HODINKEE Celebrates 62 Years of NATO....Straps

April 04, 2011

Sean Connery sporting a NATO in Goldfinger (via watchesinmovies)On this day 62 years ago, a bunch of dudes signed a treaty in Brussels. ?It was a military alliance called the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) C and its kinda important. Its important for two reasons: it was the primary Western military alliance during the Cold War, and it formed the organization whose acronym would eventually become known to describe a nylon strap, a strap beloved by watch geeks the world overThe NATO is a strap that has been increasing in popularity recently. There are several reasons for this; its comfy, gives your watch some mil-style cred and perhaps most importantly, the cheap price of most NATO straps (excluding this top of the line bad boy) combined with the fact that you can change them without tools or fear of scratching means you can change your strap on a daily basis to suit your mood and wardrobe.The origins of the NATO strap are shrouded in mystery, by which we mean people have been known to argue what constitutes a NATO strap. See the problem is, pretty much any nylon webbing strap out there is liable to be called a NATO at some point. But never fear C HODINKEE is here to settle this.The NATO strap is not made for NATO, but rather the British Ministry of Defence. They dont call it a NATO strap either, in fact its referred to as Strap, Wrist Watch C not the sexiest name, youll admit. The strap is commonly referred to as the G10 C because of the form required to requisition one. NATO comes into it because its NATO stock number identifies the strap. Whats interesting is that the official specs for this strap are specific, notably its always only 20mm wide and always Admiralty Grey. It also has to have the second layer of nylon that prevents the watch from moving around on the strap. So if the NATO on your wrist doesnt meet those standards, its not up to MOD scratch. If you dont believe us, heres a link to the PDF of the MOD defence standards (which is a ripper of a read btw).We dont want to ruin the fun for everyone who loves bright and colourful NATO straps, and these regimental NATOs have been around a while too. Perhaps the most famous NATO wearer is Mr. James Bond, most notably paired with his big crown Sub in Goldfinger. For many years this strap was assumed to be a NATO with two black, and two grey vertical stripes. Blu-ray DVDs blew this out of the water, revealing that it was in fact a black, red and olive striped NATO on Mr. Bond's wrist. This development rocked the world of NATO fans and it took weeks for the vast bevy of online sellers to catch up. ?What can we say? The world of the NATO strap is a hectic one.We reckon the increasing popularity of the NATO can only be a good thing, and we thought that this humble little bit of nylon deserved a little recognition on its (kinda) anniversary.