Two years ago, we launched our first collection of curved straps in leather. Today, we're launching a collection of curved straps in rubber, in our signature Cut-to-Size style!
I've always been a fan of curved straps. For watches that require the use of curved straps, it usually means a much tighter fit between the strap and the watch, which is a look that I think most collectors would prefer. (On that note, if your watch uses straight straps, using curved straps is a mistake and actually widens the gap between the strap and the case. Read more here.)
Ever since we launched our CTS rubber straps earlier this year, we've received many requests from customers to make them in curved to fit watches like Ming, FP Journe, Formex, Sartory Billard etc. For a while, we decided to just go with a quick-fix solution - put a curved spring bar into a straight CTS rubber strap and use it on those watches. It does work, but if we're being honest, it's not perfect. As an owner of many Ming watches myself, I wanted something that was perfect.
And so we decided to develop and launch the Curved CTS Rubber collection! These are now a no-compromise curved rubber strap that blends both style and comfort. If you haven't tried our CTS rubber straps before, I'll guarantee that you'll be a fan after giving it a chance.
So, What's New?
In short, there are 2 main changes that we're making to the strap compared to the regular CTS.
First, the straps are now curved, and require the use of curved spring bars. Our custom developed curved spring bars come included with every strap. These are guaranteed to be the best spring bars you can find on the market!
Next, we've added a small detailing on the texture of the strap. Instead of an entirely plain strap, there is now a slight border on the two sides of the strap.
We could have gone with a textured strap, instead of this plain, slightly grainy texture. However, as this strap would be paired with watches like Ming, we didn't want too much details on the strap to take away from the watch itself, since there's often a lot going on with a Ming dial already. A plain texture makes the overall strap much more versatile, and could even be a dressier option.
Everything else about this strap is the same as what we have on the regular CTS.
- It uses the same leaf-spring clasp (that is not magnetic, and it's now available in Titanium too).
- It is cut-to-size, which means it's one size fits all and you have to cut the strap to fit your wrist size (we have a useful guide on how to do that here, and it's extremely easy and stress-free if you follow our guide).
- This also means that there's no excess loose ends after you've sized the strap - it will be a perfect fit for your wrist, regardless of how big or small your wrist size may be.
- We have added two new colours (Red and Emerald Green), and these are now available in our Regular CTS collection too!
We hope that the watch community, especially owners of Ming or FP Journe watches, will appreciate this collection. Straps have the special ability to do so much more than just allow you to wear the watch. A bad strap can make you never want to wear a watch ever again, while a well-fitted, well-paired strap can do so much to elevate your love for the timepiece.
If you've bought the Curved CTS strap and have any feedback, please let us know so we can keep improving on it. If there are other lug widths that you would like to see us make curved CTS straps for, please let us know and we'll be happy to look into adding that as a possible option down the line!