What's the difference between a $50 and a $150 watch band?

[DaleksInc]

Excluding "genuine" leather, most leather watch bands I see tend to fall into one of two price ranges: $50-$80 and $150-$200, with some outliers on either side. However, when I look at pictures, it is often very difficult for me to tell the difference in terms of quality of construction.

Is there something I'm missing, or is the upper price-range due to brand-name markup?

[Roban99]

The price difference is due to factors like leather quality (full-grain vs. top-grain/corrected-grain), tanning process (vegetable vs. chrome), craftsmanship (hand-stitched vs. machine-made), and hardware quality. Higher-end bands often use premium materials, age better, and include brand-name markup. If quality matters, look for full-grain leather and handmade options, even from smaller brands, to avoid paying just for a logo.

[chuck123wapati]

I suggest never buying leather goods, or anything expensive, from pictures. As your question suggests there are no differences you could easily tell from photos. 

[nstarleather]

On 1/8/2025 at 8:24 AM, Roban99 said:

The price difference is due to factors like leather quality (full-grain vs. top-grain/corrected-grain), tanning process (vegetable vs. chrome), craftsmanship (hand-stitched vs. machine-made), and hardware quality. Higher-end bands often use premium materials, age better, and include brand-name markup. If quality matters, look for full-grain leather and handmade options, even from smaller brands, to avoid paying just for a logo.

Like yes and no...like material is only going to be a real factor with exotics like croc, shell, stingray, etc...the material cost in a watch band made from $2 a foot leather and $20 a foot leather is 10x but the cost in one band is till just a few dollars at the most.  Same goes with hardware unless you get into precious metals like gold, silver or platinum.   

I'd say most of the cost would be labor and craftsmanship, cutting by hand, stitching and fancy edge finishing is where most of the "real cost" differences are if it takes a skilled crafts person working in an area of the world with higher wages a long time to make it, then you'll eclipse all the material factors very quickly when it comes to cost. 

Of course then you have marketing and brand but those are kinda abstract and have varying amounts of importance depending on the customer. 

[922Leather]

Leather quality, stitching and all important edge finishing.  How many strap keepers, fixed and floating add a bund pad etc etc etc. 

you know when you see and feel it in person as well. Just my 2cents after making them for 15 years.