Spring bar failure.

This is the exact reason divers use NATO straps

That's scary

Nice 👍

Never had this happen, I can only imagine it’s cus I like to wear my strap loose. Not a fan of Natos, but glad it worked 👏

And THIS is why my Spaceview is on a bund strap.

It's a rare occurrence, but it does happen. In the past 30 years, I've had two spring bars fail on me. Both failures involved the quick release type.

I've never had an incident with the standard bars, which I now use exclusively.

The inevitable question…did it save the watch or cause the issue? The exact reason I never wear NATOs. The only springbar failures I’ve ever encountered where on NATOs. I posit it is largely due to the pressure the put on the center of the bar.

Absolutely could have.

Where is a good place to order replacement spring bars?

Hay de todos los tipos de pernos, hay que encontrar de buena calidad, sino sucede que tan solo con la humedad se deterioren con lo que su tención se quiebra, es una parte que nos olvidamos cuando tenemos consideración del ⌚, pero es importante.

Creo que el q resuelve este problema ha sido panera, ya que los puentes son fijados por 🔩 a la caja

I was able to find some on eBay.

Las nato cumplen bien la función de que si un perno falle no perdamos la pieza. Si para ⌚ de vestir no son muy bonitas a la vista, de hecho me he basado en las correas del bulova lunar de 1ra generación, para diseñar las mias

Curved bars spread the load differently.

I had spring bar failure happen on both nato and on a steel bracelet.

Wow man. I’ve never actually seen that happen. Cool post. Thank you for sharing.

As AllTheWatches said, it may have been because of the strap.

A NATO band isn't very tightly fitted around the spring bar (with some exceptions like the ones Tudor uses). That makes it is easier for the fabric, which is often some sort of nylon, to catch onto the area designed to be engaged by a tool for removal of the springbar. The design of the pass through band likely also results in greater stresses at the critical areas.

I would argue that, although they have their use case, for the reasons above NATOs should only be used on shoulderless bars or fixed lugs. But then again I might be wrong and biased because I am not a fan.

Anyway, glad the watch is okay! 💪

I have heard of Google but its paid advertising, not necessarily the best answer. I want to know a good place and lowest price for shipping and enthusiasts on this site are likely to give a better answer. Aliexpress has them but it takes two weeks for a package.

Very very cool. Thank you for the explanation and photo!

Did the spring bar snap? Or did it just come loose? And are these the spring bars that came with the watch?

I’m not sure. I wasn’t able to recover it. Yes it was the factory spring bars included with the watch.

Marathon Shoulderless all the way.

Even if no drilled lugs..

Then it's almost a fixed lug watch.

For the record I have had a failure on:

Steel (Helm and Seiko)

Rubber (Marathon and Bombfrog)

NATO (Marathon, Hamilton, Citizen, and Orient all except the marathon were not Shoulderless)

Stuff happens. These little parts are still made by fallible machines/humans, with sometimes suspect or weak parts, so things happen.

Cost of doing business, wearing a watch, daily, and using it as a time telling tool.

Never had a Marathon Shoulderless fail though.

Hence why I buy them in bulk, when in stock.

Edit: For the NATO, the fail rate seems the highest, yes, but I am including failure of all kinds, including but not limited to strap failure as well. Funny enough even the vaunted "sewn" in buckle will fail with enough PSI. And helicopters in particular produce such nasty, repetitive/constant vibration, that exponentially stacks up over time, that it's inevitable small screw end parts come undone. Not too mention those same vibrations, just hitting the right spot at the right time and the strap acting as a springbar tool.

When used appropriately, on fatbar, Marathon, any other Shoulderless type lug, as intended, it's a non issue.

I do cringe a little when I see peeps rocking them on quick change spring bars, or the cheap Amazon ones with double/triple flanges, which isn't good per se.

Also out of curiosity, how tight are y'all wearing these NATO's?

I will agree with the physics/mechanical/lever advantage thing going, but really that should only come in to play when worn extremely tight.

Otherwise, a bracelet/rubber would also cause around the same psi/tension.

The bigger culprit is stock springbars, in my opinion, suck. They are ALWAYS too loose, not threading far enough into the pocket, or undersized.

The two exceptions I've noted this far, are from Lorier, Nodus, Marathon (obviously), and Elliot Brown. Elliot Brown gets a pass since they use the far superior screw bars.

I don’t wear mine overly tight. I can easily get a finger between my wrist and strap. The watch will still slide down my wrist.

Same here.

I could see how, someone wearing it super tight, could maybe cause a levering action.

Which is their wear preference. But maybe that's why some have had repetitive failures?

Looser fit might mean the chances of a strap acting as a springbar tool, but if you have Shoulderless bars that go all the way to the ends of the lug pocket, it's a non issue. 👀🤏🏻😉

Don't get me wrong nato straps are cool and maybe I mad but I've never seen a spring bar failure on any strap other than nato. Wherever that's cause or effect I dunno

Not saying it doesn’t happen, luckily never for me, but after the third or fourth nato break for me that was all I needed. Though, there is a site that did a great job of breaking down the pressures caused by spring bars. Perhaps I’ll track it down and share later.

https://www.watchuseek.com/threads/does-nato-zulu-strap-cause-spring-bar-to-fail.5485670/

In an attempt to just raise awareness.

TL;DR, but longer explanation...👀🤏🏻😉😆

Seems to be the fabric that catches on the flanged/shoulders.

As posted numerous times already, fatbars, Marathon Shoulderless, and other better made Shoulderless bars remove that hazard.

And it's also kinda defeating the point of a NATO singlepass, if you use one with a pin/buckle.

These days I prefer sewn in, or screwed in.

And over the last 6 years almost exclusively ZuluAlpha.

Do I wear other stuff? Yes.

But I take that risk of something happening.

I'd also say, just from personal observation, the watch heads with high failure rates have extremely narrow watch case to lug clearance. So whatever problems could happen might be magnified. Double if using curved springbars.

Also interesting to note every video I've found of the "problems" with NATO straps causing the issue, generally it's a hella ton of force, or getting it just right. Then that same person, on the same video, doesn't put the same effort into the regular strap bracelet.

To me that just kinda seems 😐. True scientific testing would be same for both sets.

Interesting how no one brought up the Tudor FXD 😁

More of a Bertucci crowd?