Crown and Buckle Chevron Night+Harvest

It is not a secret I try to keep. I am not a huge fan of the standard NATO strap. I dislike the extra bulk that is required to tuck it back in due to the completely unnecessary length of the strap. I know the origin of the NATO and I know why they traditionally have the extra length, but it is about a useful as a 1000 ft depth rating in down town Houston.  

When it comes to reviewing NATO’s on this site then, I take on the same intellectual philosophy as Samuel Jacksons’ character, Jules Winnfield, did in Pulp Fiction when he was asked if he would eat bacon if the bacon came from a pig that had a lot of personality. I believe he said:

“Well we’d have to be talkin’ about one charmin’ (insert explitive) pig”

-Jules Winnfield, Pulp Fiction

Well in order for me to spend my money on a NATO strap and then wear it and take the time to write a review, it better have some of that porcine charismatic charm Mr. Jules was referring to.  And a lot of it to boot. I am happy to report that I am not reviewing a standard issue NATO today, rather I am reviewing a strap that has been popping up on several internet pages and in Instagram. This is the Crown and Buckle Chevron. Let us take a minute to see what Crown and Buckle says.

Crown & Buckle’s exclusive Chevron straps are a game changer. There is nothing on the retail market quite like them. A hybrid between Perlon and NATO straps, Chevron straps are adjustable length, single-pass nylon straps. Key features include a unique alternating nylon weave, precise ultrasonic sizing holes, a fully stitched tip, and 316L hardware finished to a high degree.

DIMENSIONS

I bought the 20mm strap from Crown and buckle and it came in at 19.6mm from end to end. Crown and Buckle says this strap is 1.4mm and my calipers says they are spot on. This is a 10” NATO which when compared to other standard NATO straps it is about 1” shorter (just some FYI on the subject of NATO length, a 10” NATO rarely requires the loose end to be tucked back in).  On my 6.8” wrist, I can wear this strap on the last or second to last adjustment hole and it remains very comfortable.  Like all NATO’s there is no taper and the thickness holds true for the entire length of the strap.

DESIGN

In the world of NATO’s the driving design ethos is usually captured in one of two possibilities. The first is to offer the standard NATO and reduce the complexity and materials so that you can offer them as cheaply as possible and still be able to call them a NATO strap. The market overflows with such quality sterilized options.  However, the other possibility holds far more interest to me.  Few companies make a NATO worth reviewing, but Crown and Buckle with its Chevron have combined so many great features I struggle to even describe this as a NATO any more for fear of the negative association it may create with some people.  Let me shed some light on the big improvements C&B have made.

The first delta from the standard seat belt style NATO is the material.  Yes, this is still nylon, but like a quilt has more texture than a single piece of silk, this strap has a textural weave pattern that has high and low regions that give the material both visual and tactile interest.   It reminds me very much of nylon back pack straps on very high end back packs in terms of feel. 

The weave of the strap is made up of three colors.  Two strands that are responsible for the term NIGHT in the product name are made of alternating black and navy threads.  The Harvest comes from the khaki coloring along the center stripe.   The black and blue colors usually meld seamlessly together to give that deep night time sky color that is neither blue nor black.  However, in bright light, the colors start to differentiate from one another and the deep blue pops out of the strap in a surprisingly subtle but noticeable way.  The khaki stripe in the middle is a dead ringer for the gold on the Black Bay 58 bezel or more aptly, any watch with aged lumed indices or hands.

So having made a praiseworthy material choice let’s move on to the real star of the show here.  The construction of the strap.  Crown and Buckle are among a growing populace of strap manufacturers that have embraced the single pass NATO configuration.  At the risk of sounding repetitive, the only thing that extra length that goes under your watch accomplishes is to make your watch sit even higher off your wrist than it needs to.  A single pass NATO still holds tight to both spring bars and protects against watch loss just as a double pass NATO does should one spring bar let go.  Only the single pass just adds the thickness of one layer of nylon versus two.  Crown and Buckle always offered you an option to remove the extra layer on their website, now they designed an entire strap without having to do that at all.  That is called a win-win.

I like it when strap manufactures innovate.  The Crown and Buckle Chevron has a unique system for managing the extra length that is both adjustable and practical.  The strap feeds through the buckle and then back around on itself and finishes with a keeper that forms a loop.  This length that doubles back is adjustable so that it can be tailored to any wrist and the keepers will be positioned perfectly on the extra length of strap that comes from the buckle.  Here is a graphic from Crown and Buckle that explains this far better than I did:

This system guarantees that you will never have to tuck the strap in at the end and more importantly, it will wear very much like a custom fit two piece strap only with the added ruggedness and security of a NATO. I felt immediately enamored with this design as once you have it sized, it is very quick to strap on and go.

KEEPER AND BUCKLE

The keepers and buckle come in polished or brushed. But that does not tell the whole story. The strap in the pictures I chose is brushed, however, in Crown and Buckle world, that means the tops of all the hardware is brushed, and the sides are highly polished. If you should want polished, then that gets inverted and the top is polished and the sides are brushed. Extremely cool detail there, and it adds a note of sophistication not found in other NATO straps.

I found the buckle nice and thin and sized appropriately for the job at hand while adding as little bulk as humanly possible. I did struggle a bit with the keeper adjustments when trying to adjust the length as the tight clearance of the nylon through the buckle required some additional but very manageable effort. That effort is rewarded though, in the strap keeping its adjustment until you decide it needs to change.

HOW DOES IT WEAR

I mentioned this earlier that this strap wears more like a two piece than a traditional NATO. With the length being spot on, and keepers sized to perfect length of your watch and wrist, this is an easy watch to put on and forget about. It wears thin and minimal while still giving you all the durability and water resistance you want from a NATO.

The textured weave does breath easily and is comfortable throughout the day. The small keepers and thin buckle do not pose any obstacles during your most intense desk diving at work or home. The material wicks moisture away easily and the watch pictured survived several baths, one car wash and a round of yard mowing without any discoloration or wear. The adjustment holes are sealed and protected and did not fray or wear for my two weeks of wear. Most of all, the strap is comfortable and moves with you while looking quite dashing.

WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR

Well obviously I think the Chevron Night + Harvest is brilliant on a Black Bay 58, but I also put it on Hamiltons little 38mm khaki Feild Mechnical and it played brilliantly off the Khaki Fields patina’ed lume pips and hands. Any watch with aged lume bits would be served wonderfully by the Khaki stripe that runs down this watch. The Chevron comes in solid colors as well and the center stripes can be had in green and red as well as gold that you see here pictured.

These straps excel at looking tool tough while adding enough sophistication to look office appropriate. Never to be confused as a dress watch strap, I would stick to watches from Sinn, Hamilton, Damasko, and just about every Tudor Black Bay made. The singular stripe is very non nonsense and very purposeful as it is not thin or trying to be subtle. Pick a color of your watch and match it with that stripe and I truly believe your watch will gain some military credentials overnight.

WHERE CAN I GET ONE

Best place to get one of these strap is also the only place to get one, Crown and Buckle

https://www.crownandbuckle.com/straps-by-type/chevron-watch-straps.html#page=0&top=1&

SUMMARY

This is a watch strap Jules Winnfield would be proud to wear. It may or may not go with his suit, but I am darn sure not going to tell him that. Crown and Buckle took the humble NATO and made it better in every possible way. At 32 dollars this is a screaming deal and I would recommend you pick up a couple for your favorite tool watch soon.