Jack Foster Calhoun Harvest Chromexcel Watch Strap

Made to order is a great tag line. When you hear those words, you immediately think the product you are about to receive will be fresh and unique and precisely what you asked for.  A great many watch strap vendors offer you the vending machine approach to buying straps. They strive to show you a large swath of products that are available and I feel most do a good job. They offer sharp photography and colorful descriptions giving the buyer as much visual and textual info as possible.  This is a good model and it clearly works for many a fine strap vendor.  More to the point, it should be the bare minimum required if one hopes to be successful.

However, what if you could supplement the process with the option to customize the strap to your own individual personal tastes.  This is a herculean task for huge vendors to accomplish as when the amount options increase, the amount of part numbers and inventory becomes unwieldy.  Often times the customer must get a strap that is ‘approaching’ what they want, but not exactly.  Now enter the craftsman at Jack Foster.  This is a US based leather shop that custom builds very high quality leather goods using the finest materials available (Names like Horween adorn many of their products).  They not only offer the standard options like lug width on the straps, they allow customization of nearly everything.  What Jack Foster has done is take the best of the vending machine approach and added customization to the mix.   The result is the bespoke watch strap tailored to you and your individual needs at a price that is completely comparable to other strap vendors.    The results are impressive.  I took the time to order a strap and pick a great many options to see how it would turn out.  I wanted to take the time to highlight this strap. But in Strapsense fashion, I will let the vendor speak to his product first:

• Made from Horween Harvest Chromexcel Leather
• Handstitched
• Dyed and Finished Edges
• Double layered 3-4MM Thickness
• Finished with your choice of thread and buckle
• Horween English Tan Dublin Leather

DIMENSIONS

The strap I ordered was 19mm tapering to 18mm so all my dimensions are based on that size.  However I could order this strap in almost any size from 16mm to 26mm with tapers that can vary to your personal desires.  When I measured my strap, it was 19.1mm at the lugs to 17.9mm at the free and buckle end.  So order widths with confidence.  It has a thickness of 4mm along its entire length and stays that way uniformly from lugs to tip. This is a beefy strap that wears remarkably thin while always exuding strength and durability. 

Jack Foster gives you many knobs to turn to customize the strap to you and your watch.  The majority of the options are available if you choose from the Premium strap line of products.  Another example of this is when you select the length. Where some vendors offer no choice of length (or maybe two or at most three if you are lucky), Jack Foster gives you 5 choices in total, meaning that the customer can get a strap that is guaranteed to fit without being relegated to the first or last adjustment hole.  I ordered the standard length strap (120mm/80mm at the free and buckle end respectively) and I am on the 5^th of 8 adjustment holes on my 7 inch wrist.  These options for size really give the customers choices and ensure that fitment will never be an issue.  This means shopping at Jack Foster means peace of mind as the made to order layout puts to rest any issues with fit.  Let’s talk about finish now.

DESIGN

Having options is fantastic and with each choice made, the personal connection with the strap increases.  So with many choices in fit established, when you choose to purchase from the Premium line, you have a Vegas style buffet of aesthetic choices laid out before you.  In total there are 19 choices of standard thread stitching, 5 colors of Irish Linen stitching, 11 colors of edge sealant colors and finally 3 choices of buckles.  So after you pick the leather color, there are still over 3100 different combinations to pick from.

All images above are taken from www.jack-foster.com

Jack foster says that he uses leather selected from the best leather workers in the United States for most of his straps.  Horween from Chicago and Hermann Oak Leather from St. Louis are two names that all but guarantee the starting material is highest quality obtainable.  After all, options are meaningless if they are attached to a rubbish foundation.

The Calhoun watch strap I received was so fresh from the workbench the side sealant (I chose black for mine) was still a tiny bit tacky. This really lends to the straps handmade feel in the same way a fresh oil painting is still drying.  It was applied thick and evenly over the entire outside edge. This is not only a great way to keep the strap tidy and durable, the 4mm thickness means it is also a noticeable part of the whole straps aesthetic. 

The leather used in this particular strap was astonishingly malleable.  I found myself removing the watch off the wrist just to feel its pliability and flexibility. I have never seen a double layer strap that is sewn around its periphery move and flex like this before.  This is not my first go around with Chromexcel by any means, but the way this strap is treated and built make wear more like a 2.5mm strap while giving it the crafted leather shop appearance of something you would see in a high end saddle leather.  It is delicate to the touch and soft in texture. The brown gives way to lighter hues when the strap is bent and its pull up effect is noticeable without looking distressed.

I specifically opted for the Irish Linen threading on mine in a blue color to match the blue in my Zenith El Primero.  I cannot vouch for how much better this is over the standard thread, but I can tell you the placement and angle and tightness of the stitching has a zen like balance between hand built character and machine like precision.  In other words, I know this strap is sewn by hand but it has bee executed with incredible accuracy and finesse. Every stitch is tight, even, and well done, down to the buckle securing whip stitches that often look sloppy on other brands.

The underside of the strap I ordered is free of any markings or branding. I would have loved to see the Jack Foster ‘JF’ logo burnt into the leather like a brand in the early frontier cattle days.  I think it would embody and strengthen the strong American made vibe this strap exudes.

KEEPER AND BUCKLE

The Calhoun Premium watch strap uses the traditional two keeper system with one fixed and one floating. They are made of the same beautiful bourbon colored leather with similarly sealed sides as the strap. Each keeper is sized perfectly to be just large enough to let the loose end slip through with ease but thin enough to not add too much bulk under your wrist.

The buckle on this strap is a thing of beauty.  I have reviewed straps that cost 2x as much as this strap with a far worse buckle. The buckle is highly polished on my strap and has a laser etching of JF done to one side in a very delicate and tasteful manner. This size, heft, and thickness of this buckle is absolutely spot on for the thickness of the leather it must secure. Likewise, it curves to lay very flat against the wrist and while a flat buckle tang and round strap adjustment hole are usually not my favorite pairing, Jack Foster has managed to even make threading this a pleasure with choosing smart sizing for both parts allowing them to integrate perfectly.  I normally have to try to say something nice about the buckles on most straps I review as many a vendor treat them as an afterthought rather than like Jack Foster who treated the buckle like a chance to reinforce is straps image of strength and quality.  Well done Mr. Foster.

HOW DOES IT WEAR

Upon opening the very unassuming cardboard box the strap was packaged , my first visual impressions were first the color, and then the thickness.  I was really immersed into the deep brown that the leather was dyed. While it is called Harvest, I cannot help but make connections to whiskey or bourbon.  Its tone is deep and rich.  The straps 4mm thickness could have been liability but again the first touch dispelled any notion of roughness or stiffness. This strap moves and flexes and will envelope your wrist as if it were half this thick. 

The strap is bold and confidence inspiring with its strength and rustic colors.  I keep wanting to make connections to rough field leather that is made purely for functionality as the thickness draws strong correlation to tough field watch leather I have seen. But once on the wrist the visual cues are contrasted strongly by so much comfort and flexibility that the brain has a hard time putting the two unlike sensory experiences together. It would be like eating an apple that tastes like a spicy curry. 

Once your brain accepts the comfort level you are left with a watch that is a joy to take off and put on as the sealed edges and perfectly sized keepers make this watch wear so well.  The strap yields to the watch and lugs very well and no stiff leg syndrome was apparent even when paired with my small 38mm pieces (like a 38mm el Primero).  When I received my strap the black side sealing was still tacky it was so fresh off the bench, but after a week of wear it dried out and is nice and set. I have seen zero wear on this leather at all for nearly two weeks of solid wear. It has held up to being bent and worked many times. I have had it on 3 watches and it leather show no signs of wear near the lugs. 

On the wrist, the strap holds the watch very confidently.  The supple nature of the leather hugs the wrist and its thickness offers balance as it supports the case of the watch.  It has a very substantial appearance but what is shocking is the way this strap never seems to feel thick.  Even on the bottom of the strap while being worn where the strap is over 10mm thick (when you include both sides of the strap and the thickness of the keepers) it never feels bulky when typing or doing desk work.

WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR

The customization Jack Foster offers means this strap (and any other of his Premium Line) is moldable to your personal watch and tastes. If I am to zero in on this particular strap, I feel this is the perfect strap for the luxury field watch category.   It is also ideally suited to pilots watches any daily wear watch with some color to it.  I would put this strap on any 38mm+ watch that can benefit from the straps ability to draw out some color in the watch dial.  I think with the widths available this would be a great watch for a Panerai or something like a Sinn 104.  The quality of the leather used means it is a good match for business casual on your Datejust or hiking with your Railmaster.  I do believe they have so much diversity in the options that this strap is very useful.  I ended up wearing it on my 39mm speedy for the bulk of the time.

What I would probably avoid is using this on something very thin like a vintage dress watch. Even though the strap wears thin, it has visual presence that can easily overpower a smaller watch. Keep the thickness over 10mm and the diameter 38mm and up and I think this strap will balance the package nicely.  Naturally you could put this on a diver and it would look amazing but only if water is out of the question.

WHERE CAN I GET IT

Jack foster Calhoun Harvest strap can be found only at:

SUMMARY

Handmade objects are rare these days. The ability to custom tailor a watch strap is not often found without ‘knowing a guy’ on some website.  Jack Foster is bringing the vending machine style watch strap buying that many other big name strap makers use with the ability to customize the product.  The symbiosis of those two worlds has happened so fluidly that the shopping experience and delivery is nearly as fun as wearing the final product.  In terms of pure aesthetic value, Jack Foster’s made in America products have that old world quality craftsman feel that cannot easily be replicated.  I cannot wait for my next strap from Mr. Foster.  The connection I have made with the strap I designed and ordered is real, and for an asking price that is equal to bigger strap makers you get that small town artisan feel.  Simply magnificent.