In effort to provide our customers with products made close to our homes, when it came time to make and sell watch bands, Max reached out to his repairman, Steve Evavold at Chicago's Division Street Watch Co. 

Steve makes sturdy leather watch bands for the handsome vintage watches he refurbishes and sells using locally forged parts and locally tanned shell cordovan, the fibrous leather made from the muscle (or shell) found beneath the hide of the horse's backside. The cordovan comes from Chicago's Horween Leather, considered by many to be the world's finest tannery. He cuts and makes each band entirely by hand in his shop in the Chicago neighborhood known as Wicker Park.

Realizing that bands that have been stitched or glued together are more likely to wear out over time, Steve designed a sturdy band that uses a single piece of leather and rivets. The nature of shell cordovan allows that with time, the leather will take on the characteristics of its wearer. It also means that no two bands are the same.

Understanding this, we ask that you join in the handmade experience. Every day since receiving an Omega Seamaster De Ville in January, Max has worn it with one of Steve's dark brown leather versions of the U.S. Military Spec # MIL-S-46383 band, and it has worn in nicely. You can actually see a seahorse burned into the band.

We hope you love your band as much as Max and Joe love theirs.

Visit our shop at one of the links below.

Horween Shell Cordovan U.S. Military Spec # MIL-S-46383 Leather Watch Band

Horween Shell Cordovan Six Rivet Leather Watch Band