The Upside-Down Strap For A Patek Philippe

Just like a game of Tennis that carries rules, watches have universal rules that apply to them. Even the experts in the heat of a moment can sometimes make silly mistakes. For example, when a soccer player touches the ball with his hand during a game, a handball foul occurs.

Today’s “handball” involved me putting a new band on a watch incorrectly that we recently purchased from a client. It was two days ago when a client came in looking to sell her Patek Philippe Calatrava watch along with other jewelry she had to sell. Just like every time, with every client, Gray and Sons gives same-day service for clients who bring in their watches, jewelry, and gold to sell to us. In the end, we came to an agreement with the client on the price in which we would buy her valuables for. After giving the client her choice of payment, our second task begins which is restoring our new Patek Philippe Calatrava. In this case, restoring is removing a dirty old beat-down strap and putting on a nice new brown crocodile strap. Now although I do this every day, and it is second nature for me, I put the strap the inverse way. I had a little too much fun over the weekend at Rolling Loud  listening to Cardi B and other musicians, in addition, there is a lot going in my mind because I work part-time/full time at Gray and Sons for the last two years and am a full-time student of architecture, and oh yes, did I tell you I am in love (making the world in my head spin even faster)? Luckily at Gray and Sons we have quality control to catch silly mistakes like this.

As you can see the picture on the left is the incorrect way to do it. The tang buckle ALWAYS goes on the 12 o’clock side. The right side displays the correct way a band must be put on. Now the strap is installed the correct way and the watch looks beautiful and ready for a nice wrist to sit on.

Gray and Sons sells high-end European and genuine replacement bands/straps for Patek Philippe watches. Most importantly, in our inventory, Gray and Sons carries original Patek Philippe straps. We carry crocodile, alligator, lizard, rubber, and calfskin as band replacement. Usually, Patek Philippe watches looks best with Black, Midnight Blue, and Dark Brown straps but Gray and Sons carries many more colors including Burgundy, Tan, White, Red and Pink to name a few.

At Gray and Sons, we have watchmakers, jewelers, and polishers on the premises; this means we do all our hard work in-house. Our master jeweler with his expert craft is able to not only repair jewelry pieces, but he is also able to rebuild and restore gold bands as complicated as Patek Philippe, Rolex, Audemars Piguet and many more.  Take a look at our Youtube video to get an idea of how we work, here is a link to a band rebuild for a Patek Philippe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4zPiAKUWRs&t=41s%3C/a%3E.%3C/p%3E

Our master watchmaker with his expertise makes sure the band is installed correctly and securely to fit the watch. Last but not least, we cannot forget our master polisher, he is in specific charge of polishing and doing the detail on all our Swiss luxury watches including this Patek Philippe Calatrava. Now you know the correct way a strap must go on a watch.