Mays Berlin Straps for Panerai

[slaughterer62]

2015 was the year of the vintage 3646/2533 for me. "Slaughterfactory" was busy as a bee putting together vintage Radiomirs all year long with the help of Athayafactory, Riverfactory, Iratefactory, Gordonfactory, AngelusFactory, etc. I know every Paneristi has their favourite strap maker, but I want to wave goodbye to this year by showing gratitude to a new strap maker who I worked with throughout. Because some of the cases I was working on used soldered lug bars, I had to find a strapmaker who I could trust to sew a strap onto the case directly. Since I could not remove the strap so easily if I disliked it or grew bored of it, these straps had to be of a higher quality than usual and also capture the epoch of the builds I was working on. Enter "Mays" (his nickname) from "Berlin" (the capital of Germany) (https://www.mays-berlin.com) and a long series of Emails about these projects that only grew warmer and more friendly as the year went onwards. With each new strap I received back from him attached to my cases, the builds took on new lives as colour pigments on the dials suddenly found a proper setting in the aged leather framing them.
Here a triumvirate from his from Vintage Authentic Collection: from left to right, the super soft "Tesei", the diva "La Decima", and the dark star "Rubaconte." The straps are about 5/7m thick using triple fold techniques, and the measurements and materials are as close I have ever gotten to a true vintage Panerai strap. Bravo to Mays and thanks for the collaboration in 2015.

 

[Netniet]

Very nice straps. I will check this strap maker to see if he has some more beautiful straps like this.

 

[coltsivers]

Let me add my 2 cents about Mays Berlin.

I own 5 of their straps (Fracei, Dark 74, Firenze, Masso and another custom made) + another one coming in the next weeks.
Quality of the leather is top and they really "age" nicely
The construction and the finish of these straps are all impressive and I'm sure they will last longer than other straps I have in the same price range.
One detail that is important to me, the pictures on the website are really really close to the strap IRL you'll have (and that is not always the case with other strap makers especially with the color of the leather due to the lightning condition in some pictures). At least, this is what I can say about the 5 straps I have.

The average working time mentioned in the website is around 6 weeks and from my personal experience, it has always been lower than that.
Above this, the communication with Mays has always been a pleasure, a real nice person who cares about customer satisfaction.

Yannic

 

[kilowattore]

These are great looking straps indeed, especially the black and the dark brown. I will check this strapmaker.

Looking forward to see more about this builds, namely I'm curious about the DLC'ed one

 

[slaughterer62]

Looking forward to see more about this builds, namely I'm curious about the DLC'ed one

thanks kilo for the kind words. The black one is not DLC but contaminated brass. Its bezel and case back and crown are being DLCed in southeast Asia right now. "Tuttor nero." Even the movement bridges are black.

I would like to reiterate what coltsivers said about the website photos matching the finished product with Mays Berlin. With some strap makers it is a complete surprise (sometimes resulting in excitement, sometimes disappointment) to see what they send you does not at all correspond to their website photos. I think this mismatch is what increases second hand strap sales on the different forums. It can be very frustrating if you need to refinish the dial of a vintage build because the strap is nothing like you imagined. With Mays, I never had that problem. WYSIWUG

 

[Pamino]

How are they compared to Gunny-Straps?

 

[ALE7575]

Thanks for sharing
They really look beautiful, soft and flexible
These straps deserve a try

ALE

 

[kilowattore]

thanks kilo for the kind words. The black one is not DLC but contaminated brass. Its bezel and case back and crown are being DLCed in southeast Asia right now. "Tuttor nero." Even the movement bridges are black.

I'm even more excited, oxidized brass cases are pretty rare, but each one I saw was incredibly nice. A lot of options to play with

 

[slaughterer62]

How are they compared to Gunny-Straps?

I had two Gunny straps (74, and some grey strap). These Gunnys were soft, pliable/comfortable, a little thin and unstructured, so they allowed the SS cases to slip a bit on my wrist if I did not tighten alot. The Mays straps differ: the Tesei is softer than a Gunny strap, but it is thicker (go figure). The Rubaconte feels lighter and as soft as Gunny, but is thicker (again, I do not know why). The "La Decima" definitely is stiffer with alot more structure, but I have not worn it at all. The leather Mays uses is really very unusual and unique on each strap, and he is working the leather quite alot on something like the "Tesei" strap.

 

[Pamino]

I had two Gunny straps (74, and some grey strap). These Gunnys were soft, pliable/comfortable, a little thin and unstructured, so they allowed the SS cases to slip a bit on my wrist if I did not tighten alot. The Mays straps differ: the Tesei is softer than a Gunny strap, but it is thicker (go figure). The Rubaconte feels lighter and as soft as Gunny, but is thicker (again, I do not know why). The "La Decima" definitely is stiffer with alot more structure, but I have not worn it at all. The leather Mays uses is really very unusual and unique on each strap, and he is working the leather quite alot on something like the "Tesei" strap.

So you would prefer the Mays over the gunny?

thx for the reply btw

 

[slaughterer62]

So you would prefer the Mays over the gunny?

thx for the reply btw

I would give both a try and decide for yourself.

 

[slaughterer62]

Here is profile of the Tesei strap on another build:

 

[slaughterer62]

Love Mays (recent message):
first of all anna and me wanted to wish you a happy new year!
Sorry for our late answer. I`m struggling with a health issue and couldnt work for weeks now. I`m trying to start again from yesterday and had a lot of mails to write with a lot of excusess. I wanted to take my time to answer your Mail.
Thank you very much for posting pictures and writing such a nice text. If you have any questions regarding the straps and why we choosed the leather, Im here to answer.
I had the opportunity to see a lot of old true vintage straps from collectors in Germany. Its always interesting how the straps look and feel. There are a lot of differences in the production type and the choosen leather. Usually they used a stiff vachetta leather. We worked out a range from leather thickness over other details like stitching in detail to the buckles we choose. The straps differ in the type of feel, but even the stiffer ones will be soft and comfortable after a few weeks of use. We always send straps for testing to customers, to ensure that the quality is good.
Thank you very much and hopefully you noticed that the we didnt charge anything for sewing the strap to the case. We thought that would be a small christimas present for you.
I try to work from now on everyday and should be able to answer as always
Best wishes and stay healthy