Color Guide to Horween Shell Cordovan

Photo courtesy of Michael Williams

Photo courtesy of Michael Williams

Here at Corvus, we are proud to offer NATO and two-piece watchstraps made of genuine Shell Cordovan leather made by the Horween Company in Chicago, Illinois. Horween -- and only Horween -- make this magical leather the way that it has been done for over one hundred years. It takes a minimum of six months to tan and dye a shell to get the marvelous, supple final result. The depth and complexity of colors achieved with the aniline dyes are truly remarkable.


This is a short guide to the various colors of Horween Shell Cordovan. First, the colors offered in our standard line of watchstraps. From lightest to darkest:

NATURAL:

This is actually shell to which no color has been added at all. It is entirely undyed vegetable-tanned horse shell. When it is new, it is quite light in color -- a light tan, although the color varies depending on how long between the time it was manufactured and sold.

Corvus "Luftwaffe" Bund Pad w/ 2-piece Strap

Because it is undyed, the surface of the leather is variegated in finish. In other words, it can look as if there are subtle waterspots on the surface of the leather. This is perfectly normal. What you are seeing is the patina beginning to develop. The natural shell cordovan is perhaps the most magical of all the colors because of this characteristic -- the ability to take on a deep medium-nut brown patina with age. If you want a perfectly uniform color from the beginning that will stay more or less the same with age, you do not want natural. If you want a strap that builds visual character over time on your wrist, you want natural. It is for this reason that you rarely, if ever, see natural Shell Cordovan used for shoes. In fact, the natural is rarely found except on our watchstraps.

HORWEEN COLOR #4 (Corvus Color "Oxblood"):

Now we get to the wonderful browns and reds. Horween numbers these red/browns in order of darkness (i.e., proportion of brown to red) from #2 (lightest and most red) to #8 (darkest and most brown). We are fortunate to be able offer our watchstraps in the wonderful #4.

Corvus "Luftwaffe" Bund Pad with One-Piece Strap

We at Corvus call Color #4 "oxblood" because it has a lot of red in it, and is a rich, deep burgandy color. The surface has the most gloss of any of the dyed colors, as opposed to the mostly matte finish of the natural. This color will match many shoes and briefcases. It is a classic, preppy look. It is a very unusual color to find in Shell Cordovan and rarely available in anything but a few limited edition shoes and our Corvus watchstraps. Its manufacture is limited, as with the other lighter colors, to only the best quality shell hides.

HORWEEN COLOR #8 (Corvus Color "Dark Brown"):

Shoes by Alden, Photo by C.D. Moorby

For traditional clothing aficiandos, Horween Color #8 Shell Cordovan is an obsession, and such accessories (especially shoes) are items of veneration. It is quite simply the most famous shoe leather in the world, used extensively by Alden, Allen Edmond, Crockett & Jones, Yuketen and Beams. The appeal is due to the unusual complexity of color acheived by Horween in the dying process. When new, color #8 appears as a rich, dark brown with relatively little reddish tone. On a pair of shoes, however, as creases and folds develop, the dark brown begins to reveal a wide variety of red, reddish-brown, and even purple tones. Exposure to the sun causes further variation and lightening. Color #8 is less glossy than #4, almost, but not quite matte. Although we at Corvus call it "dark brown," the color is sometimes called "dark burgundy" or even "cordovan."

BLACK:

Black is jet black, with a fair degree of gloss. A wonderful color for shoes and watchstraps. It can look formal, or rock-n-roll. The black NATO strap with white stitching is striking, although the stitching around the edge of the strap is purely decorative. (Only the Natural and Black are available with optional white stitching around the edges).

Corvus "RAF" Bund Pad with Two-piece Strap

THE EXOTICS:

Horween also makes tiny amounts of other colors in the Shell Cordovan. They show up once in a while in custom or limited edition fashion leather goods. They are highly coveted.

Whiskey:

A light brown dyed color. Similar in tone to brand-new Natural shell, though without the ability to achieve a patina. This color is the only way to achieve a light brown that will not darken, as the Natural will darken to a very much darker nut brown in a few months. A lovely color that was once available as a custom Alden color, although it is no longer featured on their website. Very few shells are processed in this color because its light tone shows any imperfection in the hide.  




Ravello:

A medium-brown chestnut color. Somewhat similar to the color the natural will darken to, but without the variability and the vintage look. A great color, also once used by Alden, but apparently no more. Also very rare for the same reasons as the other light colors.

Cigar:

A medium-dark brown, a bit lighter than #8, but without the complexity of color and no red tones. A great solid brown. Very rare.

Ravello on left, Cigar on right. Shoes by Alden

Navy:

Navy blue shell cordovan. So rare that very few people have ever seen it or know of its existence. But it is made, and is unusual and very cool.

Shoes by Rancourt & Co., Lewiston, Maine

Green:

An olive/forest green. Reminiscent of the color of my family's 1964 Chevy Bel Air. A great, retro color, and my personal favorite right after Color #4 (Oxblood). Very rare.

Horween Color # 6:

A very obscure color that is much like #4, only darker. As suggested by the number, it is basically a reddish-brown halfway between #4 and #8. Instead, leave your  #8's in the sun for a few weeks.

Shoes by Ryder Boot Co.

Wallet by Ashland Leather

Horween Color #2:

Semi-mythical. A light reddish burgundy. About half as dark as #4, and one-quarter as dark as #8.

Scuba Diving Off the Peloponnese

INTO THE DRINK IN GREECE

In July 2011, I had the opportunity to ship out with a television production crew filming a program for the series Into the Drink. They were looking for people with a lot of scuba diving experience, were qualified in open water, deep diving and wreck penetration.  Basically, I was an extra on the show that featured diving trips to exotic locales as well as exploring the local culture and nightlife. My trip involved travelling around the Greek coast and islands on a 90 foot motor sailor, diving and generally carousing with ten passengers and film crew. I didn't quite know what I was getting into, but it turned out to be the best dive trip I had ever made.

When we assembled South of Athens and boarded our yacht, the MS Meltemi, the weather was hot, dry and the wind was blowing upwards of 30 knots. The little vessel rocked violently against her moorings on a stone and concrete pier jutting out into the Aegean. The ship was all by itself on this 1 km long pier. Though the ship was 90 feet long, she was tossed against her mooring lines like a toy. I was greeted at the ship by female members of the crew who helped me wrestle my heavy gear and baggage on board. As I sat alone in the galley listening to the crew members chatting in Greek, and feeling the boat shuddering as the wind howled through its two-masted rigging, I knew that this was going to be a special trip.

Shortly thereafter, a van approached full of a rowdy group of  young men and two girls. This was the production crew and a few other "cast members" like myself. I met Randy Harris, the producer of the program. Randy is 6' 2", shaved head, boisterous, Texan and very, very intelligent. The photographers and host of the program were also professionals with a lot of experience in diving and underwater videography. (The whole program was filmed in High-Definition TV).

TEMPLE OF POSEIDON

The Temple of Poseidon is perched on a cliff at the southernmost point of land below Athens. It is composed of beautiful columns carved from marble and limestone, and was a very holy place in ancient Greek religion. Due to the high winds, we delayed our departure about a day and went on land to visit the temple. The sun and the hot wind pushing through the ruins made it seem as though Poseidon still reigned there. The site was almost deserted and I felt an immediate spiritual connection to these ancient beliefs.

The following day, we dove off both the East and West shores of the temple. The visibility was good, and the water temperature only required a 3 mil wetsuit with no gloves or hoodie. The bottom was strewn with stony shingle-like material and only limited ocean life was seen.

The next several days were taken up with visiting nearby wrecks, one of which was an 1860's side-wheeler. The enormous wheel was still thrust up from the bottom, while the rest of the vessel was pretty much disintegrated. The aft was intact and I got to take a look inside. After diving these sites, we tied up next to small villages at night.

The shipboard regime was the same each day. Around 7 a.m. I would wake up in my small private cabin in the stern and go up on the aft deck where strong Greek coffee was waiting. The young, attractive female crew members would take our orders for breakfast and fix whatever we wanted. Sitting around in the morning sun sipping coffee and talking with the other members of the show and crew was just wonderful.

When you travel and live intimately with very bright, creative filmmakers, and exceptional sailing crew it makes for a wonderful experience. Never did I hear a dissenting voice from anyone, even when certain rations weren't available (primarily white wine). We would then brief for the dive of the day, and be picked up from the boat by a small fleet of inflatable craft. These were the dive masters who took us to the various sites from the boat itself. Watching the production crew with their expensive underwater cameras working their cinematic magic was interesting. The patience and dedication shown by the production crew was amazing. They took their work so seriously, and often were working late into the night, after an exhausting day in the water, tapping away on their laptops editing the days filming.

KYTHROS ANTIQUITIES DIVING

My most memorable dive was when we visited the island of Kythros. The island was awash in stucco white buildings lining a gorgeous little harbor. Our dive leader was a big Greek man who was confined to a wheelchair due to a serious motorcycle accident. After his wreck, he decided he could scuba dive using hand paddles which worked as well as a diver with conventional flippers on his feet. We visited his dive shop, which was a first-class operation, with all the necessary equipment. In his inflatables, he took us out to what was described as an "antiquities dive."

We only travelled to the middle of his harbor where there was a few rocks sticking up in the middle of the entrance.  These were very inconsequential looking, but lethal today as two thousand years ago.  As we dove around the prominence we descended deeper until the dive master started pointing out wreckage.  A ship, two thousand years ago, had hit this rock and sunk, spilling its cargo of (probably) wine, grain and olive oil all over the sea floor.  The only significant remains were the shattered amphorae which held the cargo.  Beautifully preserved by the gentle ocean currents, these relics brought all my bible and history lessons together.  I was again humbled by the magnificence of Greece and its wonderful culture.

WRECK OF THE AVANTIS

Another dive was made on the wreck of the “Avantis.”  In this case the ship had sunk only a few years ago.  It was a cargo ship of modern vintage, but had made the same mistake the captain two thousand years ago had made.  He challenged a rocky coast and lost!  All but one unfortunate sailor was rescued from this sinking.  The ship lay on its side on a steep underwater cliff.  The stern extended below our safe dive limits, but the bow was easily accessible.  I got a good picture looking inside the bridge.  The captain’s chair was still there, upended from the collision.

The rest of the wreck was unremarkable, except what happened next.  As I swam back to the infallibles, I saw two of our divers frantically trying to wash something off their faces.  Both of their faces were bright red and I could tell their eyes were hurting.  It appears they penetrated a compartment on the wreck that was still full of gas or diesel fuel which had leaked in.  I had seen this phenomenon several years earlier on a WWII Japanese wreck that still had a compartment with aviation gas in it.  These fossil fuels are lighter than water and will stay suspended in sealed ship spaces. Therefore, it is easy to enter a part of the ship and ascend up into the fuel. The divers made an emergency ascent and were trying to get the fuel off their skin.  Seeing their plight, I dropped off my tanks and swam to a nearby yacht.  I explained our plight to the ship’s master and asked for a bar of soap for the men to wash off the remaining gas.  This was the simplest solution to the problem and worked very well.  So, when diving, know where you are going and try to be PREPARED!

ATHENS

     At the end of our diving we spent several days in Athens seeing the sights and shopping.  I could yak about the great things to see and do in Athens, but it has all been said before.  Needless, it is a great city and one of my favorite in the world.  So, I am going to share my thoughts on the current problems there.   In August of last year the Greek economy was in difficult straits.  Everyone I spoke with had a different opinion on the financial problems; foremost was the lack of leadership in the Greek parliament.  This had sown tremendous mistrust of public officials.

Next, in the people's ire was the European Union and the agreements which the Greek people had to meet financially to remain a member.  These included deals on buying armaments which included expensive and unnecessary German submarines.  One old line Communist even stated the Greek Orthodox Church was to blame due to its vast wealth, lack of taxation and miserly treatment of its parishioners.  The bottom line is that the Greek people have endured major pay reductions, increased taxes and horrible unemployment to be a part of the EU.  The one overriding thought was “what do we need the Euro for when we had a good economy with our old Drachma?”

I spent an hour in Syntagma Square, which is adjacent to the Parliament building, hanging out with the protestors.  Thousands of well dressed business people pass thru the park every day from the offices of downtown to the central subway station and on to flats in the suburbs.  I watched this cavalcade of hard working, well dressed people while I was sitting on a park bench among the small throng of protestors.  The workers had to thread their way through this mess of “protestors.” The protestors had the look and feel of a decrepit 1960’s hippie commune.  People lived in tents under virulent banners of rebellion, waiting for something to happen.  They seemed to spend most of their time wandering around and visiting a small village of porta-pottys.  A van load of Detroit cops could have rousted the whole filthy bunch in twenty minutes.

The only tourists I encountered en mass on the whole trip were while visiting the Acropolis.  Suddenly thousands of tee shirt wearing “tourists” were in front of me.  It seems that two cruise ships had simultaneously docked and released their tide of fun seekers.   My thoughts on this are people still want to visit the Greek isles, but have been frightened away by the threat of street violence. So, they find safety in cruise ship vacations. Obviously, this only exacerbates their financial problem by inhibiting the tourist industry.

To sum up my trip to Greece, we stopped for lunch halfway up a mountain and visited the only taverna in the village.  It overlooked a distant green valley and was easily one of the sweetest places I had ever been.  The only other people in the open air restaurant were apparently a family having lunch.  The women were all dressed in black and the men wore black shirts.  It was somber and they were talking quietly among themselves.  It was a funeral luncheon.  As we ordered up beers and lunch, what appeared to be the matriarch of the group walked slowly up to our tables.  I thought “oh no here it comes…we were being too loud and acting disrespectfully.”  She spoke softly with the most sincere expression.  Translation revealed the following statement:  “Thank you for coming to Greece in our time of troubles, and not being afraid.”

You can view all of my photos from the trip on the Corvus Facebook Page, and my movies on our YouTube Channel.

For more information about the airing of this TV episode, please visit the Into the Drink Website.

How to Put On and Wear a NATO Watchstrap

This is our second how-to video. While our first dealt with how to safely install any nylon strap without causing it to fray, this one deals specifically with the mysteries of the NATO G-10 watch strap -- you know, the one with that odd little extra piece of nylon. Please enjoy.

How to Properly Install a Real Bond Nylon Watchstrap

Once in a while we get an email from a customer who complains that his or her Corvus Real Bond Watchstrap has begun to fray along the edges. Sometimes the comment is even that the edges became frayed right after putting the strap on their watch.

Fraying along the edges of the Corvus Real Bond (or any nylon) watchstrap is always caused by the edge of the nylon scraping agains the watch lugs when the strap is slid between the lugs without first removing the springbars.

We have put together a video tutorial on how to properly put a NATO or other nylon watch strap on a watch:

The lugs of many watchs, especially military-style watches (such as our Corvus Bradley Dive Watch) are quite sharp. When you pull a nylon watch strap through without removing the springbars, it is like taking the edge of a knife and scraping it against the edge of the nylon. In these cases, even a brand-new strap will fray.

We recently reviewed a number of videos on YouTube, etc. on "How to install a NATO watchstrap." All of them are wrong, and give dangerous advice. You must carefully slide the nylon between the lugs, while pinching it so that the edges do not scrape against the lugs.

Many of the cheaper copies of the NATO watchstrap design are made of backpack webbing. This has a low thread count, and thick nylon thread. This stiff, uncomfortable webbing is is made to be quickly pulled through D-Rings and other hardware.

Corvus watchstraps are made of supple, high thread-count nylon, woven specifically to wear on your wrist. A little care when putting the strap on and taking it off your watch will result in a strap that will look great for years. Members of our staff have been wearing the same Real Bond straps every day for over three years and they still look good.

The Untold History of the Bonklip Watch Bracelet

Bonklip watch bracelets were first developed in the late 1920's and the early 1930's, and are widely associated with the Royal Air Force and British military watches in general. The primary link with the RAF is that the easily adjustable bracelet was issued to post-WWII aircrews to wear on their legendary Mark XI navigation watches. These were made for the RAF by Jaeger-LeCoultre and IWC, and are two of the most accurate mechanical watches ever made.

The Bonkip watch bracelet was an innovative design for several reasons. It was one of the first mass-produced and relatively cheap watch bracelets to use stainless steel (examples are variously marked "Firth's Stainless" and "Staybrite," a trademark for the 18/8 stainless steel invented by Thomas Firth of Newcastle, England in 1924). Second, the bracelet was easily and quickly adjustable to virtually any size.

The Bonklip bracelet's association with the British Military has been well documented by Adrian van der Meijden and Thomas Koenig in their article: The Bonklip Bracelet in his Majesty's Service, Horological Journal, December 2007. The Mark XI navigational watches are covered comprehensively in the article Man is Not Lost, Horological Journal, January 2004. In general, however, virtually nothing was known about the Bonklip itself until now.

The Krementz Self-Adjustable Watch Band


The Bonklip design may not have been a British invention at all. Although an English patent was applied for by Dudley Russel Howitt on March 6, 1930 (and later granted), an American patent application was filed for virtually the same design on April 10, 1929 by Walter M. Krementz.
Walter Krementz was the son of George Krementz, who founded the Newark, N.J. jewelry company Krementz & Co. in 1869. The company became successful by pioneering the technique of sandwiching base metal between two sheets of real gold, resulting in "gold-filled" or "Rolled Gold Plate" jewelry, a superior alternative to electroplating. Their big breakthrough was in selling gold-filled collar-studs, a now obsolete piece of jewelry used to fasten the removable starched collars used on men's shirts until the First World War.

Krementz Factory in Newark, N.J.

By 1929, Walter and his brother George, Jr. ran what was probably the world's largest jewelry company, and sold a full line of watch bracelets. A 1929 advertisement shows Krementz watch bracelets for men, that used "tubular mesh bands" and "open link mesh bands" identical to the later Bonklip-style bracelets, except with conventional folding clasps, and without the length adjustability.

However, on April 29, 1929, Walter filed a U.S. Patent application for a "Wrist Watch Bracelet" that utilized the open-link mesh band of their earlier products, and combined it with the fold-over adjustment loop and universal attachment clip that made the Bonklip so popular.

A patent was granted to Krementz & Company and the bracelet -- virtually identical to the later Bonklip -- was on sale at least as early as 1931. 

Krementz self-adjustable watch bands were marked "Krementz, Pat. Oct. 1930, "Kremaloy". The Kremaloy seems to have been a type of stainless steel. Surviving examples are  still completely rust-free. $3.50 was the equivalent of about $60 today, after adjusting for inflation, although this is misleading as this 1933 ad was from the height of the depression. At the time this ad appeared, the average daily wage in the USA was only about $30 in today's dollars. Two days wages; not a cheap product.

The Krementz bracelets seem to have not been terribly popular. Far fewer survive than the Bonklip, and although Krementz dominated the costume jewelry market until the 1970's, no post-WWII bracelets of this type appear to have been made. In the 1950's and 1960's, after the Kementz patent expired, another American company, Forstner, made a very similar product for a number of years. These Forstner bracelets are quite common, many in new old stock condition.

The Success of the Bonklip

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, eleven months after Walther Krementz filed his U.S. Patent application, a Londoner, Dudley Russel (sic) Howlitt filed a British Patent application on April 6, 1930 for an almost identical invention. Howlitt followed this up in August, 1930 with a German Patent application. Both patents were eventually granted. While the Krementz bracelet would largely be forgotten, Howlitt's product, sold as the "Bonklip," would become famous.

Dudley Howlitt was one of six children of Harry and Francis Howlitt. He worked in the thriving jewelry industry in the Clerkenwell district of London. There is some evidence that he may have at one time been a silversmith and made and sold Sterling silver cigarette lighters under his own name and with his products bearing an "HRH" maker's mark along with London Hallmarks. 

Sterling Silver cigarette lighter possibly made by Dudley Russel Howlett

What is certain is that at the time he patented what was to become the Bonklip watch bracelet, he was associated with the Birmingham jewelry company B.H. Britton and Sons, and worked out of their London offices at New House, 67-68 Hatton Garden, London. The New House was an office building right in the center of the Jewelry District in Clerkenwell, just north of the City. It still is a handsome building today, and the entire district has enjoyed a resurgence in the past few decades.



Former location of the London offices of B.H. Britton and Sons as it looks today

B.H. Britton and Sons manufactured the Bonklip bracelet for over forty years, and it is today their best-known product by far. The company began in 1855 as Benjamin Henry Britton and Sons at a workshop at 83 Vyse Steet, Birmingham, makers of "gold guard and fancy chains." These are more commonly known as pocket watch chains. By 1929, they had become B. H.  Britton & Sons, "manufacturers of Gold Cigarette Cases, Vesta Boxes, Tear-offs, Alberts, Platinum Alberts, Signet Rings, Expanding Watch Bracelets, Slave Bangles, Flexible Bracelets, Sleeve Links, Guards, Necklets in 9 ct., 15 ct., and 18 ct. and Silver Alberts." (A bit of explanation: an Albert chain is a type of heavy pocket watch chain, and a Vesta box is a match safe). The factory had also relocated to 35 Hockley Hill, Birmingham, in the middle of what was (and still is) known as Birmingham's Jewelry District. They also had opened their London sales office at New House.

Pocket Watch Chain made by B.H. Britton and Sons

B.H. Britton and Sons was an especially prolific maker of silver chains, and also made silver-cased cigarette lighters. It may have been this cigarette lighter connection that brought Dudley Howitt to the firm.

Sterling Silver Cigarette Lighter signed "B&S"

According to surviving Britton family members, the company also made gold watch cases for Rolex and exported watch chains world-wide. There is also evidence that Rolex sold some watches with Bonklip bracelets during the 1930's and 1940's.

1940's Rolex sold recently at Christie's with apparently original Bonklip 

While perhaps not the large-scale industrial operation that Krementz was, B.H.B. & S. were certainly the preeminent watch chain maker in England.

The Bonklip watch bracelet represented a move into mass-market products for the firm, which had been essentially a fine jewelery maker (far more so than Krementz, which was basically a costume jeweler). The Bonklip can, however, be found in solid 9 ct. gold, with London hallmarks and a "B & S" maker's mark. The vast majority of Bonklips, however, were stainless steel with some gold-filled as well.

9 kt solid gold Bonklip bracelet signed "B & S"

Even in the 1960's, B.H. Britton and Sons still considered themselves primarily goldsmiths, and had expanded into signet rings, gold crosses, and as a sign of changing fashions, tie clips. The firm, after 120 years of making fashionable accessories for gentlemen, as well as equipping RAF aircrews and countless military personnel, folded in about 1973. The fact that their factory was slated for demolition to make way for road improvements may have had something to do with it. The British Ministry of Defense officially dropped the Bonklip from their stock-lists about this time, replacing it with a nylon strap with a leather pad, and eventually the now famous "G-10 NATO" nylon strap.

B.H. Britton and Son's patent expired in 1950, and while it still remained a popular product, it faced growing competition from G & F (Gay Freres, later to be bought by Rolex) and other Swiss, French and American (Forstner) copycats. The Bonklip even faced competition from another Birmingham Jewelry company, Clewco (E.J. Clewley and Co.).

A few words about the Bonklip military connection. While the British Ministry of Defense only issued Bonklip bracelets to RAF aircrew in the 1950's and 1960's, it is wrong to say that the Bonklip bracelet is "incorrect" when worn on earlier military watches. Enough ATP (Army Trade Pattern), A.M. (Air Ministry) and post-war W.W.W. (wrist watch, waterproof) watches survive with period Bonklips to make it clear that this was a popular and useful watch bracelet that was widely adopted as a private purchase by thousands of soldiers throughout WWII and after. They even appear on U.S.A.A.F. A-11 watches, a big improvement over the pigskin and cheap cotton issue straps.

The Bonklip certainly out-sold the Krementz bracelet many times over, and represents a proud piece of Britain's manufacturing and military heritage.

Bibliography

• The Jewelers' Circular-Weekly, Vol. 78, Issue 1 (February 5, 1919), pp. 193-195.
• Board of Trade British Industries Fair Catalogue 1929: held at The White City, Shepherd's Bush, London W12, from 18 February to 1 March, 1929, and organised by the Department of Overseas Trade (Empire and Home Edition).