The 7 Stages of Creating a Handmade Artisan Watch Strap
by Antonio Zichichi, Founder of Milano Straps
Introduction: A Choice of Soul, Not Efficiency
For us at Milano Straps, 'handmade' is not just a production technique; it's a philosophy. In a world rushing towards total automation and artificial intelligence in 2025, choosing to maintain an artisanal process means defending the soul of the product. Every strap crafted by an artisan's hands carries with it time, attention, and a sensibility that no machine can replicate. It's an act of respect for tradition, but also for the customer, who deserves something authentic, unique, and irreplaceable.
Many ask me why we insist on a method that takes hours, sometimes days, to create what a machine could churn out in minutes. My answer is simple: a machine can reproduce perfect shapes, but it can never convey the human warmth that comes from handcrafting. And ultimately, this is what makes an object special: its ability to tell a story and create a bond with the wearer.
Today, I want to invite you into our workshop. Not just to see, but to understand. I want to show you the journey a piece of leather takes to become a faithful companion on your wrist. A journey comprising seven stages, a ritual that combines material, skill, and passion.
Stage 1: Selection – The Dialogue with Raw Material
Everything begins with silence and respect. When new leather arrives from the tanneries, the first action is never a cut, but an acquaintance. We run it through our fingers to gauge its consistency, bring it to our nose to breathe in its clean, natural scent, and hold it up to the light to discover its history. We look for a natural grain, a deep color, and uniform elasticity.
A machine would only see a surface to process. An artisan's eye, however, reads a biography. Small veins or slight scars are not defects to be discarded, but signatures of authenticity, proof that the leather has lived. Of course, serious flaws like deep scratches, cracks, or weak areas are unacceptable. Selection is an act of responsibility: it is the promise that only the noblest and most genuine material deserves to begin this journey.
Stage 2: Cutting – The Intelligence of the Hand
Once the leather is chosen, the cutting begins. Here, you won't find mechanical presses churning out shapes in series. You'll find an artisan bent over a workbench, armed with traditional tools like a head knife and razor-sharp blades. Every movement is guided by eye and hand, never by a computer.
Hand-cutting is infinitely superior to mechanical cutting for a fundamental reason: it respects the life of the leather. The experienced artisan knows how to "read" the natural direction of the fibers and aligns the cut to follow it. This foresight, invisible to the customer, is crucial: it ensures that the strap does not deform over time, maintaining a flexibility and resistance that a die cutter, indiscriminately cutting, could never guarantee. The secret lies in the gesture: a sharp, decisive, yet incredibly precise stroke, leaving a clean, neat edge, without the slightest burr, already ready for the next stage. It is the intelligence of the hand triumphing over the brute force of the machine.
Stage 3: The Invisible Architecture – Skiving and Assembly
A high-quality watch strap is a work of micro-architecture. It is composed of three layers that must work in perfect harmony: the outer leather, which provides beauty and character; an internal core, often made of technical materials or leather, which gives structure and tensile strength; and the lining, the soft, hypoallergenic leather in contact with the wrist, which ensures comfort.
Before assembly, each layer is prepared with a process called skiving. Using manual machines and extremely sharp knives, the artisan thins the edges and sections of the leather with millimeter precision. The goal is a perfect balance: the strap must be thin enough to be flexible and comfortable, but thick enough to remain robust. Too thin and it would be weak; too thick and it would be stiff as a board.
Once prepared, the layers are aligned and joined with water-based, non-toxic, and resistant glues. This work is almost entirely invisible in the finished product, but it is the foundation upon which the entire solidity and longevity of the strap rests.
Stage 4: The Resilient Heart – Saddle Stitch Sewing
If assembly is the skeleton, stitching is the soul of the watch strap. At Milano Straps, we exclusively use the saddle stitch, the same technique used for centuries by saddlers to create horse harnesses that had to withstand enormous tension. It is performed entirely by hand, with a single waxed thread and two needles passing through each hole, crossing to create a self-locking stitch.
The superiority of this technique over machine stitching is absolute. In machine stitching, the two threads (top and bottom) simply loop in the center of the leather; if one stitch breaks, the entire seam risks unraveling quickly. In saddle stitching, each stitch is an independent knot. Even if, hypothetically, a stitch were to break after years of wear, the two adjacent ones would hold it firm, preventing the seam from opening.
Our preferred thread is waxed linen, for its incredible strength and natural beauty. It has a unique ability to harmonize with the leather and age along with it, gaining character over time. This stitching is not just an aesthetic detail: it is the backbone of the strap, a promise of durability hand-stitched, stitch by stitch.
Stage 5: The Magic of the Edges – A Ritual of Patience
Observe the edge of a luxury product, and you'll understand the philosophy of its creator. In mass-produced items, edges are often left raw or covered with a simple coat of plastic paint. For us, the edge is a work of art in itself.
The process, called edge painting, is a ritual of patience. After stitching, the edges are first sanded with increasingly fine sandpaper until perfectly smooth. Then, a first layer of paint is applied. It is allowed to dry. It is sanded again. A second layer is applied. It dries. It is sanded. This process is repeated several times until the paint penetrates deeply, creating a smooth, uniform, and slightly domed edge, pleasant to the touch and resistant. Finally, the edge is hot-polished with wax, which seals and protects it from moisture and wear. It is a work of almost invisible details, but it is there that the true hand of the artisan manifests itself.
Stage 6: Perfection in Details – Holes and Keepers
Functionality must go hand in hand with beauty. The holes for the buckle are made one by one with precision punches. They must be perfectly equidistant, aligned, and proportionate to the size of the strap. Even a slightly misplaced detail would compromise the entire aesthetic.
The keepers, both fixed and floating, are small elements that require great skill. They are cut, stitched, and shaped by hand, often around a small internal core to give them the correct form and robustness. They must be durable yet discreet, strong yet elegant, perfectly integrated into the design. The true challenge of craftsmanship lies precisely here: in making microscopic details as beautiful as they are functional.
Stage 7: The Final Signature – Inspection, Anecdotes, and Hot Stamping
No strap leaves the workshop without having passed a final, rigorous examination. Each piece is meticulously inspected: the surface of the leather, the uniformity of the stitching, the smoothness of the edges, the solidity of the keepers. It is at this stage that the true nature of our work is revealed.
An anecdote I always like to tell involves Marco, one of our artisans who has been with us for over twenty years. One day, during quality control, he picked up a strap that seemed impeccable to the naked eye. He ran it through his fingers and stopped. He shook his head and said: “This is not a Milano Straps edge.” He was right: it lacked one very last pass of wax polishing, a difference imperceptible to the eye, but not to the expert touch of someone who has spent a lifetime seeking excellence. That gesture taught me that true quality lies precisely in this obsession with invisible details. Our artisans are not just "leather workers," but guardians of a tradition, knowledge inherited over generations.
Only after passing this examination does the final moment arrive: the application of the Milano Straps hot stamp. It is an almost sacred gesture, encapsulating the entire journey: from the smell of raw leather to the finished product, polished and perfect. Personally, every time I stamp our logo, I feel profound pride. It is not just a brand; it is a signature. It is my promise and that of my artisans, testifying to Italian quality, passion, and authenticity.
Conclusion: A Message on the Wrist
At the end of this entire process, when a customer fastens a Milano Straps strap to their wrist for the first time, I hope they perceive more than just a simple accessory. I would like them to feel the warmth of the handmade, to sense the solidity of a story stitched stitch by stitch, to have the certainty of wearing something that will last over time and is unlike any other strap in the world.
Because, ultimately, our philosophy can be summarized in one sentence:
👉 “A Milano Straps strap is not just a strap: it is a fragment of Italian tradition, made to last and to tell your story.”
The lexicon of the craft
Each stage has a precise name. Some technical terms for those who truly want to understand the process:
Skiving: progressive thinning of the leather on the edges and lining to reduce thickness without losing strength. A manual operation using a head knife.
Saddle stitch: the two-needle technique where the thread passes through the same hole from opposite directions. Slower than a sewing machine, but if a stitch breaks, the entire seam does not unravel.
Edge burnishing: manual finishing of the edges with wax and a burnisher. Seals the fibers, creates a shiny and waterproof edge. Requires multiple passes with increasing temperatures.
Horween: the Chicago tannery that produces the world-leading shell cordovan. When we write "cordovan," we always mean a material originating from a tannery of this caliber — not generic leather called cordovan for marketing purposes.