Watch strap

A leather watch strap with a butterfly closure

Four analog wristwatches for men with variants of the widespread metal watch strap made from stainless steel, the two in the middle being of the most common type

A watch strap, watch band, watch bracelet or watch belt is a bracelet that straps a wrist watch onto the wrist. Watch straps may be made of leather, plastic, polyurethane, silicone, rubber, FKM, cloth, or metal, sometimes in combination. It can be regarded as a fashion item, serving both a utilitarian and decorative function. Some metal watch straps may be plated with, or even in rare cases made of, precious metals.

Watch straps may close with a buckle or a folding clasp. Expanding watch straps are designed to expand elastically, often by the use of metal springs in a segmented design, and may be slipped on like a bracelet. Attachment points for the strap to the watch are largely standardized, with a spring bar (a spring-loaded double-ended pin) used to anchor the watch strap to holes in a bracket that is integral to the watch case, allowing worn watch straps to be replaced or swapped with new straps for fashion purposes.

Metal watch straps are typically stainless steel. The most common metal watch strap styles are the folded link, pushpin, and screw-in styles.

Both metal watch cases and watch straps incorporating metal parts can sometimes cause contact dermatitis in susceptible individuals. Special anti-allergy watch straps, like a NATO style watch strap, which shield the skin from exposure to metal parts, are available for people with this type of dermatitis.

Specialist expanding watch straps exist for use with diving watches. The use of wet, or in some cases, dry suits require the strap to expand in order to accommodate the added material, which increases the circumference of the wrist. Many watch straps intended for diving watches have rippled or vented sections near the attachment points on the watch case to facilitate the required flexibility to strap the watch around the bare wrist or around wet or dry suits.

NATO Straps

NATO watch straps, also known as "NATO Straps" or "G10 straps", were developed by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) for wartime usage (DefStan 66-47 Issue 2 states the colour of the 20 mm wide nylon ribbon shall be to BS 4800 card number 3, reference 18B25, colour "Admiralty Grey"). It is a one piece strap fed through the spring bars of the watch case, then slid into the appropriate notch and folded back to secure the excess strap and prevent it from sticking out of the main watch strap portion.

Royal Observer Corps tie with matching NATO strap on Sector clock themed wrist watch.

As the style gained popularity following its introduction in 1973, military personnel began to customize their watch straps, incorporating the colours of their regimental ties and/or Stable belts, creating the colourful striped patterns NATO straps are known for.

The Zulu watch strap is a NATO watch strap adaptation using a thicker weave of fabric and more substantial metal hardware employing rounded loops and an oval-shaped buckle and both are typically made of nylon.

Bund straps, Perlon straps, Marine Nationale straps, Zulu straps, and NATO straps go completely around the wrist, including behind the case. Other wrist strap styles allow the back of the watch case to directly contact the skin.

NATO Strap Trademark Controversy

Although what is generically referred to as the NATO Strap or NATO G10 Strap entered the market in the early 1970s, and both terms had already been ubiquitous in the watch world for many decades, a US company (International Watchman Inc) managed to trademark the word "NATO" in 2011 (TM 3907646) and “NATO-G10” (TM 4093914) in January 2012 under product class IC 14: Watches, Watch Straps.

Consequently, many watch industry participants have expressed surprise that US Patent and Trademark Office permitted these registrations, including the applicant’s requisite S. 60 TM Act “declaration of bona fide intention” that these terms were novel, despite “NATO” and “NATO G10” having already been long established as terms for this style of watch strap, and asked how it could ever have really have been in good faith that International Watchman Inc claimed to have dreamt up these historic terms.

Even the real NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) explains how these historic watch strap terms came into being over half a century ago.

It has been noted that International Watchman Inc has NOT been successful in its recent attempts to register NATO for other product classes, on the ground that Applicant’s mark “consists of, or includes matter, which may falsely suggest a connection with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (“NATO”) for offending Section 2(a) of the Trademark Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1052(a), on the ground that Applicant’s mark “consists of, or includes matter, which may falsely suggest a connection with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (“NATO”)”, and “We therefore find that the record shows that Applicant’s NATO mark points uniquely and unmistakably to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization”.

Yet International Watchman Inc has proceeded to enforce the NATO trademarks, in respect of watch straps through countless legal actions which aim to freeze the assets of those who have long manufactured, distributed and sold NATO Watch Straps, by injunction; only releasing them when International Watchman Inc has extracted a license fee and forced "long-established businesses to comply by changing their product classifications or business names."

International Watchman Inc overtly offers licenses to use the acronym of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (“Trademark for lease”) in the “Highly Acclaimed Trademark NATO”; even citing “More Than 80,000 Google Searches and growing”. Observers have noted that, in character with other “trademark trolls”, the website itself appears a front for this activity, offering no products for sale.

International Watchman Inc’s recent legal actions, in 2022 and 2024, named 960 “defendants” in aggregate, from whom it was demanding up to $1,000,000 in “settlement”.

Watch strap types

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  A leather watch strap.
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  A leather strap dating to World War II.
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  A specialist expanding rubber watch strap for diving watches.
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  Polyurethane expanding watch strap on a diving watch.
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  A cloth watch strap dating to World War I.
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  Dark admiralty grey coloured NATO strap worn by a British soldier.
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  NATO-style webbing watch strap.
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  NATO-style webbing (5-ring ZULU) watch strap.
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  A watch with a segmented stainless steel watch bracelet.
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  A silver-plated metal watch bracelet, showing signs of wear.
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  A watch with a gold-plated ROWI Fixoflex expandable/retractable elastic watch bracelet.
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  A watch with a stainless steel mesh bracelet.
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  A watch with a stainless steel Milanese (braided mesh variant) bracelet.
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  A watch with a stainless steel Milanese (braided mesh variant) bracelet.
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  A watch with a fine stainless steel Milanese (dense and tight braided mesh variant) bracelet.
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  Stainless steel bracelet with closed deployant clasp featuring 6 micro adjustment holes.
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  Stainless steel bracelet with opened deployant clasp.
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  Stainless steel bracelet with deployant clasp and diver's extension.
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  Rolex "Glidelock" micro adjustment deployant clasp for diving watches
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  A buckle fastening for a leather watch strap.

Clasps

A folding clasp or deployant clasp or deployant buckle is a device used to close a watch strap. (Butterfly clasps have a symmetrical appearance).

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  Stainless steel bracelet deployant clasp with divers extension
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  Leather watch strap with a butterfly clasp closure.

See also

• List of watch manufacturers