In 2014, Howard Riady, who was a graduate student at the University of Chicago at the time, bought a vintage stainless steel Omega Speedmaster at a local antique shop. The watch was in good condition, but its leather strap was cracked and brittle. And, he discovered, finding a suitable replacement wasn’t easy.
“I was trying to shop around for straps, but I have a really tiny wrist,” he said. “All the straps are too long, so they don’t fit my wrist properly, and I couldn’t really find anything that spoke to me.”
Mr. Riady decided to made his own watchband, consulting books and YouTube tutorials. Eventually that turned into a career: In 2017, he founded Veblenist, a company specializing in watch straps.
Veblenist now makes straps in materials that include alligator, ostrich, calfskin and canvas. And Mr. Riady often uses skins with unusual finishes, including leather embossed with stripes and distinctively patterned cowhide.
“My goal is to really deliver straps that are so unique that you wouldn’t find another one elsewhere,” Mr. Riady said. He was speaking by phone from Veblenist’s office and workshop in a 19th century industrial building in the Goose Island neighborhood of Chicago, about two miles from the local boutiques of international luxury brands such as Rolex, Panerai and Vacheron Constantin. Customers with such watches, and Apple watches, have ordered straps from Veblenist’s online shop, its only sales outlet. It also sells timepiece-adjacent products, including watch boxes and valet trays.
The straps Veblenist makes in-house range from a $110 cowhide leather single-piece strap that it makes to order to a highly customized $265 alligator strap for a timepiece like a 42-millimeter Patek Philippe Nautilus. (It also sells less expensive rubber and nylon premade straps on its website.) For its high-end straps, the company sources skins from tanneries in Italy, France and Germany as well as Horween, the respected supplier and leather goods specialist about a half-hour walk from the Veblenist headquarters.
Its stainless steel buckles, all with discreet logos and in steel, gold plated or black PVD (physical vapor deposition) finishes, are manufactured in Hong Kong.
Mr. Riady said the he aimed to create straps that were distinctive, but that don’t make too strong a statement. “I let the watch shine, basically,” he said. “I don’t want the strap to overtake the watch, because the watch is the main character.”
Mr. Riady, 36, was born in San Francisco and raised in Jakarta, Indonesia, where his father was a private banking executive. In 2011 he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Emory University in Atlanta and the following year moved to Chicago to pursue a doctorate in economics, with plans to become a professor.
But about a year into his graduate studies, he became interested in watches and began immersing himself in collectors’ forums and other online sources of horological information.
“What interested me is how they bring together design, history and craftsmanship,” he said. “I found myself obsessing about the smallest details, like case finishing, dial font and patina on the lume.” (He was referring to the luminous coating often applied to watch hands and markers.)
With his vintage Omega and its self-made strap on his wrist, Mr. Riady began attending collectors’ meet-ups; when other watch aficionados admired the strap, he started taking orders. His business initially was located on a countertop that doubled as a dining table in his small one-bedroom apartment, but moved to its current location in 2019.
The brand now employs nine strap makers who once worked in professions such as auto body detailing and upholstery manufacture. While Mr. Riady said the business is doing well, he declined to share sales numbers.
In addition to customer orders, Veblenist has made straps for new timepieces from watch brands based in Chicago, including the Cornell Watch Company and Astor+Banks.
“Him being a Chicago brand just adds to the story,” said John Warren, a founder of Cornell. “We would have used him if he was anywhere else in the U.S.”
Working with Mr. Riady, he added, “just makes our lives easier. It’s just not something we worry about and we worry about a lot. We know his stuff is going to be good and it will get there on time and he’s flexible.”
Even though Mr. Riady is not a Chicago native, Veblenist has become part of the city’s horological story, which began in the 19th century.
“There is a long history of manufacturing and making things, and it is specific to watches to some extent here in the Chicago area,” said Tony Traina, a local resident and the founder of Unpolished, a watch collectors’ newsletter. (When he decided to offer a gift to top-tier subscribers, he purchased valet trays from Veblenist.)
Regional brands have included the Elgin National Watch Company, named for the nearby Illinois city where the watchmaker initially was based. “To Chicagoans, those are not just names on a dial but actual places,” Mr. Traina said.
Coincidentally, the Elgin branch of Tandy Leather, a national chain, was where Mr. Riady bought the tools and leather to make his first strap.
Veblenist’s unusual name comes from “Veblen goods,” an economic term for items whose desirability increases as their prices rise. “I find that watches exhibit this characteristic a little bit,” Mr. Riady said.
The quirky label also adds a salient characteristic to the brand.
“Given my background, I thought it was a fun, unique name,” he added. “It’s a conversation starter. It’s a little bit of a hard name, but once people get it, actually, they love it.”
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