BluShark Cordura Olive Green 20mm Strap ($26.00)
December 12, 2018
This is really more strap than I will ever need. My man card includes working on and driving classic cars, working in the yard and playing with my two wonderful kids. Nowhere to be found are activities like rock climbing, or Seal training, or cage fighting, yet, this Cordura strap seems perfectly up to the task. Often a watch strap is defined by a look, or style, and we can run with that. However, just as often the strap aesthetic plays second fiddle to the material it is constructed out of. That is the case with this strap from BluShark.
The Olive Green Cordura is made of what can only be called a tactical grade nylon. It was originally produced as a type of Rayon and was developed to perform a wide range of jobs including but not nearly limited to tires for the military in WWII. Over the years nylon was improved further and the Cordura name was shifted to the latest and greatest nylon of the time. Odds are you have experienced this product before in daily life as it has worked its way into mainstream products. Most Eastpak backpacks are made of it and for a while 40% of the soft sided luggage market contained Cordura products. You can find Cordura where a product needs to be resilient, water resistant, and hard wearing. It is found on motorcycle gear where its toughness is a definite asset.
Why make a watch strap out of Cordura? Well aside from its toughness, its water resiliance and incredible strength comes to mind. We take our watches on adventures and the engineered characteristics of Cordura are a natural fit for field watches, or daily watches that will NOT be pampered. Blushark has done a good job using this tough fabric to make a distinctly rugged and good looking watch strap. Here is what they say about it.
Originally developed by DuPont, Cordura fabric is an ultra-strong, lightweight, and wear-resistant material and is frequently seen used in the EDC community on items such as backpacks and tactical gear. Our Cordura watch bands are thinly padded and lined with leather for a soft, comfortable feel on the wrist while keeping a tough exterior. Cordura straps are a great way to give your watch a unique look when you feel like taking a break from leather or steel.
DIMENSIONS
The BluShark Strap I purchased was 20mm, so all dimensions are based on that although it should be noted it comes in 22mm as well. My strap came in at 19.6mm at the lugs according to my calipers and tapered to 17.2mm at the free end. This gradual taper adds versatility and comfort as well as some dash of refinement in what could have been a Rambo tough tool strap only as a straight non-tapering pattern would have had a whole different personality. This strap has the slightest of padding between its Cordura outside and leather inside so it is about 4.2mm thick at the lugs and 3.7mm thick at the free end. That is a good overall average thickness which lends itself to daily wear quite well. The length of the strap is 112mm on the free end and 74mm on the buckle end, which puts this strap a little shorter than most. I am on the third to the last adjustment hole on my 6.75” wrist. Overall a very nice shape and one made to be worn a great variety of watches.
DESIGN
The design of this strap is quite simple, with the material easily stealing the show. But even the star of the show needs some supporting cast. This construction of this strap in an exercise in making a durable and rugged material easy to live with. The inside of the strap is made of an unnamed soft leather liner. This is tan in color and texturally feels like a micro suede. When you rub your fingers across it, the color changes from light tan to dark tan like a microfiber sofa in the 90s would (you know the one I am talking about). This feels particularly nice against your skin and provides for all day comfort with no irritation. The leather on the inside of the strap is devoid of any branding or markings of any kind.
The outside of the strap is a very nice shade of Olive green. This is pure deep Olive with great saturation on the fabric which has a visible sheen that is probably a notch or two under satin. To the touch, it is smoother than canvas and feels manmade with no fuzz or stray fibers anywhere. The weave of the nylon feels very tight and durable everywhere with the exception being around the rectangular lug holes, where the attempt to seal the edges worked well enough, but left some rough edges that if you stare the strap long enough you may notice.
The stitching runs all the way around the edges of the strap except where the spring bar is located. The stitching is uniform in color and matches the rest of the Olive green quite nicely. It does a very fine job of holding the ever so slight padding of the strap in place tightly ensuring it runs perfectly parallel to the outside edge of the strap. From lugs to strap tip, I can see no waviness or irregularities of the pad.
I cannot stress how cool it is that BluShark has made Quick Release Spring Bars almost standard across the board. I see more and more vendors using these and while it is not mainstream yet, man I hope this catches on. QR spring bars make experimenting with straps so much more fun as it provides ease of removal with almost zero risk of scratches and lost spring bars. Kudos to you BluShark.
KEEPER AND BUCKLE
I like the buckle on the BluShark products. It is beefy without being bulky or thick. The buckle has a nice brushed finish on the rectangular tang that is copied perfectly on the buckle loop. The BluShark script logo is crisp and etched into the metal in relief. The Cordura strap has two matching Cordura keepers on the buckle side. They are of the standard design with one floating and one fixed. The difference in textures between the leather and the Cordura combined with perfectly sized keepers mean this strap goes together quite well. The laminated construction of the leather/pad/Cordura takes a bit of effort to pull through the buckle and bend backwards to secure the tang, but after a few uses, it does get easier.
HOW DOES IT WEAR
After you wear this strap for a week, it starts to really break in. Straight out of the box I found it a bit stiff and had to work it by hand many times to get that new strap cardboard feel out of it. Laminated construction of anything tends to have this effect on all but very expensive straps. Buildings are made from laminated beams to give it rigidity and stiffness. I was able to over come this in the BluShark Cordura in a few days.
It does not happen often but I was in a rare case with this strap where I was in between two holes for finding the perfect fit. I ended up wearing this strap just a tiny bit on the snug side to keep the buckle from sticking out awkwardly. Still even like this the leather inside kept me wearing it all day without so much as a hint of discomfort. The suede like leather on the inside provided enough friction to keep the watch perfectly placed on my wrist from morning until night.
I never noticed any adverse wear on this strap during the week I wore it. It survived some sanding on the project car, working on the pond, and wrestling with the kids just fine. Even though I had it on a bit snug, the feeling of it being tight lasted for only as long as it took to put on a shirt in the morning. The heat from your body softens the strap as the day goes on and comfort is never an issue.
WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR
I found it very comforting to know if I was ever in a motorcycle accident a 20mm strip of my wrist would be completely protected. Joking aside, this is a strap that would thrive on any field watch. While Cordura is completely water proof, the leather liner, whose job is comfort is not. I would keep this away from divers which actually get wet regularly. However, if you have a desk diver that needs something lighter and more casual than the bracelet and have an aversion to rubber or silicone, this would work fantastically.
I could easily see this strap on a daily wear watch that gets banged around, or a watch you may wear to the gym (although the leather will soak up some sweat). If you have a tactical watch, this strap will fit right into that military vibe with ease.
I chose this strap for my Snoopy Timex Marlin mainly for its subtle green hues which, surprisingly enough, remind me of the color of the grass yard near Snoopy’s Dog House. We buy straps for all sorts of various reasons, and while mine may run perpendicular to this straps true nature, it seems to fit well with the watch and I was quite pleased wearing it.
WHERE CAN I GET ONE
I bought my BluShark directly from BluShark from their bespoke website:
SUMMARY
Tactical fabrics have brought us many useful products, from backpacks to tires to luggage. Tough wearing and long lasting, Cordura is a natural choice for a hard wearing application. While I picked it mainly for a casual daily wear application, it could see this strap serving duty on any expedition where abrasion resistance and comfort are both wanted in equal amounts. After the initial break in is completed, this strap starts to mold to your own personal shape. It will not take long before it could become the strap for your casual daily wear knock around watch!