Sometimes I Like to Watch (part one)

Among my fashion affinities (see, e.g., ties, shoes, dress shirts), I have a special fixation on watches.  I think they're cool, stylish, increasingly old-fashioned, and a great way to spice up an outfit.  There are three types of watches I think every butch should own.  I'll talk about those here, and save the fancy, colorful stuff for my next post.

THE SILVER GO-TO WATCH

If you can only have one watch, I recommend a decent silver one that's versatile and water resistant.  (Analog is much classier than digital, BTW.)  Here's my personal go-to, which was a gift I received/stole from my friend B:

I love this watch because it's plain, simple, classy, and I can wear it with jeans, khakis, nice slacks--whatever.  It's also a nice size.  I usually go for a women's watch on the large side or a men's watch on the small side.  Anything with a face more than 4 cm across looks ginormous on my not-tiny-but-not-large-and-manly wrist.  This watch is women's; Fossil's men's watches are SO BIG that they practically dwarf my torso.  I don't know what this particular watch cost (for me, free!), but I'm guessing around $80.

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Your go-to watch doesn't have to cost  that much, though.  I took the photo to the right at my local Goodwill last week.  The watch was priced at only $11.99!  Somehow, I resisted buying it, but it wasn't easy.  The brand is Quiksilver (I have a major weakness for the faux-surf look), and it wouldn't work in a very dressy context, though it would probably be fine for most workplaces.  The face is about 3.5-4 cm across and it's water resistant.


A BLACK WATCH.  A BROWN WATCH.  WHAT COULD BE SIMPLER?

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Continuing the theme of versatility--never a bad thing--your wardrobe should ideally contain a black watch and a brown watch.  The black watch goes with black stuff (e.g., the days you're wearing a black belt); your brown watch goes with brown stuff.  If you're wearing, say, jeans, a plain white shirt, and blue shoes, then either one matches.

I bought the watch on the left a couple months ago, and I LOVE it.  (I actually ordered this one first, which I hated and returned.)  It's a perfect butch-friendly size (masculine-of-center but not gargantuan), has a simple but interesting design, and the slight purple accents are fabulous.  I get tons of compliments on it.  It still appears to be on sale at Amazon ($76, down from $120).  Other black watches I like include this one by Diesel and this one by Nixon.  Citizen makes some nice ones, too--very simple and classic.  Here's a watch I think is stupid and gimmicky, although I like Wachismo for its unusual inventory.

BTW: your Timex Ironman--though awesome--may not be used to fill your "black watch" requirement.  Oh--and you know those huge men's "sports" watches with bells, whistles, multiple time zones, etc?  No.

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My current brown watch is a Nixon Graduate.  It's more casual than my black watch, but nice enough to wear with khakis to work (though nothing dressier).  The band is made of canvas, which breathes better than leather.  I especially like the two-holed buckle design.  The Graduate also comes in black stainless steel, brown leather with an orange face, and other colors.  I also kind of like this brown watch by D&G, this one by Diesel, and this one by Skagen.

Stay tuned for my next post, in which I'll talk about some butch-a-riffic ways to expand your watch wardrobe beyond these three basic standbys.

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