Vasile Uglai makes the straps by hand, in Oradea, for a single watch

An article from October 2026 on the second name on the product sheets: Vasile Uglai, the craftsman in Oradea who cuts and stitches by hand the strap of each watch. The dial and the assembly are Augustin's, in Bucharest; the strap is the one component that changes over time, every two to four years of daily wear.

Fabrica de Stiri goes through the eight documented leathers, calf, alligator, lizard, shark, ostrich, duck, python and stingray, and ties them to pieces in the catalogue: alligator on 20.000 DE LEGHE SUB MĂRI, lizard on SFÂNTUL GABRIEL and APOLLO 11, ostrich on CHOPIN, duck on CONCEPTUL ANUBIS and MĂNĂSTIREA VORONEȚ. The watch given to Pope Francis sits on dark brown calf, in the tone of the Franciscan habit.

The attribution appears in at least five sources, the official product sheets among them: “and the straps are made by someone in Oradea, Vasile Uglai,” Augustin told Gândul in 2024.

The summary is written by the workshop. The article, its headline and its photographs belong to the publication.