I recently got into discussions with Buckle & Band on Facebook and was offered the chance to renew one of their Apple Watch straps. The design I chose to go with was the ‘Lond Luxury Apple Watch Strap - Khaki Leather, 42mm | 44mm | 45mm / Black’ which as it has khaki leather and black fitments it aims to match in perfectly with my Series 6 watch in Stainless Steel.
The watch arrived within 2 days of ordering (shipped via Hermes) and was shipped in a good quality shipping box which was posted through the letterbox.
Opening the shipping box revealed plenty of biodegradable packing material, a nice compliments slip, the invoice and the very classy looking watch strap box, the front of which carries the Buckle & Band badging, and underneath details the model ordered and the relevant model coding etc. At this point it is clear that this is going to be a high quality product before the box is opened!
On opening the box you get to see the first look at the strap itself, it’s nestled nicely in a soft insert whilst the upraised lid contains instructions as to how to fit the strap. There are finger slipways in the insert to allow you to pick up the strap without having to be so crass as to tip the box upside down.
The strap itself looks to be made of quality leather, with a thickness of around 3mm, the leather is supple and not stiff any all. The stitching, which matches the colour of the leather, is nice and tight without any loose ‘stitch ends’ anywhere. The edges of the strap have been buffed and rounded slightly so there is no rough cut appearance to the leather and it feels and looks very professional.
The fitments are of a good quality with the black plating being thick enough that none of the underlying metal colour shows through, the buckle itself is branded with the Buckle & Band logo as is the back face of the tang part of the strap.
It has to be noted at this point that the strap smells of cured leather and that only adds to the quality feel. Every aspect of the scrap positively drips of quality, from the leather used, how it has been prepared and finished and the good quality metal used.
So that takes me to actually fitting it and using it on the watch. I’m a person of ink meaning I’ve got a tattoo right under where my watch needs to sit on my wrist. Part of that tattoo is black & red which Apple Watch sensors do not like working through. This means I have to wear the watch towards the top of my wrist, near the wrist bone, and have the strap fitting tightly on to my skin.
The Lond strap contains 8 sizing holes to allow it to accommodate various sizes of wrist. The question was would it allow positioning of the watch to avoid the tattoo problems. I’m very happy to say using the third hole on the strap both held it tight enough against my wrist and also in the ‘sweet spot’ to avoid any issues with the tattoo!
To conclude the Buckle & Band Lond strap is possibly one of the highest quality leather straps I’ve come across and serves to raise my Apple Watch to an even higher level of elegance and style.
So go on treat yourself.
