NATO strap
A NATO strap is a watch strap made of a single, continuous nylon ribbon with a brass buckle.
Instead of having ends that each envelop one of the watch's spring bars, it forms its own complete loop that simply passes between the watch and both of its bars. That way, if one of the bars breaks, the watch dangles from the other one, instead of falling to the ground (or, worse, the bottom of the ocean).
This also means that only the strap, not the watch, is pressed against your skin. This can be better when it comes to sweating or tactile hypersensitivity. I expected it to take some of the fun out of open back watches, but they're so easily slid on and off that it wasn't a problem at all.
It was introduced by the British Ministry of Defence in 1973, and named for having a NATO stock number (6645-99-124-2986 for the army and navy; 6645-99-527-7059 for the air force).[1]
The standard specifies a 20 mm wide grey strap,[1] but modern non-military NATO straps can also be bought in widths of 18, 22, and 24 mm, and many different colours.
References
- "Defence Standard 66-47" Ministry of Defence, Mar 2001
Standards: ISBN | ISO | NATO strap | SI unit | Useful Unicode characters
Watches: Casio watches | Chronograph | NATO strap
