The right watch for the right occasion

If you’re sufficiently fortunate to have a choice of watches to wear, how on earth do you choose which is correct for a specific occasion?

Well that depends of course on the occasion. And on the watches that you have at your disposal. And sometimes on the weather. If you think I’m joking then you’re about to learn something about me …

So let’s assume that you have a few really nice watches to choose from – surely you just use whatever one was designed for the job in hand? Well that’s all good if you only wear your GMT Master when you’re flying your ‘plane, the Royal Oak when sailing the yacht and the Patek 5120G while eating Ferrero Rocher. No? We may need a different approach then.

Most people who have more than one watch like to have different styles for different jobs – I know a fortunate lady who switches between a stainless Datejust and a Cartier Panthere for work, wears a bi colour diamond dial DJ for special occasions and a Santos for going to the football …. Makes total sense to me.

I tend to make a choice based on what I’m wearing, and I suppose that’s what most people would do – that’s why you really ‘need’ a sports watch with your jeans, a dress watch with your best suit and something in between for when you’re doing something in between.

That’s where classic watches like the Rolex Explorer I and JLC Reverso come into play – dress them up or dress them down, they will accompany you to all of your less extreme activities and are great ‘go to’ watches

Having said that, we’re all allowed our little quirks and foibles and I have a really odd watch related one – if it’s cold and rainy outside and I’m in the mood for beer & pie type comfort, I ALWAYS wear my 1977 Rolex DRSD. It just makes me feel comfortable and warm – weird huh?

So what should you learn from this?

1) Whatever anyone tells you, there is no one watch that will cover all jobs appropriately.

2) Realistically, if you’re going to do this properly you need three watches *at least.

3) At the end of the day of course there are no rules to any of this and it’s totally, totally up to you.

4) And if I want to wear a DRSD with a dinner suit because there’s no steak and kidney pudding on the menu, then I will …