Bespoke watchstraps from Jakub Filip Szymaniak
In 2017 I moved to Poland for two years. Since I heard before about some great young tailors, shoemakers, tiemakers and other craftsmen being active there I quickly decided to explore most of them. One of the very first I found was Jakub Filip Szymaniak who is a bespoke watchstrap maker in the neighborhood of Poland’s capital Warsaw. I found out about him on Instagram and immediately felt in love with the beautiful watchstraps I noticed there. A rich palette of various colors and skins that were complementing watches from big brands like Omega, Longines, Cartier or Breguet but also from smaller less famous brands who do some exceptional pieces. And since I’m a watch collector myself I decided a bespoke watch strap would be a lovely first experience with one of the great craftsmen in Poland.
Getting in touch and ordering
Not long before I bought myself, also in Poland, a vintage russian square shape watch. I had a strap for that in mind that I couldn’t possibly find in the regular shops. And besides that, the straps in the shops are always a bit too tight for me. Going bespoke was a sensible and good option for me in this case.
I reached out to Filip (as he likes to be called) and after chatting a bit I found out that we shared an interest; classic menswear and shoes! Filip is a fellow enthusiast of classic menswear and shoes and even has it’s own bespoke experiences with Polish and international craftsmen where he had various things made. For me this was important to know as I imagined he also knows the customers position very well. After discussing by e-mail a bit what I wanted I got various choices of leather, stitching, lining, buckles and of course I had to measure at home my wrists and the lugs of my watch to make sure I would get the perfect fitting strap. A couple of weeks later the carrier was at my doorstep delivering me a cordovan leather strap with a red lining on the bottomside and two stitches on the top of the strap that is right next to the lug. It was exactly what I wanted and obviously made and finished with a fine eye for detail. It was for sure not the last one I ordered from him.
How did Jakub Filip Szymaniak started his craft?
Filip got fascinated by watches for the first time at the age of 18. His grandparents showed him an old Poljot watch that they found in a drawer and Filip decided to open the case back. Once he saw all the rubies, the balance wheel and the other mechanics inside the timepiece he was totally impressed. The watch inside his heart started ticking and he started to pay more attention to watches in magazines, read about them etc. At the age of 21 when he got his first salary he decided to spend it on a Swiss watch. He remembers well which one, a classic Maurice Lacroix with a 35 millimeter case and Roman numerals.
Now something one has to know is that Poland has a very active and big group of watch collectors who like to gather together on forums, clubs and the various watch events that the country has every year. So a couple of years after buying his first watch Filip decided to join one of the watch forums that Poland has which was probably the start of his whole career in this field.
Till 2008 he was working in the graphic designing business but was forced by the crisis during that time to stop working there and find something else. He asked a friend who was running a watch boutique in Warsaw if he needed a sales advisor and he set his first steps in the watch field. He grew there and at a sudden moment he was even working for the Swatch group which he enjoyed enormously, however in his spare time he developed one hobby already: making watch straps!
On the forum he saw the work of a really skilled strap maker, who unfortunately isn’t alive anymore, and he loved what this man was doing. He ordered a strap out of curiosity and then a couple of straps from other strap makers. He started trying to make some straps by himself but got more serious when he ordered in 2010 his first professional tools for that. Changing this to a full time business he did in 2015 and he left his job at the Swatch group for that. Not because he didn’t like the job there, but strap making is his biggest passion and he wanted to do that fulltime.
The craft of watchstrap making
The craft of watchstrap making is for those with a fine eye, which Filip has for sure. He keeps developing and experimenting with materials all the time which is bringing an enormous variety of options for his customers.
Filip himself is a big fan of exotic skins like alligator, crocodile from renowned European tanneries. But also lizard or even phyton he enjoys creating amazing straps from which sometimes can be very colorful in a most elegant way. Another leather type he likes is cordovan, which is actually the leather that I chose for my first watchstrap made by Filip.
The lining is something that most people probably don’t even think about that much but for Filip this is serious business. He uses most of the time a French waterproof anti allergic calf skin which the famous French leather house Hermès is using as well. But lately he’s also using rubberized leathers which he has a large selection from. This is getting more popular since it makes the strap lasting longer by heavy sweating in the hot summers for example.
The amount of watchstraps he is making a year he isn’t counting since it is his passion and he loves to make as much as he can handle. But he is working with private customers only and every strap is bespoke made so about mass production we can’t speak here, it is even far away from that. One has to compare this with a bespoke tailor in Naples for example. Filip is doing it all by himself and when it get’s really busy he has some family that he can count on. The time he spends on a watchstrap is between 2 and 6 hours of work depending on the type of skin and the type of strap a customer wants.
If you want to order a strap from Filip you can reach out to him via his website, Instagram or call him. He is based in a small town just 20 minutes away from the Warsaw Chopin airport and the city center of Warsaw. Which is a city I can highly recommend visiting since it is the home of many other amazing craftsmen.