Panerai Luminor 47mm Leather Strap “Groom Lake 51” Concept

Description

Something interesting is happening deep in the Nevada desert..and it’s way more interesting than you think.

Brigadier General’s Report:  I created this sleek gloss black custom Panerai strap 100% by hand and hand stitched it, as with all of my straps.  For this project, I selected a chrome tanned leather with a glossy, uniform finish on the surface.  This unique gloss black custom Panerai strap will conform to your wrist after a period of wear.  Furthermore, the leather demonstrates some unique properties.  When bent or twisted, the leather will show cracks on the surface, but when laid flat and rubbed with a cloth, the leather will regain it’s shiny finish.  This is most certainly not your average soft, civilian leather strap.  The exterior edges of the strap have been burnished to a smooth uniform finish. Additionally, the edges of the strap itself feature a soft crease.

For the stitching, I utilized matte black thread in a tight box stitched pattern. Additionally, this strap design features two floating keepers.  This strap ships by default with a bead blasted black special edition “Groom Lake 51” engraved buckle with “MJ-12 Mod. Dep” engravings on the reverse side (pictured shortly).  Pictured above, you may see this novel strap on the 47mm Panerai Luminor PAM00372.  The example above features a length of 130/80, ideal for easily removal.

Measurements:  This strap is 26/26, with a thickness of ~4.2mm.

What We Include:  Watch strap (top, bottom), bead blasted DLC coated trapezoidal buckle, one wooden box with papers.

To view more black 26mm Panerai straps, click here.

Video:  Youtube may default to 480p or lower resolution, so please be sure to set the video resolution to 1080p.

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Additional Information:  For each Panerai model, I have a different design philosophy regarding straps. For the 47mm Luminor series case, as well as the Radiomir 1940 and the Submersible, my concept revolves around thickness and symmetry. When I create unique straps for the 47mm series cases, I take into account the overall thickness and temper of the leather that I am working with; more so than with Radiomir or even 44mm Luminor cases.

The 47mm Panerai case ships with a 26mm width strap. There is no escaping the mass of such a case and strap combination. My designs for this case take into account several features of the 47mm cases including the arches, curves, angles, and degrees of slope of not just the case, but the buckle as well. Instead of step-in away from or trying to minimize the bulk of the case, my goal is to embrace it. To reflect this, I work with thick leathers and make the straps for this model a minimum of 5.0mm thick on average.

Additionally, I like the make the strap keepers nice and wide. I box stitch most 47mm Panerai straps for extra strength. On rare occasions, I may employ open ended stitching. 47mm Panerai custom straps tend to be 5.0mm thick or greater. I usually utilize vintage style stainless pin buckles sewn in place. These pin buckles work especially well for straps that are thicker. Vintage style Panerai pin buckles also allow for more narrow holes for the buckle. Whats more, for these 26mm wide straps I mostly employ thicker thread with a larger margin in the stitching. I adjust spacing between stitches to be slightly wider than on my 44mm or Radiomir straps.

I perform the entire process by hand without templates or machines and use the absolute basic tools, the same tools that I used as a boot maker for nearly two decades. Finally, as a result of the hand made nature of these straps, no two are identical.