How to position solid objects so they're attached, ie links on a metal watch strap? Well I've created my watch strap, it's made up of stainless steel links. It's a common design, 3 links wide. The centre links are offset to the outer ones.  

Currently it's all laid out flat. Each pair of outer links is its own object, and all the central links are seperate objects.   

Now, what is the best way to join them at the pivot points so that I can grab one link and the rest will follow at their pivot points properly, without the individual links deforming. Would it be rigging, parenting, or something else?
I figured it out. I thought I'd share the solution. It was a lot simpler than I thought. I left the outer pairs as seperate objects, and inner links as seperate objects too. 
Then, I added an armature, went into edit mode and positioned the ends at either end of the strap. 
Then I subdivided (W) the armature in edit mode a few times until there was enough bones for each segment.
Then I went into pose mode. Selected the left most link, then shift selected the left most bone. Ctrl+P, parent to bone. Then I continued doing that for all the segments of the strap.
Then, in pose mode I selected the last bone and went to Add constraint, IK solver. That's it. 
Now when I move that last bone in pose mode everything follows it sweetly. PS this is in blender 2.49b but it will be very similar in later versions I'm sure.