How to get rid of smelly leather strap ?
Did you notice that your wristwatch leather straps will turn smelly after some periods of wear? What did you do to get rid of that? clean it with leather cleaner? spray it with anti bacterial spray? spray it with perfume to mask its foul smell?
Actually it’s pretty difficult to get rid of those unpleasant smells, you won’t be able to completely remove it, some trace of the scent will stay. You can clean it with leather cleaner repeatedly, spray it with antibacterial or odor cleaner, air dried it for few days, then moist it with with leather conditioner, which is important to keep the leather moist, to prevent cracking. Yes it will minimize the odor, but won’t be able to completely remove it.
Better way in my opinion is to prevent it from being smelly, leather is a living material, it can develop bacteria, fungus, etc,. Most important about prevention is, don’t wear it continuously for long time, what I did for my own leather straps/watches collection is to wear it alternately, maximum 1 strap for 2 weeks, then change it with another strap, or bracelet, or wear your other wristwatch, let the strap rest without touching your skin, leave it airdried for at least another 2 weeks, so it will stop the bacteria to grow further to develop bad odor.
Choose right product to prevent wristwatch leather strap from smell
We in Gunny Straps did recognize factors that can trigger the bad odor experience from a leather strap, so we treated our back lining leather so that our straps would need longer time for the bacteria to start developing that bad smell. Let say commonly you need about 1 month of consecutive wearing before your watch leather strap starts to smell, our strap might need maybe like 2-3 months, no certain time guaranteed, it’s just based on our observation. Remember that completely-no-smell leather when touched to our skin or sweat is impossible, what we can do is to prevent it as far as we can. So, be wise folks.
