Horological Meandering

I finally got my hands on an orange strap after seeing them on fellow members' wrists, they know who they are! After much deliberation I went for a mosaic-pattern cut to size FKM rubber strap attached to a generic deployant clasp. One key factor in my decision was the sheen coming out of the mosaic pattern at some angles which reminded me of old tropic straps. I have a couple of recent and genuine tropic straps but they fail to capture that aspect of the original model. Anyway, I let the pics do the talking:



















Lastly not a rant but an observation. I spent a few weeks looking into tons of websites offering orange straps and in the end I ordered from aliexpress. Delivered to my door, I paid approximately 30 dollars all-in for 2 straps and 1 clasp. In the process I found out that some fairly respectable sites appear to be selling the same straps sometimes as much as 10 times more. Although I don't know for sure, it appears highly likely that some of these sites are just selling the same product at a massive markup, which does raise some interesting questions as far as transparency and business model are concerned. As usual, there's no downside to doing one's homework!

To my surprise my wife liked it. Comfort wise the shark mesh is still king but the pop of color is welcome at this time of the year!

I quite like the textured look of these.

The buckle is a bit on the cheaper end but still playing considering how much I paid for it.

there are many “reputable” strap sites that sell the same exact rubber straps and metal bracelets made in China for 10x what you can get them for elsewhere. It’s capitalism at its worst, but fortunately those who do a little shopping around figure it out and don’t get ripped off.