While watch collecting can be a lot of fun and a great hobby for the well-adjusted adult, it can also be a horrible addiction that sucks up money like you’ve discovered butterscotch-flavoured cocaine. And I don’t know about you, but I’ve blocked every news/humour/sport/media/miscellaneous bit of content on social media so all I see is watches. Affordable watches, expensive watches, quartz, automatic, black, grey, silver, bright pink, date complication, dive bezel, complicated bezel, diving dates, going on a date with Minnie Driver. Where was I again? Oh yeah, watches. Watches all the way down.
But you don’t need to pick up a watch every time you feel the pang of retail dopamine or when you want a fresh look for your wrist. Sometimes all you need is a new strap or bracelet and while it can be a bit of a gamble as to whether or not it’ll suit the piece you’re planning to pair it with, if you get the combination right you can get a great new look, and often not for much money. Sure, it’s absolutely okay to lay down a couple of hundred on a speculative new watch based on a couple of photos and not much else (although, if you’re here then you obviously like to do a bit more research – ta!) but we’re not looking to spend too much on a strap.
We’ve had some successes before. A white strap with red leather for our now-sold Pagani Design was a real showstopper (albeit ostentatious enough to make it look like we were about to audition for a Queen tribute band as lead singer). Our sometimes favourite watch is a Phoibos Wavemaster with a delightful abalone dial that we paired with a greeny-blue strap from Watch & Strap and that’s a winning combination (although the watch case actually wore away the leather a little and we had to draw over the damage with a dark blue felt tip pen, like McGyver or some shit, and the bracelet is actually really good).
And one of our best combinations is the Casio MTD-130D-13AV and a sporty green FKM rubber strap that we picked up from a seller on eBay. It just works and elevates the watch immensely. Every once in a while we post about it on the ‘I Love Casio’ Facebook Group and it always gets comments. It’s never been on that shitty Casio bracelet and it absolutely never will.
It’s about having the imagination to try out combinations and see what you can do to elevate a watch that you already like to one that you might love. Like a wife looking at her husband and thinking ‘he’s a knobhead but he’s my knobhead.’
One of our favourite watches from 2025 was the Brew Retrograph Lumint. A gorgeously vintage-looking chronograph with a beautiful square shape, a detailed retro-styled dial and the sort of lume that could leave you with permanent damage to your retinas. It makes us happy just looking at it and has been described by one family member as ‘the only one of your watches that I like.’
It’s a great watch and it comes on a high-quality leather strap that looks good and feels great. It’s the best strap we’ve tried in terms of just conforming to your wrist shape and not feeling like the facehugger from Alien trying to push its way through your arms. We’ve been very happy with it. But, it’s maybe just a little bit bland. Sure, it acts as a decent background to the star of the show, that superb dial, but it’s lacking in imagination a little.
We tried a grey and white strap on it which looked fantastic but it just wouldn’t quite fit into the Brew’s lugholes. There’s just not enough room for padded leather. And so, we thought we’d scratch an itch we’d had for a while and see how a vintage-looking watch like the Brew would look on a similarly vintage-looking mesh bracelet. When this reviewer thinks back to watches in the ’80s, I’m pretty sure they were either on mesh bracelets or elasticated expanding ones which trapped your skin and made you cry. Let’s leave the tears back in the ’80s and go with the mesh, you can stay there and watch the ending of Best of the Best until you cry all the moisture out of your face. Alex Grady, I know everything there is to know about you. Sob!!!
We then found this one. A milanese mesh bracelet from UK microbrand Geckota. We had been admiring their sexy looking Pioneer range for a while (especially in the Terminator Eye red colour) and they’ve got a square-ish aspect to them and sit beautifully on mesh bracelets. It also turns out that Geckota sell the bracelets. Neat. We then couldn’t decide between the Polished or Satin finishes and ended up buying both but expecting the Satin would be the better stylistic match in a Robotic Eye for the Human Guy sort of way.
They both arrived courtesy of, official authorised Geckota dealer, WatchGecko. Each bracelet comes packed in a long, flat cardboard strip and is wrapped with the sort of clingy plastic that can imagine spending its whole life with you. It’s all very safe and secure. A branded circular card is all the unboxing experience you’ll get to enjoy but that’s fine. It’s a watch bracelet. Get over yourself. Buying Apple shit has spoiled you.
The set up process was… okay. Thirty minutes longer than it probably needed to be though. Partly down to this reviewer’s lack of skill and somewhat down to the fact that these bracelets ship without spring bars. And no spring bars means no contained spring bars. No quick release. Just the pain of fannying around with spring bars like your dad had to in 1968. Break out the little spring bar tool that you got with some shitty other tools on Amazon back when you started collecting because you’re up for a round of ‘Spronnnngggg! There Goes Your Spring Bar.’
Okay, we made heavy weather of this one. Including that dumbest of dumb mistakes, mixing up the buckle and tongue ends. So after approximately an eternity putting the bracelet on, we had to the undo it and swap the ends over. We’re going to get bloody on this one, Rog. And then you’ve got the adjusting. The strap has a sliding clasp mechanism which they say “ensures easy and precise adjustment.”
We’ll give them precise. You can get a perfect fit here, essentially infinitely adjustable to ensure you get it just right. It wasn’t quite as easy as we were hoping. We had to re-use that spring bar tool to push it open and closing it again after was oddly difficult, resisting the process like us being asked to dance at a wedding. But once it’s done, it’s done. Now you can start enjoying the bloody thing.
And what a source of enjoyment it is. Nail that adjustment and you’re in for a treat. The mechanism feels solid, almost chunky in operation, suggesting that there’s absolutely no way it’s going to let you down. And the bracelet itself looks and feels great. The mesh is made from 1mm thin wire, woven to a thickness of just 2.8mm. It gives you the durability you want, thanks to the grade 316L stainless steel, but it has the articulation of the softest leather. And it weighs in at a Mounjaro-tastic 60 grams. It’s got it all. Well, as long as you’re not sporting a wrist over 7 inches apparently (although we think it’s got a bit more in it than that).
But ultimately it comes down to the look and paired with the Brew, it looks absolutely fantastic. The satin finish definitely pairs better with the Brew’s brushed polish case and, frankly, we’re not messing with manual spring bars again unless we find ourself in a cage full of razors and Jigsaw tells us the only way out is to swap this strap over. But judge for yourself, isn’t this just the most perfect thing?
JUST THE FACTS
Availability/Options: If you want this exact model of the strap, you’ll need to pick it up (while stocks last, and they are limited) from WatchGecko but if you want to go direct to Geckota, they’re stocking the newer (and more expensive) version which is similar but has a very nice diagonal weave to it.
Brand: Geckota
Model: Milanese Mesh Stainless Steel Watch Bracelet
Style: Mesh bracelet
Material: Stainless Steel (Grade 316L)
Colour/Finish: Satin
Band Width: 22mm
Band Thickness: 2.8mm
Price Paid: £9 (WatchGecko – sale price)