The mesh bracelet as you know it is also known as the Milanese or "Shark Proof" bracelet. I'm hardly an expert but the story has it that if a shark chomps on your hand, it won't be able to eat your watch...
Seriously, Divers in the 60's and 70's wore fine chain mail armor while diving to prevent smaller sharks (not the big "JAWS" sharks which it won't really help) from taking bites out of them. The mesh strap was probably derived from this.
I hardly seen any of this in the local AD, anyone familiar?IMHO, Malaysian WIS and retailers tend to be a bit on the conservative side. Breitling has several OEM mesh bracelets for their Aeromarine series. Omega has a mesh bracelet for their Ploprof (at least RM 2000+ if you order seperately). I believe Mido the mesh bracelet option for their diving watches too. You don't get to see them often in Malaysia so you'd have to special order them or buy third party mesh straps.
Where to get and is it hard to maintain?If your watch has the option, you can order them via your favorite AD but they aren't cheap. If not, you have to buy third party straps. They are not hard to maintain, in fact they are easier to maintain than the regular metal bracelets IMO. Scratches are not obvious on mesh and can be polished off with cape cod or steel wool (depending on polished or brushed steel finish).
I see that this sort of bracelet is fairly new to the local market?No, they have been around since the 60's and 70's at least. They were very popular for a while but the local market seems to prefer the traditional metal bracelets or leather/rubber straps.
Here are some pics from my collection:
Seiko Black Monster on third party generic mesh bracelet.
The buckle
Breitling SuperOcean Heritage Malaysia LE on original OEM mesh strap.
The back and buckle:
