Battle of the suede straps
Hello, I’m Esbjorn and I’m a strap-a-holic. You’ll find me hiding boxes of these things from my beloved, else she might question my mental state even more so than usual. I have a 19 centimetre wrist which I’ve come to realise is on the upper range of most. This often means that most straps are too small, or they sit on the outer most hole which looks ridiculous.
The size versus length ratio means I’m a little cautious when buying straps in general. So when it came to trying out a grey suede straps for my most precious watch, my Grand Seiko Snowflake, I didn’t want to splurge on anything before verifying that this was a good match. To my eyes at least. |
I ordered grey suede strap from AliExpress and whilst not amazing quality, it looked really good, it was long enough and comfortable enough. I made a YouTube video on my Snowflake and something funny happened. Several comments asked about the suede strap, the same strap that cost me $10.
As I had planned, I eventually bought my second strap from Bas & Loke, and this time a grey suede strap. Based on the number of comments on my video, there is clearly some interest in the suede options, hence this article. I’ve purposely included mostly close up photos here since that’s something you don’t really get elsewhere, and it’s hard to hide imperfections when close up. |
"Everett” Light Grey Suede Watch Strap
Bas & Lokes are in Sydney, I’m in Melbourne. They use USD only, regardless of where you’re ordering from, which is still very irritating since one is subject to whatever the exchange rate happens to be at that moment. I will also note that I shared my previous review of one of their brown leather straps, which they liked and shared. I emailed this time around asking if I could have a small discount since I will yet again write and photograph their products, I never heard back.
Now, I’m nobody and don’t expect any special treatments – but a reply would have been appreciated, particularly since I do this as a hobby only. If you close your eyes, you may hear the world’s smallest and most pathetic violin accompany my complaining here, so I will quickly move on before you start cursing my sense of entitlement. |
Bas & Lokes Everett strap photos above
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The Bas & Lokes website is attractive. The excellent photography helps to sell what is a premium product. The Aliexpress website is a horrible mess, almost the complete opposite. That said, if I’m going to spend a ridiculous amount of USD180 as opposed to USD10 on a strap, it better be a freakin’ astonishing website that sells why it’s worth that much more.
Back to my point on large wrists. Ordering a handmade strap means you can customise the size. Bas & Lokes makes this quite easy in the ordering process. One tough decision is the amount of tapering. I learnt from my last experience and chose slightly less of a taper (20/18). |
Bas & Lokes Everett strap photos on the left above, Ali Express on the right
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The fact that you’re about to fork out a considerable sum of money certainly hones your senses and ensures you double check absolutely everything before placing that order. This is not something you have to worry about ordering an AliExpress strap. There was 0 mention of sizes apart from the width, luckily it was much longer than what I expected. The Bas & Lokes order took two weeks to arrive, the AliExpress order took 4 weeks to arrive.
I’m going to break this comparison down to Look, Feel, Quality, Value. |
Bas & Lokes Everett strap photos on the right above, Ali Express on the left
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LookIt’s often hard to make out the shade of a colour in product photos. I mean, grey is not always grey. Sometimes it’s even gray, if you happen to read from North America…
The Ali is a far more blue shade of grey. It still looks pretty good even after a few months of wear, with a few exceptions which I will cover. The B&L has a slightly more green shade of grey and it’s not quite as dynamic (if a grey suede strap could ever be dynamic). On looks alone, I prefer the blue shade of the Ali in combination with my watch here. I’m also not quite convinced that the B&L will look better with the inevitable dirt particles it’ll absorb over time but time will tell. |
FeelNo real competition here but it’s not as night and day as it perhaps should be. The Ali is very good for the money, excellent in fact and I think it makes sense to have a tan leather on the inside. But, that may look truly awful over time. The sides of the strap are treated but it's visible how a long piece of material has been folded up. The polished buckle is a basic one but it does the job and is inoffensive.
The Bas & Lokes strap feels thick and buttery, it’s clearly excellent quality material. It's opulent to touch and very comfortable on the wrist. Interestingly, it’s exactly the same material on the inside of the strap and it’ll be interesting to see how the inside ages over time. It’s also squared off on the sides with what feels like a waxy and rich material. I think the treatment will protect it well. The brushed buckle is excellent, clearly a higher quality choice and it both looks and feels luxurious. |
Bas & Lokes ↑ Ali Express ↓
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QualityAgain, it’s interesting how good the Ali strap is for the cost of a large cup of coffee. The stitching shows no evidence of falling apart and the outside suede material is still soft and has an attractive and interesting, almost speckled effect. The loops that hold the spring bars appear reinforced and I have no reason to believe that they will wear out anytime soon. What lets it down is the keepers. They are thin and nasty and the floating one in particular has suffered, it’s noticeably stretched and ready to be ditched.
The Bas & Lokes strap is thick, pliable and very comfortable on both sides. The keeper is solid and I like how you have just one wide option rather than a fixed and floating one, the second one that you’d only really need for a non customised strap. The cross stitching, often a weak point of that type of stitch, is solid. I can’t see it failing. It’s quite simply, lovely. If I had to have one concern it would be that the loops holding the spring bars don’t appear to be reinforced. This part has stretched noticeably on my leather strap from the same company, read more here. It would be annoying if this fails too soon. |
ValueTough one. Clearly you get an enormous amount of value from the Ali option, but did I just get a really good one? I’ve certainly had other orders from AliExpress that went straight in the bin. But if it’s a test run to see if this combo of material and colour works for your watch? This is a good way to test that without forking out too much $.
The B&L is a lot of money. Crucially though, it’s not a lot of money compared to the cost of a Grand Seiko watch, and does your very beautiful and expensive watch not belong on one of the best straps that money can buy? I think so. No one likes to throw money away but seriously, would you wear a pair of kmart shoes with your Armani suit? If you do, power to you, but I think you’d feel better knowing that you’re dressed from top to toe in suitable quality. That said, I’ve sadly been seen wearing my snowflake watch with tracksuit pants and a tired Uniqlo top so perhaps don’t listen to me… |
Conclusion
Obviously, you’re the only one that can answer the question if the Bas & Loke strap is worth paying almost 20 times the price. Lord knows I took months to convince myself to buy it.
For me, it DID come down to treating my very beautiful and special watch to a worthy strap. I had never planned for the cheap option to be in use forever, I just wanted to know if it was THE combination that I would like more than any other. As it happened, I loved that combination and based on the number of comments about it on my video so did many others (watch it here). To me, it makes sense to test drive a combination before spending crazy money. If you did spend a lot of money on a strap that would just go in a drawer, then you are most definitely wasting your hard earned coin. But if you wear that strap with one of your favourite watches and it feels good on your wrist, then it’s absolutely money well spent. |
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