Hi strap lovers, here is a strap that I recently completed for my friend and good customer Gabe from Southern California. When Gabe first contacted me about building a Nato strap for his incoming BR126 silver dial Officer’s watch, I was a bit skeptical. A Nato strap combined with this extremely elegant watch from Bell & Ross seemed a bit incongruent. But when he described his vision for a black “dress” Nato strap in more detail, a picture formed in my mind that confirmed to me that this combination could not only work, but be an inspired choice. unbenounced to Gabe, I had independently decided give his black leather “dress” Nato strap a little twist: a Smote Grey Eel skin lining. Any of you readers of this blog is be aware that we here at Dangerous9straps have really been taken with Eel skin for use as a lining for several reasons: 1) It’s a beautiful, exotic skin, which adds a true touch of class and luxury 2) It’s wonderfully soft against the skin. 3) Eel skin is incredibly strong and thin. For all these reasons, Eel skin is just about the perfect lining material for most watch straps. Having never used Eel as a lining for a standard leather strap, let alone a Nato strap, I wasn’t sure that the combination would work. However, since Gabe’s design concept was for a ‘Dressy’ Nato to be combined with arguably the most elegant watch offered by Bell & Ross, I decided that if Eel skin was to work with any Nato, it would work here. I chose to use one or my most elegant colors – an almost silver toned Smoke Grey, which I though would be a great contrast to the Black leather and also a great match for the elegant silver dial of Gabe’s BR126. Here are the results, which I think are both dramatic and understatedly elegant at the same time. if you’d like to read Gabes full review, you can see it here: BR-avo.com: Black leather NATO (w/eel underside) by Dangerous9straps
