They say that a man makes a watch. That’s very true but I also think a strap makes a watch. I’m a sucker for straps and again having small wrists makes this a harder endeavor as you can’t just get any strap that you like and sometimes you need some custom made straps to fit you the best. I accidentally found this great little strap making company called Bas & Lokes based out of Sydney, Australia.
The strap I’m going to review today is not the first strap that I’ve gotten from them but rather the second one. I fell in love with the first strap after seeing it paired with the Omega Speedmaster over at their website. I bought that strap thinking that I might get an Omega Speedmaster later on but that’s another post to talk about. Talk about getting overly ready.
So I wanted a deep matte black strap where it can be a bit versatile where you can dress down a dressy watch while making a tool watch more dressy if that makes sense. The “Kingsman” black padded leather strap seems to be fit the bill. There’s a variety of custom choices such as lug and taper width, strap length and either a brushed or polished buckle. If what you want is not among the options offered, you can always shoot them an email to have further personalized customization like your desired length or color of the stitching. I ordered the 20/18mm together with the polished buckle and a customized length for my small wrists. It takes about a week or two for the handmade process to complete before it’s mailed out and I received it about a couple of weeks later after that.
The leather smelt luxurious when I unboxed it from it’s classy but simple packaging. The Kingsman strap is made of premium, matte black textured cow leather and as you can see when paired with the Baltic Panda, is rather classy looking. The leather is soft and there’s no breaking needed. It comes with two floating keepers that is tight which I like as overtime it will loosen up. There’s nothing more irritating then having loose keepers that you keep having to put the strap end back on. The stitching is very nicely done with black waxed French linen thread. This particular one is a padded strap for that extra comfort and at the back there’s a lightly stamped Bas & Lokes wording. The buckle is very well made and as I have ordered the polished one, scratches will be inevitable.
One thing to note is that I find that the images on the website are not updated to reflect the outcome where as you can see the padding and keeper size is different though I like this a lot better. Also I find that the requested dimension like width and length is not exactly precise unlike what I ordered from Jack Foster. However workmanship and quality of the strap is superb.
Overall I’m very pleased with the strap having scoured around and not being able to find many strap companies with the color and texture of strap that I wanted in a shorter length. Yes it comes with a cost as it’s not affordable at $165 but straps can make or break the experience of wearing a watch. Here you’re paying a premium price for a premium product. I highly recommend them and if you’re interested, head on to their site here.