Painted 'Gator Strap

[Guest avitt]

A couple of years ago, I picked up a nice Hamilton Jazzmaster for my wife. Now, as you all know, she has unusually small wrists, so any new watch purchase also entails the the search for a suitable, short strap. In this case, I picked up two custom Banda alligators - one black, and one white, which she changes seasonally.

After a couple of summers of use, the white one started to show quite a bit of wear, and looked pretty shabby. I examined the strap, and determined that the only problem was the colored layer...the strap itself was actually in excellent shape. Not wanting to spend another $100, I decided to try to recolor the strap by myself.

I searched the internet for white leather dyes, and decided to use an acrylic paint that is intended for fabrics, and recommended for leather. The paint is called Lumiere by Jacquard:

I prepared the strap by scrubbing off most of the old paint with Simple Green, and rinsing with water. After cleaning, the alligator took on a kind translucent, "skin" color. When it was dry, I rubbed down the entire strap with a mildly abrasive pad, to give the paint a better adhesive surface.

I gave the strap two light coats with a small brush. The paint was pretty remarkable to work with...It is remarkably opaque, and self-levels quite nicely - very easy to apply. After drying overnight, I gave the strap a coat of clear wax shoe polish, for some additional protection.

The paint held up to my attempts to scrape it with my finger nail, but only time will tell if it will hold up without cracking or pealing.

Here are the picks:

...BTW, this watch model features a tiny engraved "saying" on the minute hand, and is packaged with a small magnifying glass, so it can be read: