Charles-Felicien Tissot and son, Charles-Emile Tissot founded Tissot in 1853. They stepped out onto the market with the first mass-produced pocket watch along with the first pocket watch with two time zones.

Also a member of The Swatch Group Ltd. (If you follow the blog you will noticed the trend with the last couple of blogs) since 1983. Tissot is still based in Switzerland and is currently marketed in 160 countries. They are considered mid-range products to The Swatch Group Ltd.

Tissot is official for the world championships of cycling, motorcycling, fencing, and ice hockey. They were also used in the Davis Cup in 1957 and Downhill Skiing in 1938. They currently sponsor a few formula one teams including Lotus, Renault, and Sauber.

T-Touch technology was introduced by Tissot in 1999. Watches with this technology have a touch-sensitive sapphire crystal to control various functions. The T-Touch Expert Solar and T-Touch Lady Solar holds 25 functions including compasses, barometer, altimeter and thermometer.

Sarah Bernhardt, Carmen Miranda, Elvis Presley, and Grace Kelly are some of thefew celebrities who have worn Tissot watches. The T-Touch was work by Angelina Jolie in the movies Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life and Mr.& Mrs. Smith.

To view our watchbands for Tissot watches you can go here.

Swiss luxury watchmaker, Omega SA is based in Biel, Switzerland. They were the official watch for Britain’s Royal Flying Corps in 1917 and the first watch on the moon in 1969 thanks to NASA. Omega has also been keeping track of time for the Olympic Games since 1932. James Bond also wore this watch since 1995. John F. Kennedy, Price William and Buss Aldrin have all been seen in Omega watches. Omega is owned by Swatch Group.

Omega has a long history. Second in line, the La Generale Watch Co. was founded by Louis Brandt in 1848. Brandt assembled perfect pocket watches from supplies he found at local craftsman. He jumped around the world selling his watches, England being his primary market. His sons developed an in-house manufacturing and production system that would allow parts to be interchangeable. If watches were made with this technique then they were marketed under the Omega brand. The Omega Watch Co was officially formed in 1903.

The sons both died in 1903, leaving one of the largest watch companies in Switzerland in the hands of four ‘children’. None were over the age of 25. The oldest, not yet 24, was Paul-Emile Brandt. He was a large part of Omega at the time and he would steer the company into a merger in 1930 with the SSIH Geneva group.

Under Pail-Emile and Joseph Reiser’s influence the SSIH Group grew quickly and by 1970’s became the number one watch producer in Switzerland and number 3 in the world. Omega was outselling Rolex. Both were part of the “King of Swiss Watch brands” competition. Omega watches were more professionally focused, and in the meantime Rolex was famous for their branding.

Of course this all changed in the late 1970’s when Seiko and Citizen rose to power with the quartz era. Things got bad in the 80’s for SSIH and there were rumors of Seiko purchasing Omega after Omega was being bailed out by government funding. The purchase never happened.

There was major restructuring and ASUAG and SSIH merged and formed ASUAG-SSIH in 1983. A couple years later, a group of private investors took over the company and took the next decade to become one of the top watch producers in the world. By 1998 the group was called Swatch Group and they now produce Omega and other brands.

As I’ve talked about in most of my blogs (and mentioned previously in this one), James Bond GoldenEye (1995) wore the Omega Seamaster. Omega wasn’t only Rolex competitor, they also learned from their higher pricing, and increasing advertising strategies, which made Omega a direct competitor.

If you don’t know about the NATO strap yet, you will after this short read. Whether you are just getting into watches with a 25-dollar watch or have invested great amounts of money into a Rolex or Tudor, the NATO is a classic and yet durable strap choice.  NATO straps started with the British military sometime during the cold war. They were originally made specifically for the troops and are named after the NATO Stocking Number, or NSN. Originally the NATO strap was only issued in “Admiralty Grey” and only came in 20mm. It also had a chrome-plated brass buckle and keepers. The extra nylon strap attached to the buckle was defiantly military standard, as it had to be fail-proof.

Not much has really changed with this well-made strap since 1973 minus a few slight modifications such as more colors or sizes. However, the most famous NATO of all is the reason many watch enthusiasts have named the strap as the “Bond NATO”.

Sean Connery’s famous glance at his 6538 Submariner in Gold Finger showed the famous strap that is a navy blue color with red and green stripes. It’s truly a timeless classic.

Even though James Bond wore the NATO, it would be years before the nylon strap industry would come to the light. Watchmakers have added a NATO strap to a regular watch purchase. From a marketing stand point, this is great for the NATO. From the colors, sizes and great quality, the N.A.T.O makes for an excellent choice of watch strap history.  

You can learn how to install your NATO strap here.

If you want more information of NATO Stocking Number click here 

To return:  Collections Nylon Nato Straps 

Seiko

Everyone has a favorite watch brand. Personally, one of my favorites (that I wear daily) is my gold Seiko. It’s a men’s black face (I have a serious love for simple, yet classic, men’s watches) and pairs well with almost any strap because of its classic style.

This watch has been with me for a long time and between you and me… a new one wouldn’t hurt me. It’s held up very well though, however, the ‘stock’ strap has definitely taken a beating. This is one reason it’s great to work for LUX Watch Straps! But enough about me and my favorite beat up watch, check out this great history on Seiko and then check out this link to our straps that fit Seiko watches.

Seiko was founded in 1881 when Kintaro Hattori opened his first shop (watches and jewelry) in Tokyo, Japan. According to Seiko's official company history, titled "A Journey in Time: The Remarkable Story of Seiko" (2003), Seiko is a Japanese word meaning "exquisite" or "success".

Seiko didn’t actual produce their watches until 1924. They came on strong in 1969 when they introduced the Astron, the world’s first production quartz watch. When introduced, it cost around $3,000.

Seiko later went on to introduce the first quartz chronograph. In the eighties, Seiko introduced the first Kinetic watch that had attributes of an automatic watch but accuracy of a quartz.

Before 1990 the company wasn’t actually called Seiko yet. It started off in 1917 as incorporated (K. Hattori & Co., Ltd.). The company was renamed in 1983 (Hattori Seiko Co., Ltd.) and in 1990 the Seiko Corporation was official. The company later became a holding company in 2001 and was just renamed a few years ago (July 1^st, 2007) to Seiko Holdings Corporation.

You can find all of our straps that fit Seiko here.

Calling all watch strap news!

Having problems measuring lug width or deciding which width is right for your watch? Read below to help you to determine what lug width your watch is.

 “Step 1”

Remove the strap from your watch. You can remove the strap from one side or from both. You will need a spring bar tool like the one pictures below.

Insert the spring bar tool under the leather or against the metal to push the spring bar.

Once one side is undone the other side will pop out instantly.

“Step 2”

You will need a ruler with millimeters on it for this step. Start by laying your watch down on a flat surface on top of the ruler. You want the inside of the left lug to start at zero, and then read the measurement to the inside of the right lug. If your watch measures 20 ½ mm, then you will always round down to the nearest whole number. So in this example you will choose 20mm as your lug width. If you had a width of 18 ½ mm, you would choose 18mm lug width.

Make sure you inset the springs back in the respective holes when putting on the new strap.

 Disclosure: Some Rolex and other luxury brands use odd number spring bars for 13,15,17,19,21 mm. We also sell these.

Enjoy and check: click here to see  Collections  LUX Watch Straps