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Every watch owner who travels has had the same argument with themselves at the suitcase. Which strap goes. The leather for the dinner, the rubber for the pool, the sailcloth for the days in between. Three straps, a spring bar tool, and the quiet certainty that one of them will come home unused.
There’s a simpler answer, and it’s the one strap most people overlook because it’s the one they think of as cheap. A good nylon strap does more of the travel job than any other material, and it does it without a tool.
It changes without touching the watch
The single piece nylon strap passes under the case and through both spring bars. Changing it means sliding one out and the next one in. No tool, no risk to the lugs, no spring bar rolling under a hotel bed. That alone makes nylon the travel strap, because you can carry three in a coat pocket and swap them in a minute.
It survives the trip
Sweat, salt, sand, sunscreen, rain, the airport security tray. A dense nylon strap shrugs off all of it. It can be rinsed under a hotel tap, hung to dry and worn the next morning. Leather would be stiffening by day three. A good nylon strap is still exactly what it was.
The condition is that it’s a good one. Cheap nylon frays at the keepers and holds water in a loose weave until it smells. Artem’s nylon watch straps are woven from a dense polyamide that resists fraying and dries quickly, with sealed edges and hardware that doesn’t rust at the first sight of the sea.
It holds the watch on
This is the part that matters more abroad than at home. On a two piece strap a failed spring bar drops the watch. On a single piece nylon the strap still holds it, because the fabric is under the case. Lose a spring bar hiking in a country where you don’t know the word for watchmaker and you’ll understand why the military specified this design in the first place.
It fits more than one watch
Nylon compresses slightly in the lugs, which is why Artem cuts its straps in three sizes that cover five widths. An 18mm, a 19.5mm that seats in 19mm or 20mm lugs, and a 21.5mm that does the same for 21mm and 22mm. Travel with two watches of different widths and one strap may fit both.
It looks right in more places than you’d expect
The reason people leave nylon at home is that they think it looks casual. It does, but casual covers most of a holiday. A navy solid on a steel diver passes at a restaurant. A gray solid passes at a museum. The Bond stripe is one of the most recognizable pairings in the hobby and looks deliberate on almost any black or blue dial. Black nylon with black hardware is close to invisible under a cuff.
What it won’t do is formal. If the trip includes a wedding, pack the leather for that one night. For everything else, nylon covers it.
Which colors to pack
Two is enough. A solid in black, navy or gray for the days you don’t want to think, and a stripe for the days you do. Artem’s range runs to fourteen, with the Bond, NTTD, Vintage Bond and Blue Bond on the striped side and black, gray, navy, khaki green, burgundy and sandstone among the solids. Khaki green is the one for a trip that involves boots. Sandstone is the one for a trip that involves a beach.
Hardware worth noticing
A nylon strap shows more metal than any other strap, since the buckle and three keepers are all on view. On a cheap strap that metal is the giveaway. Artem fits OEM grade hardware in polished, brushed or black, and the keepers are two fixed and one floating, which holds the tail flat without letting it slide around all day.
How to look after it on the road
Rinse it in warm water with a drop of soap every few days if it’s been sweated in. Squeeze it, don’t wring it, and hang it to dry overnight. Don’t put it back on damp. That’s the entire care routine, and it’s the reason nylon is the only strap that comes home from a trip looking the way it left.
The packing list
One watch. Two nylon straps, a solid and a stripe. A leather strap if there’s a dinner that calls for one. No tool. Artem sells its nylon at $76 with a two year warranty and thirty day returns, which is a fair price for a strap that makes the suitcase argument go away.
Everything else in the collection is at Artem Straps for the days when you’re home and have the drawer to choose from.
