Part of being a Paneristi is to collect nice and special watch straps. I have written about straps made from vintage ammo pouches and one – not for Panerai in this case – made from the leather interior of a Mercedes SLR 300 (1956) formerly owned by Jean Todt.

Last week, I received an e-mail about DaLuca’s Panerai Straps. The owner, Daniel Luczak, creates one-off straps for Panerai watches made out of ammo pouches and other vintage leather used for (mostly) military purposes. Each strap is individually named and will never be duplicated.

On PaneraiSource.com, you’ll find a well written and documented review of DaLuca straps. As I wrote some time ago, these kind of straps and intiatives makes me want to own a Panerai again. Just a basic Luminor model, or the new 1950 with in-house caliber, PAM312.

One of the vintage Panerai straps from DaLuca is called ‘Bunker Hill Revolt’! Although violent scenes from WWII movies come to mind,the strap at least looks impressive and indeed made from leather that has been in or around bunkers during that time..

Below you’ll see a vintage Panerai strap called ‘flame thrower’. One can only imagine what this leather must have been going through..  The leather goes back to the 1940s and is super soft. Dan’s straps come with a sewn-in buckle (Pre-Vendome style), includes the tubes for attaching them safely to your Panerai and free shipping within the USA (outside, add 10 USD).

Prices for the pictured straps are 290 USD (Bunker Hill Revolt) and 210 USD (Flamethrower). Payments can be made through PayPal or by Credit Card.

Click http://www.dalucastraps.com/categories/Vintage-Watch-Straps/ for their entire collection of interesting Panerai straps. They also now create gorgeous croc handmade panerai watch straps.

A while ago, I posted about this watch strap made out of the leather interior of this Mercedes-Benz 300SLR (owned by Jean Todt). If you own a Panerai watch, you probably know all about this strap thing. I have seen them in all kinds of colors, materials (even elephant) and with all types of buckles and inscriptions.

A very popular leather strap seems to be the ammo pouch strap. Yes, an ammo pouch. Below you’ll see one of a Russian soldier outfit from the early 20th century.

I have seen some really nice models over at Catcherstraps, and for a decent price as well. The straps made by Ted Su are also very popular amongst Paneristi world wide. I really like the vintage Swiss ammo pouch strap by Ted Su, as pictured below, but for 250 USD I would like to see it before I buy it.

I have a couple of straps for my Panerai and a few of them are really stiff, which kinda annoys me after a full day of wear. It is great that WatchUseek has this special ‘StrapUseek’-forum, this way owners of these non-OEM straps can exchange information and experiences. I also have good experiences with buying straps from TCStraps, although they don’t seem to carry a lot of Ammo Pouch straps. However, they do have the famous Mario Paci 1938 straps The military pouch strap they have is quite nice though, see the picture below:

You can get really caught up in this Panerai strap thing if you don’t watch out!