NATO straps & I have a checkered past & as of right now, an uncertain future.
As a kid, whenever I wore a watch, I would inevitably wear out the cheap strap or break the bracelet, losing the hollow end link that originally came with the watch. We were never well off enough to buy a nice replacement strap that matched the OEM strap or a replacement bracelet & I definitely could not just get a whole new watch. So, we called upon the all-purpose NATO to allow the still functioning watch to continue doing what it did best; being a mobile clock & keeping me on time for dinner or curfew.
I hated them. I wanted the original look of the watch back. The designed look was why I got the watch. A NATO just didn’t look right to me, and it still doesn’t.
The NATO strap is a very functional piece of kit, don’t get me wrong. The idea of a NATO strap is very practical. There is a reason it’s been issued by militaries of the world for the past 50 years. They are great for people that do activities like kayaking or snowshoeing where the unpredictable nature of the activity might lead to a catastrophic loss of the watch if a NATO was not deployed. The loop of material that always goes around your wrist & keeps the watch head attached to the strap even if a spring bar fails is a great invention.
However, for all the function the NATO strap has, it is sorely lacking in the form aspect of design. It’s just a simple piece of fabric with a buckle sewn on to one end and holes punched into the opposite end. In the vast majority of applications, the NATO/watch marriage looks like a 21st century bride with a caveman groom. A nylon NATO does the basic job of keeping the watch on your wrist, sure; it’s just there are better looking options available.
“But what about a more premium material like leather?”, you might say.
Leather is a nice and durable material, but it is misapplied as a NATO material. A typical quality leather strap is roughly twice as thick as a nylon strap. This extra thickness raises the watch more off the wrist and also creates larger gaps between the bottom of the lugs and your wrist due to it not being quite as supple as the nylon. For leather being a premium material, it just makes the look and wearing experience worse, in my opinion. (Side Note: It’s funny how all the product shots of NATO’s don’t show the side view of the watch on the wrist. They know it’s a weakness, so they never show it.)
So, all in all, while I respect the role NATO straps play in the world of horology, their use in everyday life is just not something I want to do. I’m not a person that engages in those adventurous activities where the risk of losing your watch is elevated (but still rare). I don’t find them all that useful for my lifestyle & I feel like NATO straps just cheapen the look of most watches they are used on.
So where do you land on NATO straps? Are you in or out of the Alliance?
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