Any solid adventure watch needs a strap that not only looks the part, but is more than ready to stand up to the elements and come out smiling on the other side. Sure, your watch might be a little bit worse for wear, but at least it’s still on your wrist. For a strap of those specs, we look to the military and, when it comes to military straps, there’s only one answer: the NATO.
Instantly recognizable for its over-and-under construction, looping around the spring bars rather than being directly secured to them, and for its extra, looping length of nylon, the NATO is a classic rugged strap. It’s so ubiquitously cool that it’s not uncommon to see grail-worthy pieces secured via what is essentially a £10 strip of melt-processed plastic. So where did it come from?
British MOD requirements for the G10 NATO strap
First, it’s worth discussing where the name NATO comes from. The obvious assumption is it was used by the troops of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the mutually protective group of European and North American countries. Conceptually that makes a lot of sense; NATO has its own military so of course they’re going to have their own type of strap. That’s not quite the case.
The NATO strap is actually a strictly British invention. Much like the Dirty Dozen during WWII, it came out of the British military’s incredibly strict requirements. They were looking for something that kept a watch on the wrist through hell and high water and didn’t rely on anything that could break or snap. It needed to, in short, be the most militaristic strap ever built.
Grey NATO strap, image credit: natostrap.uk
There really wasn’t much wiggle room in those criteria. It had to be 20mm in width and made from nylon; holes and buckles needed to be heat sealed into the nylon so that the material wouldn’t tear, and the strap had to have enough material so that it could be worn over uniforms. Oh, and it could only be one colour: admiralty grey. That’s right, none of the fun stripes of funky colours we have now, just dark grey, the height of military fashion.
The resulting design had a lot going for it. Not only was there more than enough material to go over fatigues, but the extra loop of material that went underneath the watch acted as a failsafe. If one of the springbars went for some reason – and there are many reasons active servicemen might snap a springbar – the watch would still stay on and in place. See? That fiddly double loop is for more than good looks.
British MOD personnel wearing the original G-1098 NATO straps
The not-so-shiny new mil-spec strap debuted in 1973 and in order to get hold of one of these sexy bad boys, servicemen had to do the one thing no military man wants to do: fill out a form. Specifically, the G-1098 – hence the NATO strap’s alternative nickname (amongst cool watch collectors at least), the G10.
So where does NATO as a name come from? Simply because the MoD used NATO Stocking Numbers (NSNs) for all their equipment. That’s all. Why it stuck on this particular breed of nylon strap and not everything else you could grab from a military quartermaster is anyone’s guess. Perhaps watch collectors just have a penchant for nicknames. While it’s hard to discover who made that initial run of grey NATO straps, it was Phoenix who took over in 1978 and these particular straps that are the most sought after today. And there you have it, the full history of the genuine G10, ‘NATO’ strap. Except of course, if we were to stretch the definition slightly.
James Bond’s watch with khaki-striped ‘NATO’ strap from Goldfinger and a modern khaki-striped NATO strap
It wasn’t long after the G10 was introduced that regiments across the British military started showcasing their regimental colours. While these weren’t technically G10 straps – you couldn’t request them from a quartermaster with the same form – they’re largely why the NATO-style strap is so popular today. That and James Bond, of course.
I’m sure you’re thinking now that this is a fact you know: the first Bond film with a NATO strap was Goldfinger. The three black, two khaki-striped strap is instantly recognizable as the Bond NATO after its appearance on Connery’s Submariner in 1964. But wait… that year doesn’t match up, does it? That’s nearly a decade before the MoD published their criteria for the mil-spec strap. That’s because Bond’s NATO isn’t a NATO at all, but a simple nylon two-piece. You can clearly see that it’s held on by the spring bars like a normal strap, not the over-and-under failsafe that defines a proper NATO. Is it still cool? Of course, and there’s a good reason you can now find a lot of proper NATO-style straps in that colour scheme.
ECONYL® NATO strap
Indeed, you can find every colourway under the sun, whether they’re inspired by regimental colours or perfectly matched to the dial of a yellow Oyster Perpetual. And yet that practicality required by the MoD remains. NATO straps are hardwearing, secure and still have that springbar redundancy. They’re great for warm weather and have a distinctive sporty look and, while I wouldn’t pair one with my Jaeger-LeCoultre Futurematic, there are very, very few watches I don’t think they work on.
Like the Dirty Dozen before it, the original G10 just goes to show that British military sensibilities translate nicely to watchmaking icons.
