James Bond wears a dive watch with a tuxedo, but that doesn’t mean you should. Today’s culture is more casual than ever, but there’s still a place for that most archetypal of all timepiece styles: the dress watch. Though simple by nature, dress watches don’t need to be boring or relegated solely to stuffy events — and they don’t have to cost an arm and a leg.
Though loosely defined, you mostly know a dress watch when you see one: it’s like a suit for your wrist, with clean lines and monochromatic colors that’ll tastefully accent formal attire (or even a T-shirt and jeans, if you so choose). In its purest and most classical form, a good dress watch should be simple and restrained in terms of size and design, but carry a sheen of refinement.
In concrete terms, typical traits include thin cases, polished metals, leather straps, and simple functionality. Most are water-resistant to only 30m — nothing more is necessary. What dress watches fundamentally do well is tell the time and reflect the wearer’s taste without a lot of fuss. It’s a simple formula, and the watches below prove that it can be done well for not a lot of cash.
AmazonSkagen Jorn
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$125.00 (65% off)
A majority of Danish brand Skagen’s timepieces could probably serve dress-watch duty, as they’re typically moderately sized, thin and tastefully minimalist in design. Housing quartz movements, they offer the sleek style you want at very accessible prices, of which the 6mm-thick Jorn is a perfect example.
Diameter: 41mm
Movement: Quartz
AmazonOrient Bambino
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$300.00 (42% off)
