G10 Nato Strap History

If you love watches, you’ve heard about Nato Straps. If not, then finally this is the day. The day to find out about the history of the nato strap. The day that you get introduced to the most comfortable, strong and fun strap that the watch world has to offer. A strap that makes your customize your pride, from a luxury watch like a Rolex Submariner to a good old Seiko.

You might have read our Story about the Nato Strap here, which was purely for entertainment reasons. In this short blog, however, we would like to show you where the Nato Watch Strap was truly born.

It all started in the British Military in 1973. Even though it seems to be related to the NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, it isn’t. At the beginning of the ’70s, the time of the flower power, every soldier got the opportunity to get their hands on a chronograph.

G1098 form for a G10 strap

The British Military offered this in combination with a leather strap, which obviously doesn’t work well for warriors and a super active lifestyle. Soon they found out that the Ministry of Defence, the Military also offered a nylon strap. One had to fill in the G1098 form and would receive it in their compound. The original name of the nato strap had nothing to do with NATO but was called G10 strap, from the form.

The original G10 came in one color only, Admiralty Grey with a lug width of 20 mm. It was chrome plated brass on the buckles and keepers, using the standard spring bars of the watch. Later the soldiers wanted to wear the colors of their regiment, so soon they requested different regimental colors and the watch strap with stripes was born. All different combination was created to suit each army team.

James Bond Nato Watch Strap with Sean Connery

The Nato Strap soon found its way into society, where it was seen in movies like James Bond. The original James Bond strap with stripes was actually already seen in 1964’s movie Goldfinger with Sean Connery. It carried the colors black with two green stripes with red borders. Because of the lower quality of film the colors weren’t that obvious, so it got mistaken as black with two grey stripes. Up until today, that version is often named the Bond Nato Strap, which we will add as well this year.

While the main reason they were wearing a nato strap was the functionality and strength of the strap, nowadays it is an easy and super cool way to customize your watch. You see the strap being worn with Rolex’s, Tudor’s, IWC’s, Tag Heuer and actually every other luxury watch. Some brands even add it to their offer at the moment, as an extra strap aside from the metal or leather, for example.

Premium Piece of Nylon

It is not easy to find a high-quality nato strap. Most of the time they are very thin and wear down easily. We searched for a long time and dare to say that we offer one of the highest quality straps out there using premium nylon. Currently only available in black, grey and blue. But soon in more colors.

We also are the only nato watch strap that supports a good cause. We donate 10% of the profit from our blue straps to a charity supporting the ocean. Last year that was the Ocean Cleanup project, this year it will be another good cause trying to clean the ocean.

We believe in social responsibility, just like the army has in some way. So we’ll keep on adding colors and charities soon.

If you haven’t read our fictional story of the nato strap, then please do so here. “Real” pictures included of the grey G10 nato strap. ;-)