Durum wheat landraces from Iran (37) and Mexico (42) grown under favorable conditions in northern Mexico were evaluated in detail for important compositional grain traits, gluten quality characteristics and ultimate baking performance. It was also characterized by SDS-PAGE for high and low molecular weight glutenins composition. Substantial phenotypic variation was observed for most traits, in both groups, with promisingly useful variability identified for attributes that typically limit durum wheat from being used in industrial bread-making processes, such as gluten extensibility and actual baking performance. Promising genotypes with atypically enhanced extensibility and/or baking performance, independently, from high protein content were identified and can be considered as valuable parental stocks to be exploited in durum breeding programs targeting the widening of the end-uses of this grain, particularly industrial bread-making. A significant number of novel glutenins subunit and/or subunit combinations, putatively novel alleles, were described. The variability observed within the collection evaluated was considerable and folds higher than that observed in modern durum gen pools at all loci. The Iranian group was found to be much more diverse than the Mexican group, both in terms of number of glutenin banding patterns and frequency of these combinations at practically all loci, which is consistent with their respective evolution histories: The Mexican Creoles wheats are in fact a small sample of the variability that was present in the Iberian Peninsula when they were moved to Mexico by the settlers while the Iranian landraces evolved very close to the center of Origin of durum wheat, maintained most of the variability that was developed in the region from the early days of durum wheat evolution.