Post
by MKTheVintageBloke » February 7th 2020, 5:23pm
I don't hate the concept of the NATO strap as such. In fact, I have several NATOs. I have a leather NATO, which I have bought for my '39 Tissot with fixed lugs. But that strap blows. There were three straps that I have reviewed - two by BluShark, which I now have on the Tissot and on the first watch I ever bought, a Timex Expedition, and one by the Sydney Strap Co., which I usually wear my Dan Henry 1970 on.
Oh, and then there's the strap from the Sea-Gull 1963, which I use with my Timex MK1, because it doesn't blow, unlike the stock band from Timex.
I have learned that the NATO strap can be useful, when I have encountered just the sort of situation that it's meant to protect from - the watch falling off when a spring bar pops out. Last year, in my brief adventure with working in airport ground service, I had the DH 1970 catch a rail while running up the stairs to the plane. The fucking rail won against the spring bar, and the watch fell into my sleeve. I sort of don't even want to think what would happen if instead it would have fallen a few metres down to the tarmac.
So, the NATO is useful, in a way. Or at least I have been in a situation that made me wish I had one then.
However...would I buy a NATO priced at 80 bucks? No. Fuck, no. I don't care what's it made of, and if they had fucking monks weave that canvas or nylon on wooden fucking looms. I don't care if it's woven from whatever plastic stuff, or from alpaca scrotum wool. I won't pay 80 fucking bucks for what can be made of a fucking seatbelt. No fucking chance. The $5-$20 NATO is a tool strap. The $80 NATO is a strap for tools.
I always hope for the best. Experience, unfortunately, has taught me to expect the worst.
Elim Garak, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
No good deed ever goes unpunished.
Rule of Acquisition no.285
2023 3flushes Media.^^^
