And why I have so many.

“Christian Ward on a NATO strap” is a “take the p**s line quoted numerous times on live streams (referencing my love for Christopher Ward watches and NATO straps -but not necessarily together) I probably own 35 ish watches that are on or would suit a NATO strap, but what the deal with them anyway?

The origin

The original NATO strap was born in 1973 to meet the British Minister Of Defence (MOD) need to provide an extremely resistant watch strap to Bristish Army. The aim of the British MOD was to design a watch strap which could face any situation. The goal was to get free from problems encountered with straps of that time: humidity issues on leather in tropical climates, risky steel watch band reflection on a military mission, low reliability of rubber straps, watch loss risks because of spring bars rupture (including buckle spring bars). The strict requirements are as follows.

• grey woven nylon of 1.2 mm thickness (colour “Admiral Grey”),
• made of a unique nylon ribbon,
• one-piece buckle without lug (irremovable),
• heat-welded buckle and loops,
• end of strap and holes heat-sealed,
• 18.0mm ±0.5mm originally then modified to 20mm in 2001.
• 280 mm length (to be put on thick diving suits of Royal Navy).

The original contract was awarded to Phoenix Straps in Cardiff who kept it for many years.

Early Phoenix straps.

Phoenix has sadly ceased trading but there 1000’s and I mean 1000’s of vendors out there who can supply a new NATO strap in almost any colour .. (you want pink ..yup it’s available in pink.) Leather ones are available but the popular material is nylon. The Phoenix ones look scruffy fairly quickly but remember like the watch it goes on, it’s a tool. A lot of people hate NATO straps, they hate the “safety” piece underneath, and they hate the folded bit on the outside of the wrist. i love all of these little quirks. The NATO sported into the ZULU strap, usually identified by thicker rounded keepers and no safety piece underneath.

So in short ..if you own a dive watch or anything military esq then your watch deserves to have a NATO strap as an option. I have a box of probably 30 of them and swap out regularly if you haven’t worn a certain watch for a while and you swap the strap out at the same time then it’s like a new watch!

Let me know your thoughts below,!