not irritate or stain.  The soft nature of the nubuck keeps the keepers exactly were you put them and you never need to readjust them.

The large spring bar loops let the watch sit and move on your wrist without binding and adds to the supreme comfort of this strap.

WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR

With 12 different widths and tapers and 7 different lengths and 2 buckle finishes the amount of adjustability to this design is vast.  It could be a straight strap that gives a sense of strength and solidity. It could be a highly tapered strap to give off an air of elegance or vintage flair. Nubuck has no shine to it as it is a very matt texture and does pull this strap onto the casual side of the spectrum.  I have this on a Hamilton Field watch and I think it work with the brushed steel case. The strap could be worn on dress watch or even a vintage diver if I can stretch it out.  It makes a perfect strap for a daily wear watch as its comfort level is off the charts. Out of the 6 or so watches I had it on, I can say it look decent to great on all of them.  I think it favors watches with a brushed case over anything with too much polish, but I would not limit this strap to any one category if I am honest.  If you have a particularly hard to match watch with strange dial colors, or a watch with curved spring bars and nothing else works, this strap will shine.

WHERE CAN I GET IT

In order to get this strap you will have to make an email to Bas and Lokes in Austrailia:

http://www.basandlokes.com/stockholm-medium-grey-nubuck-padded-watch-strap/

SUMMARY

Bas and Lokes made some very bold statements in their description of the Stockholm and I can find no words spoken in error or that were not 100% accurate. If anything I give them credit for some level of modesty in that the straps they offer, given this example I am currently wearing, are stunningly well crafted. That is what really matters at the end of the day. When I pull this strap tight I feel the care and pride they took I making it.  I look forward to trying more of their products to see how far they have taken their craft