Ah, yes. I believe that was Avi's famous
breathable Swiss rubber according to the on-air presentation. If memory serves the written description was "PU Rubber" which translates into polyurethane. I'm afraid strap materials may have suffered from the same imprecision of language that often impacts any product where marketing types get their nose in the tent. The product might be natural rubber or some variation of synthetic rubber including polyurethane and silicone varieties. I believe it would be unfair to tar "rubber" as problematic simply due to experiences with IWG. As Locoboy notes the Seiko and Citizen rubber has no problems. Neither are there widespread reports of problems with "rubber" straps from other manufacturers. When rubber straps provide the service intended over the course of decades we may assume they are suitable to the application barring ill-advised formulations or design defects.
It should be noted that Invicta has apparently taken deteriorating rubber to a new level - it disintegrates while sitting in a box or dive case unmolested. This phenomenon was first described by Douglas Adams as "nonlinear, catastrophic structural exasperation" or in other words "The strap had just got 'fundamentally fed up with being where it was.'" Cases of non-linear catastrophic structural exasperation are extremely rare but when they occur they play merry hob with shelf life predictions and generally impact large batches of product.
You are a wise and generous mouse but I would respectfully disagree that it's in any way the supplier's issue. My conjecture (and it is conjecture) is that the stylized product with barrel accents suffers from formulation error and design choices wholly on Invicta's doorstep. The non-stylized version may suffer only from formulation errors.
Importing a new design goes something like this:
1. Concept sketches then 3D render.
2. Send files to uncle Ned who knows someone with FEA software and a book of alternative formulations.
3. Run the software to ascertain if stress points are likely to fail under various conditions, in this case mostly tensile and torsional. Will the buckle pin holes hold shape, etc.
4. If you want to get fancy run actual accelerated aging tests. Or just simulate them.
5. Bag up the files and send out for bids or ask your OEM to receive bids on your behalf. Specify the exact composition you want and outline what you expect in the way of prototype testing and evaluation.
6. Physically test the prototype. Yourself.
7. Receive big bunches of product and ship out to your happy customers.
I'm betting Invicta short-cut the process by omitting steps 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 thus compromising point 7.
In place of steps 2 through 6 substitute the following:
Vendor: What formulation you want?
IWG: Which one's cheapest?
It is not up to the supplier to determine if you've selected a rubber formulation more suited to underwear elastic or compromised function with styling licks. That stuff lands right smack on the importer's doorstep. Every time.
So, not so much a rant as me making note of who is legally liable. If any product I import goes haywire it's my wrinkled backside in the sling - I can't tell people to blame it on Tianjin. Same with Invicta rubber or anything else.
Personally I seriously doubt some importers even know if they're using PU, Silicone or one of 40,000 variations of rubber. I base this surmise on the accepted wisdom that poly straps are stronger. This is what happens when you run QC on live TV - gotta admit I love that sort of stuff.