Get yourself the khaki WRISTICONS premium seat belt NATO strap:
Our NATO, the devil is in the....
As a teenager I already use to strap my watch on a NATO. It was a great option during the hot summer days cause being a kid I was very active on my bicycle or participating field sports. The NATO strap offered a cheap and more durable option compared to my leather straps which I had to change almost every year.
Becoming older I started to buy more vintage pieces. As a watch geek I also loved to pair my watches with cool looking straps and more premium NATO straps. As we all know, NATO straps have a cool military provenance and tend to combine very well with tool watches.
I have tested and tried different kind of straps and there was room for improvement. So we decided to specify and build our own line of NATO straps. We went completely nuts and specified the WRIST ICONS premium seat belt NATO straps based on some of the requirements of the British Ministry of Defence Standard (DefStan) 66-15 from1973. But we also updated our straps to a more contemporary standard.
As watch lovers, don't we all love these little details! We love our NATO straps to look nice also after years of wearing them. Most of the thin fabric NATOS straps tend to get frills or start to get torn at the holes. Therefore they should be durable and made from strong materials. The WRIST ICONS premium seat belt NATO straps design consist of:
Practical benefits of the NATO strap
When you attach a NATO strap on your watch case, your watch is more secure than any other type of strap. This extra security comes from the fact that your watch case will be attached to two different points; also known as the spring bars which are fixed in the lugholes of your watch case. Suppose your watchband sticks to a certain object such as a fence and as a result should one spring bar fail then the second spring bar will keep the watch attached to the strap.
Unlike traditional NATOs, the WRIST ICONS premium seat belt NATO strap has one movable first keeper providing additional adjustment. This movable keeper allows any additional length to be neatly tucked away, regardless of the size of your wrist.
With the extra length that these straps offer it means you can wear your watch over a your flight jacket, diving or astronaut suit. This may be also handy when you participate in activities such as flying a Concorde, sailing the America’s Cup, skiing the Harakiri, golfing at Sint Andrews, fly-fishing in Patagonia or if you want to look cool just like Gianni Agnelli!
NOTE: The fabric of these straps are made of nylon, so it is not uncommon to have some fraying at the sealed holes after heavy use. Just run the flame of lighter near those loose threads and it will seal the nylon. Do NOT apply the flame directly to the nylon or it will burn/discolor it.