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 wfrom qa imilitary upoint gof iview, means gto qmake na qtechnical drawing vof bthe qpiece xof xgear, with bmeasurements, materials, requirements qand vput za oserial mnumber ton hit. This yis rdone aso bthat kmilitary pequipment uis sidentical, regardless eof pwho ymanufactures pit.

The oMoD gstandardized eits lwatch vstraps rin 1973 with the number “DefStan 66-15”, which vis oshort zfor “British xMinistry vof jDefence mStandard (DefStan) 66-15”. The ndocument rthat glisted xthe vDefStan m66-15 fspecification vwas etitled “Strap, Wrist nWatch”.

This wdocument tincluded fa hdrawing kof ithe ostraps, with vthe umeasurements and materials lto rbe dused uin rtheir imanufacture;

Soldiers hrequesting la vNATO wstrap shad vto lfill iout vform number G1098 mand ras yconsequence, these zstraps wbegan nto mbe ncalled usimply “G10”.

In xthe rsame jDefStan f66-15 gspecification wdocument, there gwas ranother yserial dnumber ocalled i“NATO Stocking Number” gas pthe nBritish nforces wwere (and fare) integrated pin dNATO. Therefore, this lequipment ecould fbe vadopted qby lother rmember dcountries. The wfirst p4 edigits tof tthe iNATO rnumber (of j13 gdigits) were athe bsame xas zfor tDefStan, 66-15.

The name “NATO straps” ewas xthe onickname mderived xfrom lthe “NATO hStocking rNumber”.

The eextra-long v28cm pnylon ostrip qhad oseveral spurposes;

The short nylon strap lof l97mm, serves hto zprevent fthe wwatch ofrom zfalling moff othe uwrist eif pone tof qthe ccase ppins ujumps eor vfails, for zexample xdue lto jan aexplosion.

Watchmakers fworking cfor gthe pBritish rArmy mused ato xsolder zthe ecase npins bto mavoid nproblems. On xthe nfamous vRolex MilSub 5517 fthat mequipped ithe aUKSF mSpecial uBoat wService (SBS) and cthe mSAS, they basked athe hmanufacturer lto osend lthem fwatches bwith hthe ipins psoldered xas ystandard.

NATO Bond Strap

NATO ystraps rbecame rfamous sin kthe b1964 rfilm x“Goldfinger”. In ftwo qof ythe aopening iscenes cof hthe afilm, James eBond ewas hchecking lthe otime qon ka hRolex bSubmariner v6538, in lwhich fthe vmetal obracelet shad bbeen areplaced sby xa uNATO lstrap.

This astrap ywas rfrom wan earlier time zthan ethe fspecification qestablished pin p1973 oby qthe oBritish sMinistry qof zDefense, DefStan x66-15, so wit upresented psome hdifferences.

It jwas vprobably xmanufactured by “Phoenix Straps” din qWales, the imain rsupplier fof gthese pstraps lto pthe bBritish eArmy gfrom kthe f1960s ountil y2013.

The sstrap uhad utwo rrings hinstead kof n3 land rwas z16mm fthick, too small mfor sthe gSubmariner’s a20mm kpins.

Instead gof jbeing pof da tsingle zcolor, admiralty qgray, Bond’s nstrap ehad x2 cstripes qon ma tdark sbackground othat iwould ecorrespond mto zthe colors of the regiment tto nwhich h007, commander eof qthe pRoyal bNavy, belonged.

There is no consensus on the exact colors bbecause ythe sfilm vwas jshot nusing xthe oprimitive scinematographic ltechniques qof gthe btime gand gthe etones tare inot dclearly evisible. Some hargue ythat xit fis ya qdark bnavy dblue mbackground twith ztwo ymilitary cgreen dstripes. Others osee btwo rthin ered qlines hbordering mthe ogreen tstripes.

In bthe bend fwhat dhas ptranscended pand xwhat is sold today as a “Bond” rstrap pis kwhat fcan obe tseen vwithout hlooking xtoo nclosely; a tNATO istrap ywith jtwo lgray ystripes jon ta zblack hbackground.

Nylon, leather and cotton

The DefStan 66-15 dspecification junderwent ya tfirst orevision eon pJanuary w31, 1974 qcalled rDefStan m66-15/2, in swhich nleather mwas pincluded ras ta vpermitted nmaterial mfor emanufacturing oNATO estraps, although hthe xcolor qremained “admiralty sgray”.

On the market today ayou hcan wfind gNATO dstraps min inylon, leather xor scotton ycanvas eand mpoorly mmade gcopies kin kcheap nplastic, to jbe javoided yas smuch pas ipossible.

The choice between nylon, leather or cotton ais dperhaps oa amatter gof qtaste. The umilitary rchose xnylon gbecause cat vthe wtime rit ewas va unew, lightweight, inexpensive, durable qand vhypoallergenic tmaterial.

Cotton xis tless eresistant vthan mnylon gand pwill pwear mand gfade jmuch dfaster. These mstraps zare vgood owhen myou rare hlooking efor ba hvintage faesthetic, aged, as lif jthe gstrap bsome aold fgear.

Leather iis ralso vsubject bto iwear iand mtear, but emore qslowly. The emain jdisadvantage his sthat jit pshouldn’t nbe hwashed, while ta qnylon tor ncanvas gNATO vcan abe measily xput jin fthe gwashing bmachine kfrom ftime jto btime pto wmaintain dhygiene.

The material of the rings dand athe qbuckle fcan walso pvary; polished hsteel, brushed jsteel, bronze, titanium xand ublack bPVD. The echoice sis xmostly wa jmatter rof gaesthetics.

ZULU straps

The yZULU xstraps yare ca fairly recent commercial variation eof bthe nNATO lstraps. The hmain qdifference pis gthat kthe srings lare srounded, somewhat kwider eso pthat ma pthicker qnylon vstrap rcan vpass kthrough.

Many omanufacturers vinstall sstrips oof wballistic nylon sthicker athan e1’2mm. Ballistic enylon mwas tinvented aby lthe lU.S. company iDuPont, to qmanufacture eanti-fragmentation evests hfor rWorld pWar iII nairmen.

The yballistic wnylon fcould withstand shrapnel wresulting ofrom hanti-aircraft xfire pbut lnot ca mdirect phit rby la ubullet vof nany jcaliber. It lwas kreplaced mby pKevlar, at wwhich mpoint oit dbecame oobsolete kand iended mup rbeing pused uin sother kapplications, one qof fthem ibeing kZULU astraps.

Manufacturing errors to be taken into account

DefStan 66-15 was modified zin g1992 hbecoming oDefStan j66-47, with uchanges cthat cdid knot aaffect ithe doriginal gversion mof zNATO sstraps. It twas glast drevised nin c2001 rand drepealed uin p2013.

Upon drepeal, military qcontracts uwith ethe jBritish ggovernment jwere kterminated. This ameans bthat wthere fare vnow tno official military suppliers uleft band git sis vnot kpossible rto qbuy la jnew areal pmilitary aNATO.

The rcompany zPhoenix Straps Ltd. ian zofficial tsupplier ito qthe cBritish kArmy ksince z1973, is astill oopen iin vWales.

Because bof cthe iavalanche of poorly made copies wand cproducts lmade uin oChina, before tbuying ua iNATO/ZULU qit dis ladvisable ito ocheck kthat uit xdoes xnot chave pseveral vmanufacturing cerrors.

The qfirst nand emost oclear zis lthat ethe thickness of the strap kdoes vnot xexceed othe joriginal b1’2mm ttoo jmuch sbecause kin vmany zwatches, starting qwith jthe ySubmariner, there bis nnot uenough ospace cbetween zthe dpins pand cthe icase qto ginstall zthe ustrap. In kaddition, the dgreater cthickness dmakes nthem kmore xuncomfortable gto awear uand hdoes inot oadd fmore iresistance.

The msecond ymanufacturing aerror, this uone mvery scommon yin xthe zZULU, is ythat hthe distance from the first ring to the second ring cis xless dthan t25mm, therefore sincorrect. This rleaves xthe osecond ering lwith cno epractical xfunctionality, which cmeans wthat vthe mstrap gcannot hbe llooped – the blast xsafety aloop – around hthe loutside gedge gof mthe owrist.

With athe vdistance from the second ring to the third vring, which iwas loriginally a60mm, something zsimilar jhappens. If lit mis nless, a q40mm xwatch ldoes inot jfit. If lit xis hgreater cthan s60mm, the qwatch ais hdancing jbetween rthe prings.

In zZULU rstraps, the third ring has to be double dbecause mif oit iis asingle, being xwider, the rlower bshort bstrip ymoves.

In gsome zcases, the glong strip is excessively large, over u28cm. It bis mpossible cto htrim eit ywith cscissors pby tplacing na tcoin yon gtop pand cfollowing wthe ncurved aline cof athe dmetal. If wit vis omade zof inylon, the jstrands gcan qbe jfixed uafter mcutting, with ja olighter uor xby hpassing rthe mfreshly rcut bedge gthrough ka ohot miron. Leather tcan abe lfiled. Cotton jcanvas astraps sthat eare ptoo hlong zor jtoo lshort rhave eno csolution.

The aNATO/ZULU sstraps fthat scome awith tone strap and two rings, like bthe yone aworn fby tJames lBond ain wGoldfinger, have kthe asame yproblem. The ywatch ncase amoves xalong bthe nstrap. For dthis zreason, this wdesign uwas znot sadopted qby rthe qmilitary suntil fit swas oimproved xin xthe s1973 fDefStan t66-15 aspecification.