my watch

i've been fascinated by watches since i was 5 years old

when my dad gave me a timex with glow in the dark hands.

 i've had more watches than i can honestly remember. 

upgrading over the years until i bought a rolex gmt master

about 15 years ago. 

last march i chopped in the rolex and used the money

to buy a panerai luminor gmt

 only a small amount of panerai watches are allocated to the uk each year.

i phoned all the uk stockists and this was the only gmt

left in the country. it was in a shop in leeds.

about 30 minutes after i spoke to the shop, i got a call

offering me a shoot in leeds in 3 days time !

so it kind of felt like this watch was meant for me.

it cost a fortune but it feels and looks so much better than

any other watch i've owned. i reckon this is it now.

i don't think there's a watch out there i'd prefer to this.

a month after i bought it i had a shoot in new york

and was advised to call in at a place called panatime.

this is stan, the owner of panatime. he makes the most beautiful

leather straps, aimed mainly at panerai owners.

www.panatime.com

stan was one of the friendliest people i've ever met.

he also had the best accent i've heard in a long time.

it's worth phoning him up just to hear him describe

the leather as 'soft'

anyway... today i decided that after a year of the stainless

steel bracelet, it was time to put on a leather panatime strap.

these are the bad boys i bought from stan last year

i decided to go with the dark brown

with the old style panerai straps it was said that to change them

you'd need three hands, a small toolkit and some industrial language !

luckily for me, the new system is much easier. the watch comes

with a special tool and in two minutes the new strap is on.

look at the size of the buckle... you could open beer bottles with it.

obviously i have girls wrists so it's hard to see much of the strap

but it does look corking.

and the leather strap... well, it's "really swoooorft"

cheers stan