Daniel Smith
WIS
Hey,
So I tend to almost exclusively use leather and rubber straps for my affordables. I usually find metal a bit too heavy for my little 6.75" wrist. I like the look of NATO and perlon straps themselves, but I can't stand the rings on a NATO or ZULU, plus I detest that folded over bit of surplus strap. Plus I'm a huge fan of deployant clasps, not a fan of buckles.
So that that end I've always been a bit stuck out of the NATO/perlon market by my own choices. But when I got a bit sick of the lack of breathability on my solid rubber Bonetto Cinturini strap which was on my Borealis Scorpionfish diver, I decided it was time to do something about it.
The idea I came up with was to somehow convert a light, breathable perlon into a less fiddly, sleeker daily wear strap.
To that end, I sourced a 24mm perlon from ChronoWorld ($15), and a 24mm Hublot-style underfold deployment clasp from Ebay ($17). Wish it didn't have the Hublot logo on it, but the clasp itself is well made.
Part of the reason for choosing the Hublot-style clasp, other than the fact its square chunky angles go well with the Scorpionfish, is because the underfold uses 2 closely spaced studs. Which meant it's largely useless for normal straps, but adds extra security and lateral stability for the perlon. Plus, to be honest, there isn't a lot of choice in the 24mm deployant clasp market!
Removed the BC strap from my Scorpionfish, which has screw lugs and pins.
I'd already sourced some 24mm Panerai-style hollow tubes, so I fitted them securely.
I then fitted the perlon strap to the clasp. I thought I might need to stitch or glue the buckle end of the perlon to form a fixed loop - but the gap between the clasp and the spring bar is tight enough that the strap is securely fitted once the spring bar is in place. It doesn't move at all, even if you yank it.
The perlon strap was then neatly but slightly loosely threaded through the gaps between the Panerai-style tubes and the case.
Once that was done, the perlon was roughly sized to wrist, and fed through the underfold of the deployant. The 2 studs fit through neatly and securely with just a little wiggling, and because they are mushroom-shaped, the strap once fitted isn't going anywhere in a hurry.
Here it is just about to be clipped :
And here it is on the wrist. Again, yes I would prefer the clasp didn't have the knockoff Hublot label on it - I'll just be sanding it off at some point.
So there you have it - a strap with all the benefits of a perlon (lightweightness, breathability, colour, affordability) with none of the drawbacks (ugly buckle, visible loop of extra material, etc).
It also has a couple of fairly unique benefits that I'm really enjoying after a day of use, namely, the relatively weighty deployant counterweights the watch and prevents the sliding of the watch that perlons and NATO's are known for. In addition, one quirk of the perlon going under the watch and through an underfold deployant, is that at no point is any metal touching your skin - all skin contact the whole way round is with the nylon.
And here's a quick vid showing just how quick it is to put on and take off.
Whaddaya reckon? This might be old news for lots of you and maybe it's been done often before, but I've never personally seen it done so figured I'd share
So I tend to almost exclusively use leather and rubber straps for my affordables. I usually find metal a bit too heavy for my little 6.75" wrist. I like the look of NATO and perlon straps themselves, but I can't stand the rings on a NATO or ZULU, plus I detest that folded over bit of surplus strap. Plus I'm a huge fan of deployant clasps, not a fan of buckles.
So that that end I've always been a bit stuck out of the NATO/perlon market by my own choices. But when I got a bit sick of the lack of breathability on my solid rubber Bonetto Cinturini strap which was on my Borealis Scorpionfish diver, I decided it was time to do something about it.
The idea I came up with was to somehow convert a light, breathable perlon into a less fiddly, sleeker daily wear strap.
To that end, I sourced a 24mm perlon from ChronoWorld ($15), and a 24mm Hublot-style underfold deployment clasp from Ebay ($17). Wish it didn't have the Hublot logo on it, but the clasp itself is well made.
Part of the reason for choosing the Hublot-style clasp, other than the fact its square chunky angles go well with the Scorpionfish, is because the underfold uses 2 closely spaced studs. Which meant it's largely useless for normal straps, but adds extra security and lateral stability for the perlon. Plus, to be honest, there isn't a lot of choice in the 24mm deployant clasp market!
Removed the BC strap from my Scorpionfish, which has screw lugs and pins.
I'd already sourced some 24mm Panerai-style hollow tubes, so I fitted them securely.
I then fitted the perlon strap to the clasp. I thought I might need to stitch or glue the buckle end of the perlon to form a fixed loop - but the gap between the clasp and the spring bar is tight enough that the strap is securely fitted once the spring bar is in place. It doesn't move at all, even if you yank it.
The perlon strap was then neatly but slightly loosely threaded through the gaps between the Panerai-style tubes and the case.
Once that was done, the perlon was roughly sized to wrist, and fed through the underfold of the deployant. The 2 studs fit through neatly and securely with just a little wiggling, and because they are mushroom-shaped, the strap once fitted isn't going anywhere in a hurry.
Here it is just about to be clipped :
And here it is on the wrist. Again, yes I would prefer the clasp didn't have the knockoff Hublot label on it - I'll just be sanding it off at some point.
So there you have it - a strap with all the benefits of a perlon (lightweightness, breathability, colour, affordability) with none of the drawbacks (ugly buckle, visible loop of extra material, etc).
It also has a couple of fairly unique benefits that I'm really enjoying after a day of use, namely, the relatively weighty deployant counterweights the watch and prevents the sliding of the watch that perlons and NATO's are known for. In addition, one quirk of the perlon going under the watch and through an underfold deployant, is that at no point is any metal touching your skin - all skin contact the whole way round is with the nylon.
And here's a quick vid showing just how quick it is to put on and take off.
Whaddaya reckon? This might be old news for lots of you and maybe it's been done often before, but I've never personally seen it done so figured I'd share
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