Wear Your Watch Your Way

There’s a version of the Rifleman’s Creed famously heard in Full Metal Jacket that begins:

“This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine.”

I’ve always liked that sentiment. Not because I’m comparing a watch to a rifle, but because the idea applies to a lot of the things we choose to carry through life. There may be thousands of watches exactly like yours, but this one is yours.

And once it’s yours, I think you should wear it however the hell you want.

I’ve always been a rubber strap guy. I wear a rubber wedding ring. I prefer rubber straps on my watches. To me, bracelets sometimes make a watch feel more like jewelry, and that’s just not what I’m looking for most of the time. That doesn’t mean bracelets are bad. Far from it. Some watches look incredible on them. They’re just not always for me.

My Rolex 124060? I prefer it on rubber.

I know. Somewhere, a Rolex purist just felt a disturbance in the Force.

But that’s kind of the point. It’s my watch.

Bracelet

For many watches, the bracelet is part of the identity. Think about a vintage Submariner on an Oyster bracelet. There’s something undeniably right about it—the weight, the feel, the way the bracelet integrates with the case. It’s the configuration most people picture when they think of the watch.

Modern bracelets have also become incredibly good. Better clasps, micro-adjustment, improved finishing and more comfortable links have made them far more wearable than some of their predecessors. For plenty of people, the bracelet is exactly where the watch belongs.

But it doesn’t have to stay there forever.

Taking a bracelet off can completely change the personality of a watch, and sometimes that’s the fun of it.

Leather

Leather might be one of the easiest ways to completely transform a watch. A tool watch on steel can suddenly feel warmer and more personal on leather, and different colors, textures and stitching can make the same watch feel entirely different.

Brown leather can lean vintage. Black can feel cleaner and more formal. Distressed leather can make something feel like it’s already lived a life before you ever put it on your wrist.

Leather also ages with you. It develops creases, darkens and picks up marks. Eventually, the strap itself becomes part of the story.

Is leather always the most practical choice? Of course not. I probably wouldn’t throw a leather strap on a dive watch and jump into the pool. But again, we’re talking about options.

Nylon

Nylon straps are about as close as you can get to the original spirit of a tool watch. They’re inexpensive, durable, lightweight and easy to replace.

There’s also a practical advantage to traditional pass-through NATO-style straps. Because of the way the strap passes underneath the watch, if one spring bar fails, the watch may remain attached to your wrist by the other. That redundancy is part of what makes the design so useful.

Aesthetically, nylon just works on a lot of tool watches. A Tudor Pelagos FXD on fabric? That makes sense. A field watch on olive nylon? Absolutely. Even watches that originally came on bracelets can take on an entirely different personality when you put them on nylon.

Rubber and Sailcloth

And now we’ve arrived at my personal favorite: rubber.

There’s a reason rubber straps are so common on modern sports and dive watches. They handle moisture well, they’re easy to clean, they’re comfortable, and good modern materials—particularly FKM rubber—offer excellent resistance to heat, moisture, chemicals and environmental exposure.

More importantly, a good rubber strap can make a watch feel less precious, and I mean that as a compliment. Put a Rolex on rubber and suddenly it can feel a little more like something you grab and wear rather than something you need to protect.

Rolex itself clearly understands the appeal. Oysterflex exists for a reason. You’ll find it paired from the factory with watches like precious-metal Daytona models, Yacht-Masters and Sky-Dwellers. So the idea of putting a luxury watch on something other than a traditional bracelet isn’t exactly sacrilege—even if Instagram comments occasionally suggest otherwise.

Sailcloth gives you another option somewhere between nylon and rubber: sporty, durable and capable of changing the character of a watch without making it feel completely casual. There are more good strap options today than ever before.

Which brings us to the question I inevitably hear:

But what if you scratch it taking the bracelet off? What does that do to the value?

Who cares.

Watches are not—and should not be—treated solely as investments. Sure, some appreciate. Some become collectible. Some are worth considerably more than what their owners originally paid. That’s great.

But I don’t buy watches because I’m trying to build a miniature investment portfolio in a watch box. I buy them because they make me happy. I buy them to mark accomplishments, create memories and, someday, pass those memories along with the watch.

If there’s a tiny scratch near the lug because I changed the strap? Fine. Maybe I’ll remember putting it there.

Make It Yours

Just like the watches you choose to purchase, the strap you choose to wear is deeply personal. Maybe you’re a bracelet person. Maybe you love leather. Maybe you have a drawer full of NATO straps. Maybe, like me, you keep finding reasons to put watches on rubber.

Try them. Change them. See what works.

A watch doesn’t have to look exactly the way it did in the catalog forever.

It’s yours. Wear it your way.

Will T.R.A.D.E. Watch Syndicate offer some strap options in the future? Maybe. For now, there are a ton of great options already out there.

Leave a comment below and tell us your favorite strap company, material or style. I’m always looking for another excuse to take a bracelet off a watch.

Memento Temporis — Remember Time.