Hi strap lovers, I want to share a few photos from my friend and sometime collaborator Dr. Ingo Woesner of
FineWatchBuckles.com. This is a Dirty Denim strap that I made a few months back for his IWC Big Pilot paired up with an astonishing custom, handmade buckle made from black Water Buffalo horn. I'm a huge fan or Ingo's work and from these photos, you can see why. The artistry and attention to detail on the finish of these buckles is second to none. He primarily makes buckle from Exotic woods, horn from various animals and my personal favorite fossilized Mammoth Ivory and a smattering of wild looking Acrylics and other advanced materials as well. Some of the exotic woods his uses have been stabilized with polymers and are safe for swimming, diving and even dishwasher safe! If you're into custom watch straps (you're here so I suspect you are), I strongly encourage you to check out more of Ingo's work at his website linked above. I think you'll be astonished by how he can raise a watch buckle to a high art form. I'm also please to say that I usually have a small selection of his buckles on hand to sell directly for shipment with your
Dangerous9 strap.
Also, a word about the custom tangs Ingo uses on his buckles are made by master buckle and strap maker Maddog for which Ingo often does additional finishing work as well. He offers these tangs made from Stainless Steel, Brass, Bronze, Demascus and
Mokume Gane. These in incredible little pieces of art as well. Here is a brief explanation of the finishing work Ingo does for these:
"Isn't the bronze tang really great? They came out of the water cutting almost like this. I placed them in my new tumble vibration box for 24 hours and achieved a total matte finish while eliminating the knife sharp edges from the water cutting. Very noble appearance IMHO."
It's this kind of passion and attention to detail that goes into every buckle from the FineWatchBuckles workshop and why I'm such a fan.
Here are a few photos of Ingo's buckles from the last batch that he sent me:
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Blue-Green mineralized fossilized Mammoth Ivory 15,000 to 65,000 years old!! |
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Pyrenees sheep horn |
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All White fossilized Mammoth Ivory 10,000 plus years old!! |
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Polyacrylic |
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Stabilized and colored Poplar Burl wood |