There was a time when a six-figure watch came on a steel bracelet and stayed on it. Then tennis players started lifting trophies with rubber on their wrists, footballers turned up to contract signings wearing it, and Formula 1 drivers made it part of the paddock uniform. Rubber straps have gone from “gym watch” to red carpet in about a decade, and the people below did most of the persuading. Here are seven of our favourites, with the receipts.
Roger Federer
Federer is a Rolex ambassador, so a Rolex was never in doubt; the surprise was the strap. At the Wimbledon Centre Court centenary celebration in July 2022 he wore a yellow-gold Cosmograph Daytona with a black dial and an orange-sapphire bezel, the so-called Daytona “Orange”, on Rolex’s black Oysterflex, the brand’s own rubber strap. A gold chronograph on rubber, on the grass at SW19, in front of a Centre Court crowd: that was the moment the idea stopped being a gym thing.
Carlos Alcaraz
The man who beat Djokovic on that same court did it with the strap that has become his signature. When Alcaraz lifted the Wimbledon trophy in July 2023, and again after the 2024 final, he was wearing a yellow-gold Daytona with a meteorite dial on black Oysterflex. He had it on for his Barcelona Open win too. If you have ever wondered why every tennis fan under thirty now wants a gold watch on a rubber strap, this is why.
Harry Kane
England’s captain went a different way. During the Euro 2024 semi-final celebrations, after England beat the Netherlands, Kane was photographed in a white-gold Patek Philippe Aquanaut Travel Time with a blue dial on the matching blue composite rubber strap. The Aquanaut is the watch Patek designed for exactly this, a serious dress-watch maker’s take on rubber, and it has been a footballers’ favourite ever since.
Lando Norris
Norris is the paddock’s best-known Audemars Piguet wearer, and his Royal Oak Offshore Music Edition is the one that gets photographed. It is a 37 mm titanium Offshore with an equaliser-pattern blue dial, and it ships with a set of interchangeable rubber straps in blue, yellow, green and turquoise. He has been spotted on the yellow one, among others. A watch that comes with a wardrobe of straps is the point of the piece, and Norris wears it that way.
Serena Williams
Long before it was fashionable, Serena was doing it. In the 2016 Wimbledon final she wore a rose-gold Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph with a diamond-set bezel on a white rubber strap. Six years later, at the 2022 US Open, her final tournament, she wore a steel Royal Oak Offshore with a diamond bezel on black rubber, swapped from the white strap it came with. Two Grand Slams, two rubber straps, one very consistent message.
Lionel Messi
When Messi arrived in Paris to sign for PSG in August 2021, the watch on his wrist was an Everose-gold Rolex Yacht-Master 40 with a black dial on black Oysterflex. His new teammate Sergio Ramos turned up to his own presentation in the same reference. The Yacht-Master was the first Rolex ever sold on Oysterflex, and the PSG dressing room did more for its reputation than any advert.
Daniel Craig
No list of rubber straps is complete without Bond. In Casino Royale (2006), Craig’s 007 wears an Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean 600M on a black rubber strap through the Madagascar chase, then switches to a steel-bracelet Seamaster for the casino scenes. Two watches, two straps, and the film told you exactly which one was for running.
Why Everyone Is Doing It
The obvious reason is comfort: rubber weighs almost nothing, does not pinch arm hair and does not turn into a hot handcuff in July. The less obvious reason is money. A steel bracelet is the part of a watch that scratches, stretches and costs the most to replace, and an original, unpolished bracelet is worth real money when the watch is sold on. Wear the watch on rubber, keep the bracelet in the box, sell it mint.
The catch is that most of the watches above are worn on factory rubber, which only exists for a handful of references. A standard Submariner, Daytona or GMT-Master II ships on steel and always has. That is where the aftermarket has stepped in. Brands such as Helvetus make rubber straps moulded for individual references, with curved ends that sit flush against the case rather than leaving a gap, so a rubber strap for a Rolex Daytona is shaped for the Daytona and not merely cut to 20 mm. They cost roughly £75 to £110, a good deal less than Federer’s, and the rubber comes with a lifetime warranty.
Who did we miss? Tell us on X at @Celebmix, and send us the wrist shots.