Tested : Zulu Extreme 5 Rings

Readers would know that I am a fan of Nato straps. They are cheap and cheerful, and you can have many combinations to suit your watch and mood.

I have never tried Zulu straps. These were said to be thicker and sturdier than Nato's, and came in Standard 3-rings or Extreme 5-rings.

Point to note was that while Nato and Zulu straps tend to sell from RM30 ono post-conversion overseas; for some reasons, Malaysia traders sell them as though they were luxury goods with prices from RM60 ono. There were some cheaper ones from RM20 ono- but the quality was substandard. That's why I prefer to order from overseas but with a few straps in one go to ensure that the shipping charges were manageable.                                                                                                                                                

Since I have quite a no. of watches using 22mm lugs, I made an online order for 3 pieces of Zulu Extreme 22mm straps last week. They arrived yesterday in good condition.

I had earlier planned to use the Orange for Seiko SKX007J1, the Green for Steinhart Vintage Military, and the Black for Steinhart GMT-Ocean Ceramic. However, as the latter 2 watches have yet to arrive from Germany, I decided to utilise the Green on the SevenFriday P3-01 and see if it would look good.

And voila, it actually looked as though it was designed to go together as a piece. The PVD rings went well with the PVD casing of the SevenFriday, and the rounded edge design also complemented the looks altogether.

Immediately after fixing the Zulu straps on the watch, my wife, whom was a designer based in London prior to settling down in Malaysia, remarked that the overall design of the SevenFriday looked so much more enhanced now that she asked me to reconsider my earlier proposal to treat it as a catch and release.

And the more I looked at it, the more I liked it so.  It earned a spot in my winder last night.

Funny how a change of strap could change one's perspective of a watch...