Since 2016, Xavier and Agnès Broise have been handcrafting watch straps in the seaside town of Pospoder, France. The siblings successfully combined their passions (Xavier’s for watches and Agnès’s for design) to form the Avel & Men watch accessory company. They were kind enough to give me a few samples of their straps for this review (merci!), and I was blown away by their creations.
The Avel & Men team works in leather and three types of canvas, all of which are sourced from local suppliers and sailmakers. I did not try the leather but instead sampled each of their cloth models. All are leather-lined and arrive equipped with standard spring bars and stainless steel buckles. They stock the most common widths, and custom sizes can be ordered for an additional €50. All of the sample straps were 115/80mm long.
I’m sure most of you are familiar with Cordura, a durable synthetic canvas originally developed for ballistic vests. It is a tight weave of high-strength nylon thread and has a characteristic sheen. My sample was the Tampa (€129) in Orange with navy leather keepers and a jaunty French tricolor stitch on the right side of the strap’s tail end. I’ll note that €10 of that purchase price is donated to the Pospoder Coast Guard Rescue Team.
Seaqual is another synthetic canvas, but this one is comprised entirely of post-consumer plastic, 10% from plastic marine litter, and 90% from land-sourced PET. Like the Cordura, it has a tight box weave.
I got two of these, one Dark Navy and one White Linen, in Avel & Men’s Port Louis style (€129), which is lightly padded with Seaqual keepers and the tricolor stitch. To my eye, the material had less of a sheen than the Cordura.
The last was a true technical sailcloth, which is to say, they are made from actual upcycled sail material recovered from local sail makers. These are unpadded, feature leather edging and keepers, and display Avel and Men’s most striking colors and patterns.
The sample Ouessant (€169) was orange cloth with blue leather and bright orange stitching. It’s made from storm sail, the kind used for heavy weather. I received a swatch of the material, and it is exceptionally tough. You will have to do some violence to make this fabric tear or fray.
This is a beautifully crafted strap. Take a moment to appreciate that leather. It is not just on the edge and keepers, but it also reinforces the adjustment holes and the tang notch. Every millimeter is straight and even.
Of course, the best part of conducting any strap review is when you use them to dress up some watches. I have amassed a fairly broad collection, so is never difficult to find the perfect match. In this case, I cheated a bit. Xavier asked if I had any particular watches in mind, and I suggested some, including my Towson Watch Company Cadet and the unusual khaki/gold ombre Armand Nicolet MM2 with its lurid orange hands.
The Ouessant looked positively wild on the Cadet; the orange brought out the inky blue color of the dial and lit up its yellow numbers.
The orange Tampa Cordura proved to be a surprisingly fresh pairing on the Armand Nicolet. Its safety orange is slightly lighter than that of the Ouessant’s sailcloth, and it proved to be a perfect match for the watch’s distinctive handset.
It didn’t look too shabby on my Prometheus Eagle Ray, either.
Because Avel & Men is a French company, and three out of the four review samples wore a tricolor stitch, I felt compelled to put them on French watches. As it turned out, they worked best on the two Seaqual straps. I paired the Linen White with my vintage Berli-Lyon. I have learned that this watch was produced for Berliet, the Lyon-based truck manufacturer since acquired by Renault.
The Navy Seaqual looked nice on many watches. I ultimately settled on my Charlie Paris Concordia, where the dark, almost midnight strap complemented the similarly deep blue of the dial. Vive La France! Now I feel the urge to buy a Yema and a Lip too.
On the wrist, the Avel & Men straps conformed quickly. Even the padded Port Louis Seaqual models accepted the tight bend around my 6.75″ wrist without fuss. The slimmer Tampa and Ouessant were easier still. With their soft leather lining, none of the straps allowed the coarser nylon weave to touch my skin.
I could not have been happier with the Avel & Men straps. They are attractive, comfortable, and beautifully made. I love what Agnès and Xavier are doing in terms of local sourcing and upcycling. These straps are not cheap, but they give every indication that they will last a lifetime. I found the sail and leather combination to be almost irresistible.
As for me, I can’t wait to show these straps off at the next watch meet-up. Head on over to avel-and-men.com and check them out for yourself.
