FUNDAMENTALS: The NATO Strap

Felix Scholz

The NATO strap has been one of the quiet watchmaking revolutions of the last few years, emerging from its niche military roots to global wrist takeover. These brightly coloured straps are now included as standard options on mainstream Swiss luxury pieces and crowd pleasing Timex’s alike.

So what is a NATO strap?

Like so many good watch stories the story of the NATO takes a grain of truth and embellishes on it. NATO has become a catchall term for one-piece woven nylon watch straps initially designed for military use. The term NATO was popularised because it possess, like all military gear a NATO stock number (kind of like a barcode for the armed forces). The type of strap you could originally get off a military quartermaster was very specific, it was 20mm wide and battleship grey.
Nowadays the term NATO describes a wide variety of one-piece straps (usually nylong or fabric, but also leather) that come in all colours and sizes, they’re usually called NATO for convenience and military cool.

Oh, and James Bond wore one with his Rolex Submariner in Goldfinger. Do you need a greater incentive to give one a go?

Where do I get one?

The easiest and cheapest place to buy these straps is online. A quick Google or eBay search will come up with a veritable rainbow of wrist candy. Expect to pay around $15 for a decent one, and more for leather or bespoke options (like the one above, from Suigeneric)

How do I wear them?

The great thing about these straps is that they take about a minute to change and come in a great range of colours and patterns.

To put one on your watch you need to take the current watch band off, and put the springbars back in place. Thread the long strap through the bars, behind the caseback. Thread the long end of the strap through the buckle on the shorter, second strap ‘tail’ – this secures the watch on the strap. Strap it on, folding any excess length behind the buckle and you’re good to go!