Vintage Waltham Strap Color?

[JohnnyGringo]

I have a vintage gold Waltham black-faced wristwatch that was given to me as a gift by my lady friend. After having the watch cleaned and serviced, she replaced a missing strap with one of textured black lizard. Any thoughts as to what color strap may likely have been on the watch originally? Lately I've seen (new) black faced gold watches with dark brown or cordovan (usually textured) bands that I think look rather handsome- would it be considered period correct if I were to replace my Waltham's black strap with cordovan?

 

[JEEP]

My take is that there are no rules - as long as the strap looks good with the watch. My personal experince is that vintage watches with black dials look best with dark or medium brown bands - black bands tend to make the dial look less black.


/Jakob

 

[JohnnyGringo]

Hey JEEP, thanks for the response- I think I may give it a shot and see what it looks like, right?

 

[Moby]

Hey, Johnny. Good quality leather bands are not that expensive. Why not buy several bands and change them as the mood fits? Or as your outfit changes. Changing a watch band is pretty simple. All you need is a tiny screw driver or if you want to be fancy you can buy the correct tool for under $10.

 

[JEEP]

I would strongly advice against frequently changing the band on vintage watches. Everytime you change the band you scratch the horns (the "band holders") a litte - and you take the risk of the tool slipping and damaging the case or crystal.

If you wish to change the band yourself I suggest that you buy a "watch knife" - these can be found on ebay quite cheaply - often as a part of a watch reapir set. Here are my tools (the watch knife is the short bladed, red handeled tool in the bottom right corner):

/Jakob