These leather-covered watch straps are available in both 18mm and 20mm widths, with a length of 240mm. Watch straps with face protectors have been widely used since the 1950s and remain popular today. Many military personnel prefer them for their dual benefits: they offer robust protection to the watch itself, and during nighttime operations, they prevent image intensifiers from detecting the glow of the watch dial.
One notable user of these straps was the Selous Scouts, a special forces unit of the Rhodesian Army that operated during the Rhodesian Bush War from 1973 until the country’s reformation as Zimbabwe in 1980. The Scouts, formed from members of the Rhodesian Special Air Service (SAS) and the Rhodesian African Rifles, operated covertly in small groups of five to ten men as an elite counter-insurgency unit. A client who served with the Selous Scouts sent us a photo showing this strap on a W10 watch used by the Scouts; this image can be seen after the cap badge.
With the increasing use of self-luminous watches that utilize GTLS (tritium light sources), these straps, along with their modern nylon-covered versions, have gained popularity among military personnel who need to conceal their location during active deployment.
