Review: Nylon Straps by Phenome

If you’re into pilot, field, or dive watches, you know a great NATO strap can transform the whole vibe of your wrist. I’ve tried more than I can count, but recently, I’ve been seriously impressed by the Phenome nylon straps.

Comfortable, tough, and surprisingly refined, they’re a standout in a sea of lookalikes.

Here’s why they’ve earned a permanent spot in my strap rotation.

Phenome Straps

Phenome was founded by Akos, a watch enthusiast from Hungary. His goal? To offer an EU-made alternative to the countless rebranded, Chinese-made NATO straps flooding the market.

So he stocked up his garage with the tools, hardware, and nylon webbing he needed and made one himself.

As we know, plenty of good things start in garages and sheds: the Swiss watch industry, Rolls-Royce… And is it any good? Oh, hell yes.

Akos’ idea was to create a NATO strap that would be a fitting match even for luxury and high-end watches.

Most manufacturers of luxury sports and tool watches, including Omega and IWC, now offer some sort of OEM NATO strap options. As Akos tells me, it was his hands-on experience with Omega’s OEM NATOs at Baselworld that inspired him to create his straps.

OEM straps from luxury brands are typically priced so high that only die-hard fans of OEM accessories will reach for them.

Of course, premium strap manufacturers also make NATOs with the luxury/high-end brand crowd in mind, but those often come with hefty price tags as well. Not Phenome.

Remarkably, Phenome is still a one-man operation, part garage, part home-based. Akos splits his time between running the business – manufacturing, marketing, customer service and shipping – on his own and raising his two young daughters.

In the early days, it was even more intense; he was also working a day job and pursuing an MBA.

Because of that, there never was, and still isn’t, a stockpile of pre-made straps. Every single Phenome strap is made to order.

That’s some truly impressive entrepreneurship, hard work, and determination. I take my hat off to that.

Unfortunately, in 2023, Akos – like many other NATO strap manufacturers – was targeted by a US-based trademark troll who somehow managed to register the term “NATO” as a trademark.

Here in this review, though, since I’m neither a manufacturer nor a seller, I’ll continue to call them what they are: NATO straps.

And to the trademark trolls out there? Here’s a hearty middle finger.

Improving the original

What about Phenome had me taken was the fact that Akos clearly dived into the history of the concept of the NATO strap, and he has based his improvements to the concept point by point. The fabric, the loops, the buckle…

One particularly smart tweak is the placement of the keepers, which is designed to keep the buckle centered on the underside of the wrist at all times. It’s a small detail, but a huge improvement over many NATOs I’ve owned in the past.

For what it’s worth, Akos does the final finishing touches on the hardware himself, smoothing out the inner edges. If necessary, he refinishes the surface, so that the hardware on every strap is always spotless.

One area where Phenome straps deviate from the original military spec is in how the loops and buckle are attached: instead of being heat-sealed, they’re sewn in. But the result is still…

Hard as a rock

My first impression of the straps was their incredibly solid build. The fabric is soft and pleasant against the skin, pliable yet surprisingly tough.

I have a NATO strap from a premium American manufacturer made of similar fabric, but the notoriously sharp edges of my Longines Spirit’s lugs caused immediate fraying and dozens of stray nylon strands where the strap meets the case. Not so with Phenome.

You can clearly see that the texture changes slightly near the edges, and whatever the reason for that design choice, it works. There’s absolutely no fraying.

Another common gripe with many NATO straps is the buckle. You often have to choose between a flimsy sewn-in (or heat-sealed-in) option or a more robust buckle held in place by a spring bar.

Akos kindly provided a sample buckle for this review so I could take a closer look at Phenome’s little secret. At first glance, the buckle looks like a spring bar-mounted design, but the bar is actually welded in place. And it’s beefy.

Honestly, I don’t know what you’d have to use to break it. Maybe bolt cutters or an angle grinder. Nothing less.

The loops are just as impressive: solid, milled chunks of steel. They feel sturdy and built to last, yet maintain a sleek, clean profile (dare I say elegant, if that word can even be applied to NATO strap hardware).

Sizing

One thing that’s really important is that you familiarize yourself with the actual lengths of the two length variants offered by Phenome.

I overlooked that and ordered the standard length. Thing is, “standard” here is really long. Seriously. It’s 33.5 cm. You could probably use one as a tourniquet in case of a forearm injury.

Forgive me for not testing it this way; I’ll leave it as a purely hypothetical application.

Then again, if you ever wanted to wear your watch over a thick diving suit or a pilot suit, the standard-length strap will absolutely allow for that.

Oh, and because the fabric is so pliable, the large excess of the strap is very easy to tuck in. So, all in all, the length really isn’t an issue in my book.

That said, if you’re after something closer in size to a typical off-the-shelf NATO, you’ll probably be better off going for the short version.

My wrist measures around 19-19.5 cm in circumference, and I still have four adjustment holes left when the strap is buckled. So if your wrist is 1.5-2 cm smaller than mine, the standard will still fit, but again, the short would likely be a better match.

Akos does note this in the specs, recommending the short length for wrists 16.5 cm or smaller in circumference.

I’m definitely not going to call this a flaw, especially that there is a valid reason – one that I’ve experienced before – for which Akos decided to make the straps longer.

With off-the-shelf, standard-length NATOs, the tip of the strap that sticks through the final keeper is often difficult to bend and tuck in neatly. By adding more length, that issue is largely solved. To ensure that the tucked-in excess is kept in place, the middle keeper is free-floating.

That said, even though it wasn’t what I originally intended, the standard length has turned out to be the right choice after all.

Width-wise, the sizes currently offered by Phenome are 18, 20 and 22mm. The webbing is theoretically slightly undersized by about 0.3-0.4mm (on the website, that’s disclosed as a less conservative +/-0.5mm), but as you can see in the photos, the resulting appearance on the watches leaves no visible slack.

I think this might be due to the fact that lugs are also usually slightly undersized in relation to the width declared by manufacturers.

On the watches used for this review: the Glycine Airman, Combat Sub, and Sea Kraken, my caliper measured the lug widths at 19.6mm, 19.9mm, and 21.9mm, respectively.

Plus, the natural tension of the strap against the spring bars causes the fabric to expand slightly at that contact point, which also helps eliminate any looseness.

Even in the rare case where there’s a bit of slack off the wrist, as seen with the olive green strap on the Combat Sub, that slack completely disappears once the watch is on the wrist.

While the available colors and widths are limited to what’s shown on the website, Phenome does offer customization.

If you need a custom length, some other colour of stitching, or want a single-pass strap instead of a two-layer NATO structure, all you need to do is contact Akos directly.

He offers bespoke work in terms of build, sizing, and stitching, and honestly, I can’t think of any other NATO strap maker who does that.

How does it wear?

Extremely comfortably. As I’ve mentioned, the material is very sturdy, but not stiff or coarse. And while the standard length does leave a fair bit of excess, it’s easy and quick to tuck in, so it never becomes a hassle.

For me, it hits all the right marks, and I genuinely can’t think of a single aspect where it falls short.

It’s also worth noting that while these straps aren’t ultra-thin, they don’t tend to visually dwarf smaller watches. Just look at the 36mm Airman No.1 pictured in the review. It still wears proportionally.

In case of watches smaller than that, I’d suggest pairing it with ones that have a “beefy” case design – for example, all kinds of “fat lug” cases or optically chunky designs like Rolex/Tudor Oyster ones.

If you’re considering one for a smaller modern piece, say, a Tudor Black Bay 54, I’d expect it to look just right on a Phenome NATO. And for anything larger? It’ll handle it with ease.

Colorways

For this review, I have chosen very plain colors, because that’s my usual choice – except the occasional 1960s Gulf Racing livery, Shelby stripes or Bond “Goldfinger” aka regimental pattern.

In different light conditions, the fabric’s slight shine makes the colours shift in tone. So, the beige might appear more coppery or sandy gold, the olive green – drab olive or a slightly more forest green, and the navy blue – almost black.

The more “bold” – in fact, far from bold – option I went for is the Bond (as featured on 007’s Seamaster 300 in „Spectre”).

I’m happy to report that all of the straps I chose turned out to be excellent pairings with the watches I intended them for.

The Bond plays along really well with the Sea Kraken. The Airman on navy blue looks like the combo belongs with a Pan-Am uniform, and when I swap it for the beige or olive, my mind immediately starts playing “Fortunate Son”.

When it comes to looks, I couldn’t possibly ask more of a NATO.

Verdict?

I often find myself calling something “the best of its kind I’ve ever had.” I can’t recall if I ever said that of any NATO strap, though.

Every once in a while, something comes along that dethrones my previous favorite. For NATO straps, Phenome has done exactly that. These straps feel like they’re made to survive an apocalypse and get you and your watch through it in style.

At $45, they’re not exactly cheap for a NATO strap. But for straps this good, it’s surprisingly little. OEM NATOs? Forget them. Get yourself a Phenome.

You’ll get a strap that’s incredibly comfortable, impressively durable, and great-looking. Plus, you’ll be supporting a talented and enterprising craftsman. And if you’re in the EU, there’s the added bonus of backing a local business.

Finally, I admire every effort to make an alternative to all the off-the-tape stuff out there, especially if it’s one that involves as much work as Akos puts into crafting these straps all on his own. Keep up the good work, man. Good luck and Godspeed in making Phenome a phenomenon!

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What do you think of these Phenome straps? Let me know in the comments below.