A watch strap is an easy thing to take for granted, until it breaks on you. Only then do you realize that a well-made strap, while not as technically complex as the watch movement themselves, is a feat of manufacturing in its own right. There’s fitting, splitting, pressing, stitching—and that’s just a fraction of what it takes to ensure the pretty face of your watch remains fixed to your wrist. In total there are more than 30 procedures required to make a watch strap.
It’s a craft, and it’s clear that if you can master a watch strap, you can probably make any number of other leather products, too. At least that’s the bet Shinola is making with its newly-opened leather factory. The watch brand recently opened a 12,000 square-foot factory dedicated to making leather watch straps. In a couple of months it will begin cranking out small leather goods like wallets, iPad covers and keychains, as well. This factory is the newest addition to the watchmaker’s 60,000 square-foot complex in Detroit, and it’s a testament to Shinola’s well-publicized conquest to revitalize craft in America and its homebase city.
Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!