I've had NATOs from cheapnatostraps.com and BluShark's are nicer. The basic Blushark straps are heavier, and the deluxe ones are heavier still and the weave is better. The hardware is also an improvement.

My very favorite NATO:

https://www.crownandbuckle.com...o-straps.html#page=1

Yellow Jacket, I found them on the fleabay they are called “Premium Quality Herringbone 20mm 22mm Seatbelt Watch Band Nylon Nato Strap For M”. For a $16 Chinese copy it’s damn surprising in regards to quality. They have a great feel and look pretty good.

Geckota has some good NATO strap options as well. I have a Geckota diver that looks quite amazing on one of their own NATO straps.

Link to some good NATO straps

That Toxic NATOs N80 ShizNit will probably be the one I pick up next.

quote:

Originally posted by r0gue:
My very favorite NATO:

https://www.crownandbuckle.com...o-straps.html#page=1

Yep, they make some really nice NATO straps.

I tried Watch Candy Wrist Club for NATO and Zulu straps on TGV’s recommendation. Looks like quality to me.

That Zelos Bronze watch you guys liked so much developed an issue. The sellita sw200 movement has a weird malfunction where every other day the date wheel misaligns VERY badly. Quick set still works as it should and other than the misalignment the movement is ok.

Annoyed by this I contacted Zelos and in less than 24 hours I got a reply. They offered to fix it free of charge and sent me a shipping label! Back to Singapore it goes....hopefully not for too long.

So far Zelos has been pretty damn good about standing behind their product. I’ll keep y’all posted on how it all turns out.

Do you think your "patina" had any cause in this?

No I don’t think it had any role in it. I doubt a watch with a 500m WR was damaged by being in a bag with a hard boiled egg. I don’t see how it could have. Everything else in the movement works perfectly and I’ve read about other people having the exact same issue with this movement in completely different watches.

Zelos is using a different movement in their newest version of the Mako. They moved away from the SW-200 in favor of the Miyota 9015. I think the failure was probably a manufacturing defect. I’m wondering if the move to the 9015 was due to other sw200 failures? The 9015 mvmt is a cost saving move for sure but I wonder if that was the only reason they switched?

Ok. I was thinking out loud and wanted to be sure that it wasn't the reason why it had failed.

SW-200 is a pretty common and solid movement. I've got 3 and never had an issue with any of them. I do have a Hamilton with and ETA 2824 that had an issue with the date wheel, but I think that was related to a pretty significant impact.

Hope they get it back up to snuff. That's a snazzy watch you've got there.

Speaking of Sellita movements, this one has the SW210, which is a hand wound version of the SW200. I REALLY like it. After about two weeks it seems to be running right at 5 seconds fast a day with me winding it to full in the morning when I get up.

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
Zelos is using a different movement in their newest version of the Mako. They moved away from the SW-200 in favor of the Miyota 9015. I think the failure was probably a manufacturing defect. I’m wondering if the move to the 9015 was due to other sw200 failures? The 9015 mvmt is a cost saving move for sure but I wonder if that was the only reason they switched?

Sellita has had a terrible time with quality for a while now. It seems they are sourcing parts from china and machine assembling them in Switzerland.

I opened up a STP1-11 only to find it FILLED with chinese parts. The plates are Swiss, but everything else was outsourced. It had the same date problem on top of the canon pinion was out of spec. WAY out of spec.

Even Ball is having severe quality issues with Asian produced parts lately.

Mars, I did see some of the quality issues mentioned when I began looking into my issue online. Whether mine was part of a bad batch who knows. Zelos said the reason for the switch to a different movement was due to the 9015’s smaller size (which allows them to make a thinner Mako) excellent accuracy and a lower cost.

Well gents it finally arrived. 50th Anniversary Speedmaster.

It even has Niel's moon shot on the sub dial!

Love it!

Congratulations!

Furlough - that looks awesome! Wear it with pride.

amazing watch Furlough. congrats

Thanks guys. Been waiting for 9 months since I ordered it and I am loving it.

One cool thing they did - no numbers on the dial.

Except 11, because it was Apollo 11.

OK regular Speedmasters don't have numbers - I should have said the 11 is an anomaly!