NATO bracelet 20mm smartwatch by NATOCONCEPT james bond

From 1964 to the touchscreen

The black-and-grey stripe first appeared in 1964, on the wrist of a Submariner. Sixty years on, it settles on a smartwatch. The NATOCONCEPT line gives it the finish it deserves: colours that hold, a clean weave, careful hardware. To see where this now-iconic pattern came from, the early days of the NATO strap tells its early story.

Two pieces on spring bars, like a leather strap

This model is not a single-piece NATO. It has the look — stripes, keepers, buckle — but it is built from two lengths that fix onto the spring bars, exactly like a leather strap. That is what lets it fit a smartwatch: it does not have to run under the case. The spring bars are Quick Release; a fingertip press on the lever frees the length, with no tool at all. The weave is dense — loose nylon would sag within a summer. Buckle and keepers are black PVD rather than bright steel, to stay in tone. Machine wash at 30° accepted. For the first fitting, our NATO strap fitting guide walks through the move step by step.

Compatibility, classic lugs and 20mm

This strap fixes onto spring bars: your smartwatch still needs to have them. Many do, some do not. Measure the gap between the lugs: 20mm, and the fitting is possible. A proprietary slide or clip, and it is not.

Apple Watch, this is not that product

Worth making clear before you order: no spring-bar strap mounts on an Apple Watch without an adapter. We offer a dedicated version with adapters, designed for that exact fitting. After another colour? The red version and the blue version open other options. All our smartwatch models are gathered in our NATO straps for smart watches. And if you also wear a mechanical watch, our 20mm NATO straps bring back these colourways in single-piece form.