The strap library

Six families, shown as plates. Everything here is cut, skived, stitched and burnished by hand, and everything here is a starting point for a specification — not a finished product ordered off a page.

6 families · 18 plates

Dress

Smooth calf dress straps

Padded or flat, hand-stitched, edges creased and burnished by hand. The classical register — built for dress watches where the strap must recede and the finishing must not.

French and Italian smooth calf · Box calf · Vegetable-tanned linings

Navy smooth calf leather watch strap on a dress watch, staged on a desk beside sunglasses and an open magazine, made by AKC — Navy calf, padded, tonal saddle stitch

Navy calf leather watch strap fitted to a Cartier Santos-Dumont, photographed upright to show the taper from lug to buckle, made by AKC — Taper held from lug width to buckle

Navy calf leather dress watch strap worn on the wrist, showing how the padded strap follows the arm, made by AKC in Vietnam — Worn — where a dress strap is finally judged

Apple Watch

Leather straps for Apple Watch

Precision-machined stainless adapters fitted to leather bands, tolerance-checked to the case. The fastest-growing line we produce, and the one with the tightest hardware specification.

Calf · Shell Cordovan · Suede · Custom-finished stainless adapters

Black calf leather Apple Watch strap laid across an open book, showing the full band, the stainless adapter and the stitch line, manufactured by AKC — The band, the adapter and the stitch line, end to end

Black leather Apple Watch strap styled over a black-and-white editorial magazine spread, produced by AKC in Vietnam — Black calf on a machined stainless adapter

Leather Apple Watch strap worn on the wrist, showing the fit of the adapter against the case, made by AKC — Adapter tolerance checked against the case

Colour Range

The dyed spectrum

Colour is matched to your reference — Pantone, a leather swatch, or a physical sample. Contrast or tonal stitching in any thread colour we hold, and edge paint mixed to match.

Full aniline and semi-aniline calf · Custom dye lots · Matched edge paint

A long run of leather watch straps in graduated dyed colours laid out side by side on tan suede, showing the full range produced by AKC — One pattern, run across the dye range

Seven dyed calf leather watch straps fanned around a wristwatch, showing contrast and tonal stitching options from AKC — Contrast thread, or tonal — specified per order

Coloured calf leather watch straps staged on black folios, showing the same palette against a dark ground, made by AKC — Aniline dye, grain still legible through it

Exotic

Alligator and crocodile

CITES-documented skins, scale-matched across the pair and cut to place the tiles where you want them. Square scale, round scale, or hornback, in matte, semi-matte or glazed finish.

Alligator mississippiensis · Nile crocodile · Lizard · Ostrich

Grey alligator leather watch strap laid across a magazine spread, the scale run legible from lug to tip, made by AKC — Scale run read end to end

Alligator leather watch strap with matched square scales fitted to a Rolex Yacht-Master, made by AKC — Square scale, centred on the strap axis

Alligator leather watch strap worn on the wrist, showing how the scale tiles sit once the strap is curved, manufactured by AKC — Tiles placed, not simply cut through

Texture & Detail

Grained, suede and Shell Cordovan

Where the surface is the product. Pebble and Epsom grains, brushed suede, and Horween Shell Cordovan — each demanding a different cutting, skiving and finishing discipline.

Horween Shell Cordovan · Epsom and pebble grain · Nubuck and suede

Macro photograph of a suede leather bund watch pad, showing the brushed nap, the burnished edge and the hand stitching, by AKC — Suede bund, nap brushed in one direction

Oxblood shell cordovan watch strap tab photographed on black pebble-grain leather, showing two surfaces against each other, made by AKC — Shell cordovan against pebble grain

Grained brown calf leather watch strap worn on the wrist, showing how the finish behaves once the strap is in use, produced by AKC — How a grain behaves once it is worn

Custom & OEM

Capability, not catalogue

Most of what we make does not appear on this page. Send a drawing, a competitor sample or a finished strap and we will pattern, sample and produce it under your own brand.

Private label · Custom hardware and buckles · Branded packaging

Three watches fitted with leather straps from a single private-label programme, photographed flat from above, produced by AKC — One programme, delivered complete

Bespoke leather sample folio open on the workbench, showing rows of strap samples a client selects from, at AKC — The sample folio a specification starts from

Workbench seen from above with patterns, blades, punches and leather sample tabs laid out for a custom watch strap order at AKC — Pattern, blade, leather — in that order