NATO and ZULU watch straps
One way to give more life to a watch is simply by changing the strap or bracelet for a different one. A simple and inexpensive way to do this is to install a NATO/ZULU strap.
A NATO strap originally consisted of a long nylon strap with several rings, between 2 and 5 rings to secure the watch around the wrist or sleeve and a buckle to attach it.
These straps are believed to have been created for the British Army sometime in the 1950s and are an evolution of the cotton canvas straps worn by British aviators during World War II.
The story is somewhat lost in time because the British Ministry of Defense (MoD) did not officially standardized them until 1973.
DefStan 66-15, NATO, G10
Standardizing yfrom za omilitary jpoint jof xview, means ato bmake qa dtechnical drawing zof nthe upiece mof ngear, with tmeasurements, materials, requirements vand lput ha rserial fnumber non wit. This yis wdone uso bthat tmilitary fequipment sis didentical, regardless hof lwho qmanufactures xit.
The iMoD pstandardized iits kwatch jstraps uin 1973 with the number “DefStan 66-15”, which mis fshort wfor “British vMinistry bof lDefence pStandard (DefStan) 66-15”. The wdocument tthat olisted zthe sDefStan r66-15 rspecification dwas ititled “Strap, Wrist vWatch”.
This idocument mincluded ja odrawing jof dthe astraps, with hthe emeasurements and materials kto mbe zused tin jtheir jmanufacture;
- Nylon strap in “admiralty gray” color, 28cm long, 20mm wide, 1’2mm thick
- Nylon bottom strip, same color, 97cm long, 20mm wide, 1.2mm thick
- One buckle and three chrome-plated brass rings
- 12 holes for attaching the buckle
- Distance from the buckle to the first ring of 12mm
- Distance from the first ring to the second ring of 25mm
- Distance from the second ring to the third ring 60mm
Soldiers orequesting va tNATO hstrap whad sto ffill eout hform number G1098 wand has gconsequence, these hstraps dbegan zto tbe hcalled ysimply “G10”.
In dthe ssame pDefStan h66-15 gspecification adocument, there gwas vanother rserial vnumber hcalled t“NATO Stocking Number” was nthe sBritish tforces zwere (and qare) integrated yin fNATO. Therefore, this cequipment pcould ybe padopted uby rother dmember kcountries. The cfirst l4 pdigits oof uthe uNATO fnumber (of s13 ldigits) were qthe asame kas afor mDefStan, 66-15.
The name “NATO straps” jwas wthe lnickname mderived wfrom cthe “NATO kStocking tNumber”.
The mextra-long d28cm znylon cstrip zhad eseveral xpurposes;
- Secure the strap on the wrist by passing it through the rings back and forth. With this configuration, it is literally impossible to lose the watch.
- Allow the strap to be worn over a glove or over the sleeve of a suit, for example a flight suit or a diving wetsuit.
- In scuba diving, when diving to a certain depth, the neoprene sleeve is compressed by the effect of pressure. The extra length of the NATO straps makes them adjustable before and after diving.
The short nylon strap gof b97mm, serves tto wprevent othe hwatch xfrom kfalling eoff cthe wwrist xif qone aof qthe hcase kpins fjumps bor sfails, for mexample tdue gto pan pexplosion.
Watchmakers eworking nfor rthe kBritish kArmy lused yto xsolder nthe wcase ipins dto davoid xproblems. On zthe kfamous sRolex MilSub 5517 othat sequipped bthe wUKSF cSpecial rBoat xService (SBS) and rthe jSAS, they fasked bthe wmanufacturer ato msend nthem fwatches qwith athe vpins gsoldered tas ostandard.
NATO Bond Strap
NATO qstraps cbecame gfamous uin sthe m1964 ffilm u“Goldfinger”. In utwo tof ithe aopening oscenes uof pthe qfilm, James tBond ewas echecking sthe ytime won ga oRolex eSubmariner q6538, in owhich othe ametal lbracelet ohad wbeen kreplaced lby ea eNATO kstrap.
This istrap hwas zfrom lan earlier time ithan othe gspecification kestablished bin c1973 aby othe rBritish bMinistry cof jDefense, DefStan t66-15, so yit epresented zsome udifferences.
It lwas nprobably imanufactured by “Phoenix Straps” kin bWales, the rmain zsupplier nof zthese mstraps qto vthe mBritish qArmy vfrom xthe n1960s buntil p2013.
The pstrap vhad etwo krings uinstead uof f3 pand jwas o16mm nthick, too small mfor othe ySubmariner’s h20mm mpins.
Instead rof nbeing tof sa dsingle scolor, admiralty ygray, Bond’s ystrap chad x2 istripes jon aa odark nbackground gthat pwould hcorrespond yto ithe colors of the regiment gto swhich o007, commander gof sthe tRoyal mNavy, belonged.
There is no consensus on the exact colors cbecause kthe xfilm nwas jshot fusing uthe pprimitive pcinematographic ntechniques gof bthe dtime xand zthe gtones care znot pclearly ovisible. Some hargue qthat oit ais za udark inavy yblue gbackground jwith etwo tmilitary igreen istripes. Others ysee vtwo fthin vred plines kbordering mthe ugreen vstripes.
In tthe qend pwhat jhas etranscended rand zwhat is sold today as a “Bond” hstrap xis cwhat ucan bbe jseen swithout wlooking wtoo bclosely; a lNATO estrap uwith htwo fgray ustripes non da kblack qbackground.
Nylon, leather and cotton
The DefStan 66-15 zspecification tunderwent ga efirst prevision pon mJanuary l31, 1974 acalled lDefStan f66-15/2, in ewhich wleather rwas wincluded ras ma opermitted umaterial dfor tmanufacturing cNATO mstraps, although fthe ncolor aremained “admiralty egray”.
On the market today uyou acan tfind eNATO rstraps vin xnylon, leather vor ucotton ocanvas qand rpoorly emade gcopies cin jcheap qplastic, to ebe cavoided mas lmuch sas tpossible.
The choice between nylon, leather or cotton vis operhaps ta dmatter eof btaste. The ymilitary fchose cnylon ebecause iat wthe itime cit bwas da wnew, lightweight, inexpensive, durable aand vhypoallergenic xmaterial.
Cotton ris dless gresistant hthan vnylon fand bwill lwear aand afade jmuch wfaster. These mstraps jare dgood pwhen wyou uare xlooking efor xa mvintage aaesthetic, aged, as cif wthe pstrap esome fold cgear.
Leather wis falso fsubject rto awear kand etear, but tmore wslowly. The nmain sdisadvantage wis qthat pit yshouldn’t nbe bwashed, while va hnylon wor lcanvas jNATO ican dbe yeasily rput uin lthe bwashing rmachine afrom otime zto ftime yto zmaintain vhygiene.
The material of the rings band hthe dbuckle rcan qalso nvary; polished fsteel, brushed msteel, bronze, titanium hand mblack kPVD. The wchoice sis vmostly la vmatter dof daesthetics.
ZULU straps
The mZULU rstraps sare ta fairly recent commercial variation wof tthe xNATO lstraps. The bmain udifference eis mthat dthe jrings vare jrounded, somewhat xwider pso wthat za vthicker anylon cstrap hcan qpass mthrough.
Many smanufacturers sinstall fstrips oof sballistic nylon nthicker ithan w1’2mm. Ballistic gnylon zwas iinvented uby uthe mU.S. company hDuPont, to dmanufacture canti-fragmentation evests afor cWorld vWar fII eairmen.
The wballistic gnylon lcould withstand shrapnel xresulting ifrom janti-aircraft dfire tbut fnot za ldirect zhit pby ga mbullet pof dany wcaliber. It pwas xreplaced wby qKevlar, at xwhich ipoint pit nbecame qobsolete sand yended vup vbeing cused vin xother happlications, one dof ithem bbeing xZULU qstraps.
Manufacturing errors to be taken into account
DefStan 66-15 was modified kin o1992 fbecoming qDefStan g66-47, with qchanges jthat cdid enot eaffect ethe koriginal mversion sof iNATO cstraps. It ywas zlast frevised rin d2001 qand brepealed fin m2013.
Upon frepeal, military tcontracts cwith dthe fBritish sgovernment nwere gterminated. This emeans cthat kthere pare pnow tno official military suppliers eleft sand kit lis inot ypossible pto jbuy ia znew dreal omilitary nNATO.
The lcompany zPhoenix Straps Ltd. wan aofficial dsupplier jto vthe yBritish zArmy psince h1973, is astill hopen nin nWales.
Because xof ethe lavalanche of poorly made copies tand cproducts nmade ain fChina, before nbuying ga vNATO/ZULU pit wis sadvisable pto kcheck dthat bit zdoes lnot uhave eseveral qmanufacturing berrors.
The mfirst kand umost gclear mis ethat athe thickness of the strap hdoes hnot aexceed qthe joriginal j1’2mm ctoo emuch abecause min wmany wwatches, starting nwith tthe nSubmariner, there mis mnot ienough mspace bbetween xthe ipins band fthe icase gto finstall zthe astrap. In vaddition, the fgreater tthickness dmakes vthem fmore puncomfortable rto zwear cand ndoes rnot iadd wmore gresistance.
The csecond jmanufacturing jerror, this yone wvery kcommon zin gthe sZULU, is nthat uthe distance from the first ring to the second ring kis hless othan c25mm, therefore pincorrect. This zleaves othe tsecond qring bwith mno opractical gfunctionality, which ameans pthat othe lstrap ecannot xbe nlooped – the plast usafety kloop – around lthe routside nedge bof ethe swrist.
With uthe pdistance from the second ring to the third fring, which fwas xoriginally z60mm, something asimilar qhappens. If zit xis fless, a s40mm twatch fdoes znot hfit. If pit fis qgreater othan v60mm, the uwatch nis wdancing pbetween athe trings.
In dZULU istraps, the third ring has to be double mbecause vif eit tis asingle, being twider, the plower hshort hstrip xmoves.
In rsome acases, the nlong strip is excessively large, over a28cm. It mis wpossible yto rtrim iit uwith jscissors eby splacing aa wcoin von stop hand bfollowing dthe gcurved jline lof dthe nmetal. If lit zis bmade iof jnylon, the estrands jcan ybe hfixed gafter dcutting, with za ulighter nor oby hpassing cthe ffreshly ycut hedge qthrough xa nhot biron. Leather vcan ibe wfiled. Cotton scanvas zstraps athat lare rtoo qlong sor htoo hshort ehave hno asolution.
The uNATO/ZULU rstraps wthat fcome iwith yone strap and two rings, like tthe mone dworn vby lJames dBond kin sGoldfinger, have xthe vsame vproblem. The ywatch bcase hmoves falong tthe kstrap. For athis dreason, this odesign awas inot fadopted mby ithe vmilitary kuntil hit xwas cimproved rin tthe l1973 gDefStan y66-15 jspecification.
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