Di Stefano Straps from Florence, Italy
One of the best-known European strap makers within the Paneristi community is without doubt Di Stefano Straps from Florence, Italy. It's a family owned business started as a leather tannery business in 1899 in Livorno, Italy. During the second World War they produced some leather products to military specifications for the Italian army. After the war they moved forward into the business by supplying fashion houses like Gucci, Prada and Ferragamo with their finest leather hides. Now these days Simona Di Stefano, the fourth generation of the family business who earlier worked for Officine Panerai, has combined the two and created a whole range of top-notch watch straps from Panerai and other luxury watch brands.
Di Stefano Diver Straps
Di Stefano understands how to influence trends, the need to be able to swim with your watch with a leather strap become more relevant lately. From their own tanneries within the family they have a very famous leather type called "Bruno", soft, old fashioned, high quality leather, much in demand during the 1940's for its military grade robustness and waterproof character.Di Stefano still use Bruno leather for their special straps. Now that Officine Panerai has come out with more Submersible models all the more reasons to introduce some flashy straps in new colours that have that same characteristic, made to use for swimming and diving. The dark blue one is called Blue Miami, the light blue Blue Portofino and the grey one called Atlantic Diver.
Fast delivery
As long as I can receive the straps within the EU, I have no issues with receiving it. Di Stefano send their straps with DHL Express, easy to track so you know when the package is coming! They ship their straps with Express all around the globe, Simona told me she even has shipped straps to a special force military on duty in Afghanistan!
The straps
As all the straps Di Stefano supplies, come in a nice high quality pouch that you could use to store your watch in as well. The strap came in bright yellow pouches of the standard size.3 straps and all water resistant
The two blue straps have a similar leather structure, neat and untouched and made of Italian Calf grain leather while the grey one has a vintage sea washed look made of Bruno leather hide. The leather in the blue straps has a new look and feel with a nice grained structure. The grey strap is having a washed finish and feels like nubuck, still have enough structure. All three are soft and not as firm like my other straps made with Bruno leather hide, that means no break-in time.
The finish of the strap
The finish of the straps are each different. The Blue Miami and Atlantic Diver are slightly ticker than the the Blue Portofino. The sides of the Blue Portofino and Atlantic Diver are untreated and rough while the Blue Miami has burnished sides. The Blue Miami and Blue Portofino are not treated and look very new while the grey Atlantic Diver has a washed finish, It has sort of a silky feel to it and you can see that the strap has gone through a treatment, soaked in the Mediterean Sea, treated with leather balsams and emollients. On all three straps the lining of the strap are the same as the top layer of the strap.The stitching is interesting as you can order it in different colours to match you watch or dial, in my case the Blue Miami has a white stitching, the Blue Portofino grey stitching and the Atlantic Diver Blue stitching.
Di Stefano Diver buckle
On all three straps are sewn-in curved Pre-V style steel buckles that have the logo engraved on the inside of the buckle so on one side it is not so in your face and at the same time you are assured it is a branded good quality buckle.
On the watch
Most important is the way the strap fits on a watch. This sometimes gives a different outcome that when you see the strap on the website of the strap maker. First I thought the dark blue strap would look the best it turned out that I personally like the light blue more. Also the grey strap looks fantastic even that the stitching is blue. The dark blue strap should have had a cream colour stitching to make it look better and I think with the white stitching it is an absolute perfect combination for either the PAM01389 or PAM01305 that have white indexes compared to the cream colour indexes of my PAM00389.
On the wrist
The straps feel more or less the same, they are soft straight from the first time I put it on. The fact that they are not as thick as my other diver straps from Di Stefano it looks pretty good on my PAM00389!
The buckle
My conclusion
Di Stefano has done another great job with launching new modern straps that are actually tool straps, they are water resistant and at the same time came out with modern new colour combinations that for sure attracts people, me included, who like to try something else and more daring than the usual black or brown straps you can buy.As these straps are thinner than the other Bruno Diver strap versions, they come out in shorter versions so you don't need a third keeper.
I think with these new type of straps Di Stefano put another benchmark in the strap market, fresh new colours in combination with water resistance.
If you are looking for more info about Di Stefano Straps, you can find the strap maker at www.distefanostraps.com and if you interested in more details about the strapmaker of Di Stefano Straps, Simona di Stefano, click here
I hope you like the review, feel free to post your comments here
The strap specifications:
Below you find summarized the specifications of the strap, the prices mentioned are only indicative just to give you an idea what you could expect if you order one.
Strap model: Blue Miami
Leather type: Italian grained calf leather, vegetable tanned, water resistant
Strap colour: Dark Blue
Stitch colour: White
Special treatment: no
Width: 26 mm
Length: 130/80 mm
Thickness strap: 4 mm
Type of buckle: Di Stefano Pre-V type buckle
Buckle material: Brushed steel
Price range: 100-115 EURO (depending on destination, VAT & shipping charges vary)
Leather type: Italian grained calf leather, vegetable tanned, water resistant
Strap colour: Dark Blue
Stitch colour: White
Special treatment: no
Width: 26 mm
Length: 130/80 mm
Thickness strap: 4 mm
Type of buckle: Di Stefano Pre-V type buckle
Buckle material: Brushed steel
Price range: 100-115 EURO (depending on destination, VAT & shipping charges vary)
Strap model Blue Portofino
Leather type: Italian grained calf leather, vegetable tanned, water resistant
Strap colour: Light Blue
Stitch colour: Grey
Special treatment: no
Width: 26 mm
Length: 130/80 mm
Thickness strap: 3.5 mm
Type of buckle: Di Stefano Pre-V type buckle
Buckle material: Brushed steel
Price range: 100-115 EURO (depending on destination, VAT & shipping charges vary)
Leather type: Italian grained calf leather, vegetable tanned, water resistant
Strap colour: Light Blue
Stitch colour: Grey
Special treatment: no
Width: 26 mm
Length: 130/80 mm
Thickness strap: 3.5 mm
Type of buckle: Di Stefano Pre-V type buckle
Buckle material: Brushed steel
Price range: 100-115 EURO (depending on destination, VAT & shipping charges vary)
Strap model Atlantic Diver
Leather type: Italian grained calf leather, vegetable tanned, water resistant
Strap colour: Grey
Stitch colour: Blue
Special treatment: sea washed
Width: 26 mm
Length: 130/80 mm
Thickness strap: 3.5 mm
Type of buckle: Di Stefano Pre-V type buckle
Buckle material: Brushed steel
Price range: 120-140 EURO (depending on destination, VAT & shipping charges vary)
Leather type: Italian grained calf leather, vegetable tanned, water resistant
Strap colour: Grey
Stitch colour: Blue
Special treatment: sea washed
Width: 26 mm
Length: 130/80 mm
Thickness strap: 3.5 mm
Type of buckle: Di Stefano Pre-V type buckle
Buckle material: Brushed steel
Price range: 120-140 EURO (depending on destination, VAT & shipping charges vary)
A few additional images of my strap. Enjoy!