a strap can make the watch...

well you know what i say, a strap can make a watch... and these 2 are perfect. you don't need 10 or 20 straps when you have the best ones for your watch i say :) i hope you find the ones that are best for the watches you have as the manufacturers don't always get it right in terms of how they sell the watch in its original form...

2 beauties on the straps meant for them...
these 2 are seeing the most wrist time obviously

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Black Themes on a
Black Hornback Crocodile Strap with White Stitching...

Panerai 111 with a Gregoire Texier ammo strap

(Apologies for the dark photo but you can see more pics of this in my other posts below)

how do i get that kicka$$ strap & more quick and dirties

Hi all, quite a number of people have asked how they can get the absolutely fantastic strap from gregoire... the reply is just below the pic :)

got my pvd logo buckle from strapculture last night

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Its not so easy to get one. I think even if you emailed him he would tell you to keep a lookout on the accessories corner(AC) of paneristi as from time to time he will put up for sale posts with some of his great work. I think this is his preferred way to sell his straps so best to hit refresh on the AC to see if he's posting any :) You could also drop him an email at g r e g o i r e.tex ie r@ gm ail. com (remove all spaces) and give it a try... Hope this helps

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Some more shots of this amazing strap with the buckle i ordered for it :) the postman must love me the buckle and the hole were all sorted out yesterday and these shots taken in the evening

absolutely bad a$$

conventional wisdom is to take the buckle with the same kind of finishing as your watch
i say to heck with convention. polished pam with pvd buckle rox ;)

because someone asked as well, let me say its a tough strap, thick and made of vintage leather and with a nice gunpowder scent to boot... i can find no faults with this strap... it is bulletproof :)

no prizes for guessing whats on my wrist today :)

the best damn strap you could put on a panerai

ooh look at what the mailman brought today

My belief is that a strap can make a watch so finding the right strap is always important. With certain panerai models, coz of the ease of strap changes, lots of folks end up getting tons of straps they like or think that they will like, never having seen the live sample as alot of these deals are conducted online, and they soon find their way onto the accessories corner of paneristi or via paneristi having been hardly worn, some never even mounted.

I decided i would rather buy only straps i think i will love not having the chance to see most of them in the leather and be ultra selective with them as wif my watches as end of day, the strap doth maketh the watch :) and u can only put 1 strap on at a time, similar to only wearing one watch at a time...for most regular folks anyway :)

So the hunt began and thanks to paneristi, tz op forum and the strap sellers,u can see literally thousands of straps online on different pams and in different live situations. Many great straps n sellers are noted as well... greg stevens, simona, zeugma, xamas, kevin bigb wwII ammo, piotr makeuch tiratore scelto, abp, hktan, strapculture, of course the panerai oems...and then there is gregoire texier...

gregoire's straps are amazing works of art. it has a distinctive rugged vintage look about it and the amazing abiliy to transform your panerai into a mean looking sunofabeeyatch and it was a winner in my books from the getgo and i had to have me one. After some effort on my part its finally here on my watch, not on my wrist as yet as I got to punch some additional holes. Gregoire was a gentleman to deal with and this was a very very happy transaction. enuff of words then...a couple of quick and dirty shots tonight. came home from work at 730pm and had to post something tonight. it is amazing

O---MI----GOD !!!!!!

signed by the master with a great personal touch
thanks gregoire... its right to have my name on it as i will never EVER
part with this ... some watches may come and go but this strap stays :)

very quick and dirty shots for now better ones will come over the weekend

sorry did you say you like em long?

some tail on this baby and the keepers are AMAZING

I am getting the holes punched tomorrow and it will be on my wrist then... stay tuned for more pictures of this amazing strap over the weekend ;)

merci gregoire

the best use of my army issued sh1te

2 and a half years of national service in green was a pain. at least i had these to use for photo backdrops though :)

inspired by josh hu at revolution after attending a short 2 hour course organised by hourglass for their tempus photohorology competition. it was a depressing time as i realised what little i know of taking watch photos or any photos for that matter. and then theres all that photo editing shite to contend with... i am a photoshop noob so its going to be a pain i tells ya...

head over to the hourglass website to check out more info about the tempus and the comp. kudos to them for all they're doing in the local watch scene... ok back to what i was talking about...

this gear has been through jungles in 4 different countries... painful memories

i've drunk pond water from brunei in this(the bottle yuh, not the panerai)...
can almost taste the awful water purification tablet

handled barb wire(the real deal not pamela anderson, if u dun get this
we're from different generations) and bombs...

camo on my helmet and a souveneir from my last training excercise

wish they had sent me to the airforce instead... would be donning this every single day and twice on sundays :)

best haute horology marketing ad campaign ever

These words are legend .... Everyone repeat after me ...

You never actually own a Patek Philippe You merely look after it for the next generation

& a wallpaper :) click on the pic below for a larger version and do a save as or set desktop background yuh ;) cheers

20,000 leagues under the sea

nau·ti·lus (nôt'l-əs)
n., pl. nau·ti·lus·es or nau·ti·li (nôt'l-ī').

1. A marine mollusk characterized by well-developed head and eyes and sucker-bearing tentacles of the genus Nautilus, especially N. pompilius, found in the Indian and Pacific oceans and having a spiral, pearly-lined shell with a series of air-filled chambers.
2. a submarine that is propelled by nuclear power
3. A kick ass patek phillippe

back to the title then... well actually its more like 0.012417 league under the sea, taking a league as 4828.03m and the watch's water resistance at a really sad 60m. For a luxury sports watch that kind of water resistance is a joke so lets look instead at its aesthetics...

DAMN does it look good in gold or what :) all the suckers paying premium dinero for the steel version of this baby when the rose gold one rocks in my humble and personal opinion...

enjoy the following pics

OT: yup they used to make tractors...

no reason for this... just because it looks so damn good perhaps :)

The Big R...

I currently have a sub no date. it gets dissed quite a fair bit on forums as its the most basic sub(which everybody has apparently) but i like it lots actually, maybe also because it has significant sentimental value to me being my first real watch. its also a good counterbalance to everything else i have(my entire collection is on straps now and this baby has to be on bracelet)

it doesn't have a date which is fine by me - the seadweller 'SD' date is pretty small if you're looking at it without bringing it to your face and its a bigger, heavier watch but its sweet of course. the sub date has the cyclops which I am not really a big fan of. so there you go, good reasons why i should stick to sub nd... but who knows... this may still call out to me...

or others... the daytonas perhaps...

or the gmt IIs...

all these great options :) but they do have some eyesores that will never make my someday to buy list ever... 2 such examples

what on earth can that be?

not even if i had money to buy 10 of em

thats all for our little Rolex escapade. still the company with the best marketing out there. making some ultra reliable, bulletproof, in-house(if thats your thing) quality watches. if you don't have one in your collection, what are you waiting for? :)