Just picked up IW379503 'Charles Darwin' Expedition bronze-cased chronograph - it's a truly lovely watch and the textured rubber strap is top quality.
But I'd quite like to dress it up a bit on occasion (I don't swim with it much if ever wearing any watch, even a dive watch) and wondered if any third party out there is doing straps to fit the 44mm chronograph case?
I already contacted the IWC Concierge-Europe team but was informed the only OEM option is the one that came with the watch.
A bit annoying really - with steel watches at least you have the bracelet as an option, and it seems pointless for IWC to have fitted a quick release mechanism to a watch with no other strap options. I guess the same must apply to others in the Expedition series (Shark, Galapagos etc) and I suspect the case is the same geometry as the other 44mm chronographs too - so IWC is really missing a trick here.
Any pointers to a third party doing these would be appreciated. Something like a dark brown matte alligator or fine-grained black calf leather would be awesome on this watch.
