Why I only wear one kind of watch strap

We live in a world of shortcuts – same-day shipping, AI-generated everything, and factories that spit out thousands of products a minute. But there are still people who take the long road. People who believe that what we wear on our wrists – and how it feels—should mean something. David Richards is one of those people.

As the founder of The Strap Tailor, David doesn’t just make watch straps. He crafts emotional extensions of the watches we love—by hand, with intention, one at a time. I’ve been collecting watches for years, and The Strap Tailor is the only strap maker I buy from. This interview is more than a conversation about leather and buckles—it’s a window into the kind of obsession that anyone in specialty coffee will recognize. A respect for detail. A love for slowness. A refusal to cut corners.

David’s journey mirrors my own: leaving behind the predictability of corporate life to chase something more personal, more meaningful. In this conversation, we talk about risk, ritual, the emotional weight of craft—and yes, the slippery slope of coffee gear.

I recently left the corporate world to pursue coffee full-time, a leap that was both exhilarating and terrifying. You left a stable career to build The Strap Tailor from the ground up. What was the moment that made you say, ‘It’s now or never’? And looking back, what do you wish you had known before making that leap?

I too left the corporate world to pursue my passion and I never look back! I left a large tech giant with a great salary, but I was fed up with jumping through the corporate hoops doing work that I felt was low value and not at all fulfilling. I started my business as a hobby really and it just blew up! I worked The Strap Tailor and my main job alongside each other for about three years before I took the leap and the turning point was burnout, something had to give. Long days, long commutes and low value work just took its toll and I quit and followed my dreams. I now work three minutes from my house in our unit in the countryside and I don’t miss the corporate nonsense whatsoever. Looking back I wish I had made the leap sooner, when you dedicate yourself to what you love the amount of energy and passion is unrivalled, things grow fast when you can dedicate yourself to them!

When someone steps away from a conventional career path to chase their passion, fear is inevitable – fear of failure, financial instability, even self-doubt. What were the biggest fears you wrestled with when starting The Strap Tailor, and how did you push through them?

Initially the fear of losing everything you have worked hard for. Taking a leap of faith to run your own business when you know statistically that most fail is a tough choice, am I going to be the failure? I didn’t doubt myself, I have the skills with product, marketing and working with customers. I knew my product was good and I felt like I was offering customers what they wanted and there was demand for that. The question I had was whether I could make enough money to sustain a business full time. 7 years later and here I am with a small team and a wonderful small business that I am very proud of. If you love what you do it doesn’t feel like work, this rings true when you follow your passions.

Coffee lovers and watch enthusiasts both appreciate rituals – the slow, intentional process of brewing a pour-over or winding a mechanical timepiece. Do you have any daily rituals that keep you grounded in your craft? And does coffee play a role in your creative process?

Haha, I love coffee too. Fun story but I didn’t like coffee until about 3 years ago. I am 41 now and I wish I had tried it again earlier in life. It’s one of those things that I hated growing up and just assumed I didn’t like it. A chance purchase of a coffee machine for my wife turned that around. She loves coffee but couldn’t ‘dial it in’ on the espresso machine so I had to learn how to do it for her…and that meant tasting it. God did I get a taste for it. Fast forward and now I LOVE coffee and have all sorts of brewing gadgets. It’s a slippery slope.

Today coffee is part of the everyday. I love waking up and making coffee for myself and my wife, it’s the start of the day for me and I love the process, it’s mindful. I also love dialling in new beans. I have a La Marzocco machine and I love getting the recipe right!

We live in a world that moves faster than ever, yet both specialty coffee and luxury watchmaking encourage us to slow down and savor the moment. How does The Strap Tailor embrace this philosophy, and how do you personally slow down amidst the fast pace of entrepreneurship?

For me slowing down means enjoying my other passions. I love to hike, to be out in nature and to be out walking my dogs. My wife and I have a big campervan that has been beautifully made bespoke and that’s our escape, our capsule where we can take almost anywhere and enjoy being off grid. For me that is peace, it slows the mind down. And yes, it also has plenty of coffee gadgets on board, but the more tactile ones that do not require power! The van for us is about disconnecting, and that means hand grinding beans too.

Both watchmaking and coffee brewing attract a certain kind of mind – people who are drawn to precision, detail, and the pursuit of mastery. Do you see yourself as more of a perfectionist or an obsessive? And how do you know when a strap is ‘good enough’ to ship, versus when your craft demands you keep refining it?

Hard to answer that. I have an autistic mind so I can really focus on things I love, almost compulsively but that can have its challenges too as I can overly stress over the simple things. I’ve tried to now just focus on two core things and that is product and customer service. If I obsess over those things and the customer feels that obsession in their interactions with me and our product then I count that as a success. We are always evolving and refining, that is just what you do when you run a business and make a product but that’s what keeps it interesting. New threads, new tools, new leathers…so many things you can tweak to make a better product!

People romanticize the idea of ‘following your passion,’ but the reality is that every choice comes with a cost. What’s something you had to sacrifice – whether financially, socially, or personally—to build The Strap Tailor into what it is today?

Initially it was time. I had to spend every waking hour working on my business and maintaining a full time job. That meant working before I started my commute and working until 3am handwriting packaging to thank customers in the early days. Weekends were a write off too, there was nothing left. But, I knew if I worked hard enough to start a team there would be light at the end of the tunnel. There is no question that running a small business is a sacrifice and more so at the outset, but it gets easier, you learn as you go and you build so many incredible skills. I am lucky with my background that it’s not all rocket science but I can see how so many people shy away from the idea of running a business, at times it’s terrifying! I also sacrificed a large salary at my previous company, but in my mind the freedom this has bought me running my business is worth more than any money in a job I don’t enjoy or have no passion for.

We live in an age of Amazon Prime, fast fashion, and mass production – yet both your business and specialty coffee embrace slowness and intentionality. How do you stay patient in a world that constantly pushes for speed and scale?

This is a tough one. In retail customers want everything now, tomorrow…and we can thank Amazon for that! When you make mostly handmade products the large proportion of customers understand that straps take time, but many do not and they want it tomorrow and that is just not possible. I think customers forget this is a small business, not a warehouse like Amazon with thousands of people. We try to inform customers the best we can of the timelines but we also get sick, take holidays etc – and many customers don’t care, they just want their product. We get it, it’s hard to wait for things you have paid for, but quality products take time and we won’t cut corners to speed things up! We have evolved our business to also offer more ‘ready to wear’ straps though to ensure customers do also have that option, then you can make an educated choice, you either wait and have the strap made to your specs or you take an off the peg option.

A well-crafted watch strap isn’t just an accessory – it tells a story. Maybe it reminds someone of their grandfather’s watch or marks a milestone in their life. Have there been any customer stories or moments that made you realize your work is about so much more than leather and stitching?

Oh loads! These are my favourite straps. Watches passed down from grandparents, parents and partners. It doesn’t matter what the value of that watch is on the market, the value to the new owner is priceless. When you can craft something to get that watch back on the wrist it’s magical. Some of the most memorable feedback comes from these interactions. We also do a lot of work with custom leathers. One of these recently came from a ship wreck in the 1800’s and it was incredible. So cool to work with such unique leathers like that.

For many founders, their brand becomes their identity. It’s hard to separate where ‘The Strap Tailor’ ends and where ‘David Richards’ begins. Do you ever struggle with that? And how do you maintain a sense of self outside of your work?

I actually try not to make my brand about me. It’s a tricky balance because a lot of customers love that personal touch, but you need to strike a balance as we are a team now and it’s not just about me. My sister also works with me and Shannon has been with us a year, we are a unit, we work best when we are together and that is ‘The Strap Tailor’. I would struggle without my team! Now that my business has stability I also try to maintain core working hours. With your own business your mind never switches off, you are always working but I try and stick to core hours that I am physically at work and that maintains some sort of normality.

A lot of people dream of quitting their jobs and building something from scratch, but very few actually do it. What’s one piece of advice you’d give to someone who’s standing at that crossroads – wondering whether to take the leap or stay on the safe path?

Don’t quit until you have validated your idea. You can’t run away from job security before you have validated your idea and at least have some traction. The risk is too high. Save some money whilst you have the safety of a pay check, give yourself a buffer of funds that you can rely on and then go for it. I’d hate to think someone will look back on their past wishing they had tried something. It’s better to fail knowing you tried than to never try at all. You can always get another good, so go get it!

Since this interview is for FLTR Magazine, I have to ask, how do you enjoy coffee in your daily life? What’s your go-to brew method at home, and what do you order when you’re at a coffee shop? Does your choice change depending on the moment or mood?

At home my go to is my La Marzocco Mini, I love it. I love the way it looks, I love the quality and I love the process and simplicity in making my coffee. It’s such a repeatable process when you have a great machine! I typically drink my coffee black in the week on the go and then at the weekends an Americano with oat milk on the sofa with my dogs when I have time for a lazy weekend start. I so look forward to that moment each week. Flat whites if I am passing through somewhere, it’s easier to drink on the go because it’s not hotter than the sun. I feel spoilt by my home set up so its rare I get a coffee out and about that I actually enjoy, the chains are dreadful so it has to be a nice little independent to really enjoy their coffee.

There’s something deeply reassuring about people like David Richards. Not just because they care about quality, but because they remind us that it’s still possible to build something honest, by hand, and make it work. That the things we touch every day, whether it’s a watch strap or a coffee dripper, can carry the fingerprints of someone else’s passion.

In a world obsessed with scale, The Strap Tailor is proof that small can still be powerful. That slower can still be better. And that even the tiniest details, like the grain of leather against your wrist, can anchor us in the kind of craftsmanship that refuses to die.