Jae YoonYou get your shirts made to measure, store your shoes on trees and you know the difference between a Windsor and a half-Windsor. So what are you doing with that giant dive watch under your cuff? And don’t give us that rubbish about James Bond. There are times and places for sports watches but none of them involve wearing a jacket and tie.
With the resurgent popularity of wristwatches and the Mad Men-fueled enthusiasm for restrained style, the dress watch is in vogue again. Brands are stepping up their efforts, producing elegant timepieces that accent your clothing without drawing attention to themselves. The right watch won’t necessarily get you the job, or the girl, but the wrong watch certainly doesn’t help.
A dress watch, by definition should be smaller, slimmer and simpler than other types of watches. It is made to slip under a shirtsleeve only to be called upon to tell its owner that it’s time to get the check. We’ve assembled six of the best dress watches out there, all with their own merits – some classics, some upstarts – and with varying price levels, from the affordable to the aspirational. But all of them clean up nicely.
Our selections begin after the jump.
Hamilton Intra-matic
Though it’s the most affordable of our six watches, the Intra-matic , which is named for and styled after one of Hamilton’s watches from the 1960s, swings well above its weight. It is sized perfectly for a dress watch with a 38mm diameter and mere 7mm height, thanks to a slim self-winding ETA 2892 mechanical movement. The domed dial and crystal, lack of a sweep seconds hand and linked steel bracelet would match perfectly with a knitted tie and horn-rimmed glasses to complete the retro vibe.
$845 | Learn More
