Perfetto Vintage
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 Perfetto strap
One of my all-time favorite Panerai OEM straps is the Cashmere Calf strap, it wears fantastic, looks great on the watch and ages very nice. Di Stefano has two straps that come close to the look and feel of this strap, they call it Perfetto made of napa calfskin, one of the softest types of leather and not easy to source. The Perfetto Vintage strap is a strap that has two things combined, first the leather and second the straight non-padded vintage style look.
Delivery in The Netherlands
Like most of my straps they end up in the Netherlands and bring them along with me to India.
Comes in a pouch
Like all straps from Di Stefano, my Perfetto Vintage strap comes in an elegant blue leather pouch with the "Di Stefano" logo enbossed. It confirms the extra care of the maker and gives it a luxury and exclusive touch.
The strap
When I opened the pouch and found the strap I noticed immediately that this will probably be the softest and bendable strap in my collection. This finish is superb and and the darker burnishing sides are in sync with the dark brown "Bruno" leather lining. The stitching is very sharp and the color of the strap will be a fantastic combination with my PAM00372. The keepers are sleek with an equal finish and yet they are robust. The napa lambskin leather has a silky feel and has a matte finish.
The sewn-in buckle
The buckle on this strap is truly amazing, it is the sleekest Pre-V style sewn-in buckle I have seen so far. The buckle is slimmer than most other Pre-V style buckles and matches the strap really nice. The pin is also sleeker than I have seen on other buckles till date. A nice touch is of course the Di Stefano logo on the inside of the buckle.
On the watch
The strap looks very nice and classic on my PAM00372. The lugs are a bit thicker than the rest of the strap, that makes it fit a bit tighter on the watch.
The strap on the wrist
The strap feels extremely comfortable, the leather is super soft and bendable right from the start and does not need any break-in period. As the strap is only 3.5 mm thick even when you order a shorter strap, it still gives you a tail-effect.
The buckle
My conclusion
When I first saw the Perfetto Vintage strap on the Di Stefano website I was not really impressed as it looked to me a bit boring, at the same time I remember when I bought my first Panerai OEM Cashmere Calf strap in the Officine Panerai Boutique in Bangkok, Thailand, I was not really impressed with the strap till I started seeing fellow Paneristi sharing pictures of their straps and the way the stap ages. It was falling in love of the second sight as the more I start wearing the strap the more I started liking the strap. The strap has a darker brown leather lining, his keeps the overall appearance of the strap much cleaner than a beige lining of the Panerai OEM Cashmere Calf strap that will change color over time due to weather and sweat.
The Perfetto Vintage strap is a tone darker than the OEM Cashmere Calf strap, it has a vintage style design without padding and a very nice sleek classic Pre-V sewn-in buckle. Especially for Panerai models like my PAM00372 it looks fantastic on the watch. I am using this strap now for more dressy occasions and I look forward to the strap to start aging. The strap is a fantastic alternative to the Panerai OEM straps, especially now that Officine Panerai has a very limited choice of non-padded vintage style straight straps, not to mention the price difference!
The strap specifications:
Below you find summarized the specifications of the strap.
Special treatment: no
Width: 26/26 mm
Length: 140/85 mm
Thickness strap: 3.5 mm
Type of buckle: Di Stefano Vintage sewn-in buckle
Buckle material: 26mm brushed steel
Type of stitching: machine-stitch