my Langes visit Atelier du Bracelet Parisien (pictorial)

[medtech_expat]

In Paris on Friday and scheduled to pick up my 2 custom straps from ABP. My first strap purchased last year has held up really well, so this time around I’ve decided to be a bit more adventurous with their special tanning of crocodile with a gunmetal grey contrast stitch. The ABP boutique itself is centrally located at place du marchÃ

Saint HonorÃ

in the 1ere arrondisement, just off avenue de l’opÃ

ra. It’s a small establishment, with the walls lined and stacked with bins filled with all manner of skins – from everyday calf, alligator and crocodile to the more exotic like python, anaconda, kangaroo and emu. Suffice to say, they offer skins from many animals which I wouldn’t have even have thought of – PETA would have a collective embolism. Orders are placed online, and the process is very thorough (and the first time around, fairly time-consuming). There is an almost infinite number of permutations available – shape, thickness, stitch type, thickness and color, folded edges, lining material, etc. Customer support via email or phone has been excellent, and as they have just returned from summer holiday this Tuesday they agreed to expedite my order without upcharge (I ordered early August). Most customers have their straps sent to them, but since I’m in town often enough I prefer to come in and have the straps sized to my wrist with a single pinhole. A tiny detail, yes, but how many of us on SF obsess over such tiny details! Now the downside. These straps were already expensive last year, and prices went up substantially for 2010. I have no plans for another order in the near future, but for all the WIS and watch freaks on SF I can state that ABP should be considered one of the top-tier alternatives for customizing wrist candy. I’m really pleased with how my 1815 chrono has increased in versatility, the richness of the strap not only accenting the blued hands but providing visual interest as compared to standard black. Likewise, the special tanned brown provides overall warmth to my L1 MP, the grey stitch complements the rhodium dial, and this combination now pairs well with over 80% of my shoes. Overall, I’m extremely pleased and find ABP to be a perfect complement for my Langes. Enjoy the pics…

 

[whnay.]

Awesome shop, great service and your watches look outstanding.

 

[gdl203]

Man, the back of the L&S chronos are always so hot

 

[Blackhood]

You mention prices, could you give some examples of the prices for the straps you've had made?

 

[SpallaCamiccia]

Great watches .

I shouldn´t have sold my only IWC .. damn crisis.

 

[sharpie12]

Nice pairs. If you don't mind me asking how much for the straps?

 

[acecow]

I love those watches! And the bands are awesome. The pictures make me all tingly inside.

 

[Bull]

Badass.

 

[HRoi]

awesome. i've been there once, and ordered some custom Panerai straps from them. there's a light blue croc skin still there with my name on it (figuratively!

thanks for sharing!

 

[medtech_expat]

Originally Posted by Blackhood

You mention prices, could you give some examples of the prices for the straps you've had made?

The current base price for crocodile is EUR250; with the options I selected the new acquisitions were EUR300. My first ABP strap (on the chrono in the first watch pic) had folded edges, so that configuration today would run EUR400.

Best is to hit www.abp-paris.com and build a strap - it will give you all the options and individual option pricing.

 

[Siggy]

Thanks for the pics! I think I'll order and stop in to pic up next week. Its worth it to get a damn strap that fits my skinny wrist right. I'll won't go croc though.

 

[ThinkDerm]

I like the underbelly of the brown - with the pebble grain - nice touch

 

[TheFoo]

Seems like they treated you better than me. The woman changing out my strap to take measurements hacked several scratches and a gash into the back of my Portuguese. She used a repetitive hammering action to get the spring bar out. I've never seen anything like it. F*cking *****. Oh, then when I asked for a disposable polishing cloth to help get out the scratches, they refused unless I paid 60 euros for it.

 

[Siggy]

Originally Posted by mafoofan

Seems like they treated you better than me. The woman changing out my strap to take measurements hacked several scratches and a gash into the back of my Portuguese. She used a repetitive hammering action to get the spring bar out. I've never seen anything like it. F*cking *****. Oh, then when I asked for a disposable polishing cloth to help get out the scratches, they refused unless I paid 60 euros for it.

WTF? Did you go

on them? I might not go there after all.

 

[Chips]

I regret not sucking it up and going this route when choosing a strap for my vintage Omega.

It's no where even in the same ball park as your fine timepieces, but I wanted a high quality crocodile strap for mine, and spent a good month worth of online research looking for just the right one.

I was particularly looking for a strap that wasn't overly padded, had large rectangular scales, and wasn't glossy, yet not quite matte finished either, but somewhere in the middle.

I don't recall where I ended up purchasing mine from, but I do remember it being only about $100-$150 or so cheaper than if I were to go with a ABP strap. I regret that choice now, since I don't like how thin the material seems to be, there's no depth or texture to the individual scales, and it seems that the lighting used to photograph the straps online did a good job hiding how glossy the strap ended up being. So, lesson learned.

Straps like yours would really set any fine timepiece apart. I've got a bit of buyers remorse.