leather on the backside of a watch band

[Klara]

Don't worry about it too much. You won't make  "a" watch strap, but almost certainly several. Make the first one with the tool and leather you have on hand and find out what you really need. 

For example, it is not actually necessary to pad or even line a strap. I'd suggest watching a few YouTube videos and going with the most straightforward construction for a first strap.

[ToddW]

what is a good shape and spacing for a 5 punch watch band punch?  oval or round... 1.2/1.5/1.8/2.0 MM are the options..

 

My watch is a series 7 Apple watch I am making bands for..

[Klara]

The form of the punch should conform to the buckle prong. If the prong is round, you want round holes and if the prong is flat(tish), you'll want oval holes. And the size should be the tiniest bit bigger than the prong.

[fredk]

I disagree; the hole is always best to be oval. When the buckle 'prong' goes into the hole and the strap is pulled down it forces a round hole to become oval. This puts strain on the hole and becomes unsightly, but if the hole is oval to start with then this doesn't happen and the strap lies down more neatly

I have, did, replace many vintage car bonnet straps because the round holes had torn the leather trying to make the holes oval. Mostly the straps were still serviceable but had to be replaced because of the mis-shapen holes and the damage around them

[Klara]

I have a feeling that a car bonnet is strapped down with a lot more tension than a watch strap I also think that a round prong would "float around" rather unsightly in an oval hole (the oval is width-wise! See here: https://www.etsy.com/fr/listing/876722338/outil-de-poinconnage-de-bracelet-de?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=watch+strap+punch&ref=sr_gallery-1-1&frs=1&sts=1&organic_search_click=1)

@ToddW Looking at the price of this punch, I repeat @mike02130's advice from above: You do NOT need such a punch! A single prong will do if you measure where you want your holes. I also have a feeling that it might be not as easy as it looks to make nice holes with a five-prong punch (because you need five times more force than for a single one). Never having had one I can't be sure, but I notice the difference with stitching chisels.

 

[fredk]

The length of the oval should be aligned with the length of the strap, not across it. Really, there is very little difference of tension on a bonnet strap, a belt or a watch strap

[Klara]

1 hour ago, fredk said:

The length of the oval should be aligned with the length of the strap, not across it. Really, there is very little difference of tension on a bonnet strap, a belt or a watch strap

Maybe it should, but that's not how the punches are made. Because the punches are meant for punching the holes for buckles with rectangular prongs, as I said above. 

I don't know about car bonnet straps. But I do know about belts, saddle girths, stirrup straps and watch straps and I am absolutely certain that I have never ever tightened a watch strap as much as the others. 

 

[Danne]

On 5/2/2023 at 5:57 AM, ToddW said:

what are folks using for inside padding on the bands?  some are flat and some are padded..

(These are my thoughts, and what I've learned from doing prototypes and using different construction methods, and other people might have other opinions about this)

I would say that this question doesn't have one answer. 

Let me explain.

You are making a strap with Cordovan leather (which is firm and doesn't have much elongation) Here I would say a really soft split leather is a good choice, if you want it rounded, chamfered corners will make it rounded. And you might also have a dimensionally stable reinforcement material under your padding, this would result in a very stiff strap if a firmer leather was used for padding, and it would at least for a full length padding cause problems (Firm strap that would require break in before it would be comfortable to wear.

Let's instead say you want to make a strap in a soft calf leather like "Swift" (RMG Pomari Butter) and you want a rounded padding, then you need a more "dense" but still soft and pliable leather. A softer veg tan calf can be suitable here (not "tumbled" since the fiber structure would make it hard to skive it to shape, sorry for bad terminology) 

 

[Danne]

On 5/17/2023 at 3:56 AM, ToddW said:

whats a good punch tool for the holes on the watch band.. they are tiny and not sure what size is best.  I think I saw some with 5 of them but they were oval..

It depends on the buckle, for most of the straps I've shared here where a buckle is attached, 1.5mm punch would be suitable (Even though I used 2mm on a lot of those straps, since I didn't have a 1.5mm punch before. 

Strap punches can be nice, but can also add up if you want different dimensions and shapes. So my suggestion is to buy single punches and make paper/card templates (In many cases it's suitable to use the same template as you use for cutting your strap) and pre punch the holes in your template, make an impression through your template onto the strap, remove template and it's easy to align the punch to the indentations and punch.