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After seeing Sharkmans results on his Breitling Croco strap, I thought I would take a chance on my new TedSu strap for the PAM 312. I didn't mind the color but it was a bit light for me and the features of the leather didnt show up very well. It was scarey to think that I might screw up this brand new $285 strap, but I took a chance!

When I first applied the olive oil, I thought "oh NO" but after drying the wet leather dried out to a beautiful patina. I coated the whole top side with one treatment and then (after drying with a hair drier for 4-5 minutes) I treated the horns and grain lines 2 more times to accent the dark color. I didn't want a super dark brown, just wanted to darken a orangey brown and to highlight the features of this particular leather. I love the results and now I breath a sigh of relief knowing that I DIDNT screw up my strap, but rather improved it. This method was very easy and the results are exactly what I wanted.

Here you go, with before and after (lighter, of course, being the before!)....

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Breitling Steelfish(black)
Breitling Steelfish(silver)
Panerai PAM 312
Bell & Ross BR03-92 Phantom
Steinhart BreitlingSource LE #5/15

That's a much nicer colour now. I'm surprised that olive oil would have quite such a marked effect. Nice going!

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Driver8

Site Moderator

Night and day! Isn't it amazing? Credit goes to either Alan M. or Aleister, I can never remember which.

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SHARKMAN

It really is a subtle but dramatic change. Turned a very nice but light colored strap into an aged looking new strap. Best part was the ease of the process. I wouldn't hesitate to do this again on another strap.

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Breitling Steelfish(black)
Breitling Steelfish(silver)
Panerai PAM 312
Bell & Ross BR03-92 Phantom
Steinhart BreitlingSource LE #5/15

It REALLY looks very nice and It perfectly matches the watch. After you have worn it out a bit I believe it can only get better as it 'ages'
Good luck with your timepiece.

It's much better now. Tom said to avoid the stitching. Did you or did you apply over them also?

I'm thinking of doing the same thing to my Breitling croc but I'm still a bit scared to ruin it.

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Regards,

Peter

BREITLING for Bentley Motors T & Mark VI, Aerospace
ROLEX Submariner Ceramic116610LN
OMEGA Plantet Ocean 8500 42mm Orange arabics
OCEAN7 LM-3

Use the best oil you can buy, let the strap applications follow the intial opening of the bottle, apply far less than you think you need the first application. You'll be fine. The croco finish is pretty forgiving. I'm not so certain about a calf strap.

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SHARKMAN

I tried to avoid the stitching but it might have gotten a little on them. This strap was ordered with "natural" stitching and unlike the white Breilting stitching is is a little more forgiving. I also "rolled" the q-tip on a paper towel to remove ALL excess olive oil. The q-tip looked a bit dry before I applied. It still had plenty on the q-tip. Just repeated when I needed a bit more oil. (as per Sharkman's instructions).

Worked very well and now I have another TedSu on the way that is going to get "treated" until its several shades darker than the way this one turned out. Not quite as dark as Sharkman's Breitling croc, but somewhere in between.

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Breitling Steelfish(black)
Breitling Steelfish(silver)
Panerai PAM 312
Bell & Ross BR03-92 Phantom
Steinhart BreitlingSource LE #5/15

Pete, you just want to avoid the stitching. It's inevitable some oil gets on the stitching, but it isn't a big deal and my white contrast stitching looks like new.

Showed the set up to my AD over lunch and he was shocked when he heard it was olive oil and how easy it was. He thought it was dyed by a leather smith.

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SHARKMAN

That just looks awesome!

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a few Pams...

That looks great. I've always loved hornback straps and that looks even better with the darker horns (or whatever they are).

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"Leave the gun, take the cannoli."

They are bones actually.

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SHARKMAN

Thanks. I love hornback straps as well, but really wish I could fine a maker that offered REALLY tall horns on a strap. I have seen a few pictures, here and there, with hornback type straps where the "horns" are very tall and knarley looking. That would be a cool looking accent for my PAM. Very dragon-esk...

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Breitling Steelfish(black)
Breitling Steelfish(silver)
Panerai PAM 312
Bell & Ross BR03-92 Phantom
Steinhart BreitlingSource LE #5/15

Something like this "Tail of the devil" (from paneray.com)? The horns are actually very soft. Not the most comfortable strap to wear, but dragon-esk, no?...

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a few Pams...

Yeah that's cool. I will check them out, thanks.

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Breitling Steelfish(black)
Breitling Steelfish(silver)
Panerai PAM 312
Bell & Ross BR03-92 Phantom
Steinhart BreitlingSource LE #5/15