Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The entire purpose of the NATO-style strap is to retain and preserve the watch in case of a single spring bar failure. When I received this product, what did I find? A single spring bar installed in the buckle ... the failure of which will cause the watch and the strap to fall away from your wrist; in fact, another one-star reviewee (see "Needs better QC in product" below) had that happen and it shattered his crystal. This single spring bar is quite flimsy and lightly sprung and it fits loosely into the buckle. Real NATO straps each have a solid one-piece buckle casting .. and the buckle tongue is bent around the buckle's shank, not pinned with a spring bar. Then the strap is folded around the assembly, seam-welded and stitched for integrity. Look at the photo and you can see the tiny hole in the buckle casting into which the spring bar engages. It's made that way to simplify and speed up its assembly for Barton. They can purchase the tongues pre-curled and then have low-paid workerbees pin them into the buckles .. instead of buying a more sophisticated machine to bend the tongues around one-piece buckle shanks. They know this kind of buckle assembly can fail, but don't really care; it's all about the profit margin, not your expensive wristwatch. Wish I'd spotted that earlier. This product is a cheap knock-off, cutting corners with both hardware and strap construction. Some of the other posts describe fraying of edges and elongation of tongue holes. Bottom line: you could easily lose your expensive wrist watch with it. Not worth returning for a refund, so I'll write this off as a loss. If you took the time to read this review: well done. If not, good luck.