New Year’s Resolution: Be On Time, In Style

watches for all occasionsI learned to tell time when I was four, and my Dad bought me my first wristwatch, a Timex. I remember winding it every night when I took it off before bed, and wore it for years. I still wear a watch most days, and don’t feel fully dressed without one.

Top row: left | middle | right
Bottom row: left | middle | right

I have a few watches in my wardrobe. I still prefer watches with simple style and a clean face, which for me are more versatile and easier to dress up or down. I’m glad to see more square and rectangular case shapes coming back into vogue, and am always a sucker for Roman numerals.

Bracelet Watches

TimexSeiko | kate spade | Michael KorsCartier

Square Cases

TimexMarc Jacobs | Larsson & Jennings | Michael Kors

What’s your favorite watch style? Do you wear just one or rotate between different styles?

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20 Comments

  1. My parents gave me a nice watch as a college graduation present. I wore it every day for about 30 years, then it developed problems. I stopped wearing a watch about 2 years ago and used my phone as a “pocket watch” instead. Then in October, I got a Fitbit Alta, which is a watch-style step counter that also tells time. i love the functionality of having a watch to tell time, plus the step counter function gets me up and moving during the day at work. It is not particularly good looking though.

  2. I am an amateur collector and wear the watch that goes with whatever I am wearing that day. I have a Timex with a white lizard strap for summer, a Fossil for travel, a vintage Cartier for formal and 2 Rolexes for daytime. Like you Susan I feel undressed without a watch. I love searching for a watch and finding the right one!

  3. I’m an old broad who wouldn’t feel dressed without a wristwatch. For years I’ve worn a simple stainless steel / gold Rolex (no diamonds) that’s the “ladies version” of a Rolex I gave my husband for surviving a brutal surgery. A few years later, he gifted me with mine. I love that we have “the same watch” and think of him every time I put it on.

  4. I feel naked without my back and stainless Citizen Eco-drive men’s watch. I call it my large print edition. A watch conveys responsible adult more than a cell phone does. Besides… you can surreptitiously look at your watch. Far more difficult to with a cell phone. My watch also conveys the lack of fussiness that is very much part of my style.

  5. I too used to feel undressed without a watch. But a few years ago I started looking for a lighter-weight, not too large, not outrageously expensive, clean-lined gold watch and could not find what I wanted. Had some of the choices you show above been available then, I might have bought them. But since I didn’t find what I wanted and am mostly retired, I decided to experiment with not wearing a watch. I have several clocks in my office for those days that I go to work, and otherwise I use my phone. But you remind me that I should put on a watch to go to our New Year’s Eve party, since we sometimes lose track of time and need to know when we are getting close to midnight.

  6. My first watch was also a Timex with a dull brown band that matched my unlovely brown plaid school uniform. I felt so efficient!. These days I mostly wear a Seiko stainless and gold mainly because it goes with everything. My most valuable (to me) is the Bulova with a black cord band that belonged to my mother. It still works as long as I wind it but I haven’t been able to see the tiny numbers in years. Doesn’t matter! On my to-do list is replacing an old Mickey Mouse watch band with another red one. And because my phone is not glued to my hand, I find wearing a watch to be way more functional.

  7. My fist watch was a Timex watch. I received it for my First Holy Communion. It came with a ceramic Cinderella statue and the band was Cinderella blue. I LOVED that watch! And growing up, I always had a Timex. They are still great and inexpensive time pieces.
    Like you, I feel a bit naked without a watch. I’m old school. I have a beautiful bracelet watch by Seiko that Bonaparte gifted me with during our first Christmas while we were dating. We had only known each other a month and I still wear the watch. Although I’m no fan of Michael Kors, I love my MK wrap strap watch. It’s very “Hermes” without the pricetag. When I travel, I always bring a cheap-o watch from Walmart–because at under ten bucks if I lose it it is not big deal.
    This Christmas the kids gifted me with a Daniel Wellington watch. I’m in love with the classic simplicity and the fact that I can change the watch band is great. They threw in a red, white, and blue band and told me to wear it for Bastile Day–my little kiddles know what mommy likes! And when we are overseas, I wear TWO watches on my wrist. One with French time and one with the USA Eastern time. I actually like the look of two watches,

  8. Funny, I have just ordered a new watch – a ‘man’s’ (aka nice chunky style) automatic Rotary with visible cogs (complications?) and a black leather strap. Massively reduced in the January sales, plus I had a voucher from work to put towards it, hurrah. I can’t wait to go and pick it up. I have worn a Breil for years and years but it is getting tatty and I am ready for a change.

  9. I wear my Baume & Mercier gold and stainless Riveria watch everyday and feel naked without it. I really dislike costume watches and am really attached to it. I dislike having more than one watch to wear. I guess you can say I’m a warch monogomist!

  10. I, too, wear a watch every day. My husband surprised me a few years ago with a Cartier Tank, with a leather strap, that is my go-to watch. I have an Anne Klein with a mother of pearl face and a white leather strap, which I wear a lot in the summer. And for fun, I have a set of identical, plain stainless cased watches with different color bands (red, blue, green, yellow, orange). That was a corporate gift, not something I would have bought myself, but I’ve gotten a lot of use out of them.

    I also have a very nice gold Raymond Weil that Hubs gave me many years ago….I like it but it has a small face, and it seems out of style now. Suppose I’ll hang on to it until it comes back in style!

    1. I think vintage watches can look chic and the Raymond Weil would probably look nice worn in the evening. I have very small wrists, so the modern, hewvy watches look like a handcuff on me.

  11. I have worn a watch since I was in kindergarten and my parents gave me a Raggedy Ann watch. That was 44 years ago. I feel lost without a watch and don’t consider my cell phone an adequate substitute. Over the years I have worn mostly inexpensive watches from Fossil or Pulsar or Timex, but a year ago I got a Shinola with a metal bracelet and I’ve been very happy with it. It has a large face that I can easily read with my increasingly near-sighted vision, and it looks good for casual and dressy occasions. Shinola watches are assembled in Detroit; another bonus.

  12. My watches represent various phases in my life. My grandmother gave me a fob watch when I started nursing in 1974, hubby gave me a beautiful Longine watch with leather strap for first wedding anniversary, then upped his game on my 40th when he gave me a Rolex (gold/silver strap and small diamonds). When I left Saudi Arabia, the staff presented me with a Raymond Weil (black leather strap). I love them all, albeit the fob watch now sits in a box, but it is the thin gold strap watch my father gave my mother as a wedding present in 1952 which I treasure the most. Whenever I bought myself a watch it was usually an old cheapie.

  13. My “good” watch is a tiny Fossil, with a funky Art Deco vibe. I bought it twenty years ago with the intention of finding a turquoise and silver Native American band to fit it, but have not yet found the right one. Meanwhile, I delight in wearing inexpensive watches with fun dials to amuse my students. I’d worry about wearing an expensive one because my hands are so active I’d probably destroy it.

    1. I love Art Deco style; your watch sounds cute. I hope you’re able to find that band, think it will look great!

  14. I do love watches. I have several and also inherited all my mother’s watches – winding ones , pendant ones, retirement ones (2) This Christmas hubby surprised me with yet another one, a square face with Roman numerals and I love it. The grandchildren love to put them all out in display……..and try some on.
    I really like the selection you show in your blog.

  15. I am a compulsively puctual person, and I wear a watch always, even when I sleep. My watch for the last several years (perhaps 10) is a Skagan, stainless steel face as well as strap, very very minimalist in style (much more so than any of those pictured), and as suitable for gardening or a day at the beach as it is for going out. It still garners compliments, and if it ever dies, I will replace it with the same brand…although perhaps with a larger face; the eyes are getting old!