Most commemorative watches print the idea on the dial. This one is made out of it.
The three sub-dials on the Speedmaster Mark II "Rio 2016" are ringed in bronze, 18K yellow gold and 925 silver — one for each medal, in the actual metals. Not paint, not plating in the general sense: three separate precious and semi-precious metals, sitting on a matt black dial as three small circles. Omega built a podium into the watch face.
There's one other piece of colour and it's unusual too. The tachymeter scale is transparent, printed on the underside of the sapphire crystal, and it's lit from beneath by a fluorescent orange ring filled with Super-LumiNova. So the entire visible palette is: matt black, three metals, and one band of orange.
That's an unusually specific brief for a strap, and it produces an unusually clear set of answers.
The size: 20mm
This takes a 20mm strap, confirmed on this exact reference by two independent published specifications.
That's the easiest fit decision in the Omega range, because our whole Speedmaster collection is cut at 20mm — there is no size to select and nothing to get wrong. The Mark II's tonneau case is 42.4mm across and looks larger than a round Speedmaster of the same width, but the lugs are standard Speedmaster spacing.
Two of the three medals you can wear. The third we don't cut.
Worth saying plainly, because it shapes everything below.
Bronze has a close relative in a warm beige. Silver has one in a cool grey. Gold doesn't — we don't cut a gold strap, and any attempt to fake one against a real 18K ring would look worse than not trying. So of the three metals on this dial, two can be echoed below the case and one cannot.
That's not a limitation so much as a structure. It means you're choosing between three positions: let all three rings speak by adding nothing, pick one of the two you can support, or ignore the metals entirely and go for the orange.
And the reason to change the strap at all is scale. Those rings are a few millimetres across. Metal reads as metal only when there's something matt nearby for the eye to measure it against — put the watch on a polished steel bracelet and the brightest thing in frame is the bracelet, so the eye calibrates to that and three small metal circles flatten into decoration. Against matte rubber they go back to being bronze, gold and silver. It's the same reason jewellers use cloth trays rather than steel ones.
The best straps for the Speedmaster Mark II Rio 2016
1. Black — let the podium be the only metal
The correct starting point and the one the watch is asking for. A black rubber strap extends the matt black dial past the lugs and puts nothing else in the frame, which leaves three small metal rings and one orange band as the only things on the whole watch with any shine or colour. It's the configuration where the medals read as medals rather than as trim, and it's the one I'd buy first.
2. Orange — the one colour Omega allowed
The pick that pays attention. That fluorescent orange ring under the tachymeter is the only non-metallic colour anywhere on the watch, and it exists to make a scale glow — a functional colour, not a decorative one. An orange rubber strap promotes it from a detail to the theme, and because orange sits opposite the dial's cool silver, it makes both read harder. Bold, correct, and nobody else will be wearing it.
3. Beige — side with the bronze
The medal nobody thinks about, and the most wearable of the three ideas. A beige rubber strap sits closest to the bronze ring at 3 o'clock of anything we cut, so it warms the whole watch and quietly picks the third-place metal — which is a more interesting choice than it sounds, and considerably easier to wear than gold would have been. It also softens a case that can otherwise look severe.
4. Grey — side with the silver
The cool answer, and the most formal. A grey rubber strap echoes the 925 silver ring and the steel case at once, so the watch reads as a single cool object with two warm accents left on the dial. It's the version that looks least like a commemorative and most like a watch, which for a limited edition of 2,016 pieces is a legitimate thing to want.
The short version
20mm, like every Speedmaster strap we cut. Black to let the podium read, orange for the only colour on the watch, beige for the bronze, grey for the silver.
Every strap in our Speedmaster collection is cut for this case and carries a lifetime warranty on rubber — with free worldwide shipping and no import costs, part of why more than 50,000 customers have trusted us with their watches. Guides to every other Omega we've covered live in the Omega strap guide hub. Three metals on the dial. Pick which one you're backing.
