How Many Watches Should a Man Own? Build your Watch Collection
The wristwatch has come to become known as “man’s only accessory”. Whilst that is not completely true, there is some truth to that statement. Whilst women wear lots of different jewelry and accessories, the wristwatch has long been the only official piece of jewelry for men.
Most men who wear wristwatches only have one watch in their collection that they wear on all occasions, at any time. If this is you, you have probably wondered if you should have multiple watches in your collection. After all, you wear different shoes on different occasions so why wouldn’t you wear different watches on different occasions?
The short answer is that whilst some watches can be extremely versatile, there is not a single watch that is perfect for every single occasion. There is a reason why there are different watches made in different styles. They are designed for different purposes to work perfectly for a specific, given occasion.
Wearing the wrong type of watch on the wrong occasions is not ideal for several reasons. First, there is the question of durability. For example, you shouldn’t wear a dress watch when performing sports or swimming simply because they are not built for it. At worst, it may risk damaging and destroying the watch. If you performing sports, you need to have a watch that is built for these purposes, and that is robust enough to handle shocks, bangs, and water.
Secondly, wearing the wrong type of watch on a particular occasion may be a faux pas in your style which can negatively affect your overall style. For example, if you wear a large and gaudy sports watch together with a tuxedo, it will not leave a good impression on your overall style. Your watch will look misplaced, steal the show, and just look awkward together with your outfit. At all times, you want a watch that complements your outfit, not completely steals the show.
As you can see, there’s definitely a need for men to own multiple watches. But how many exactly depends on a number of different factors, such as which events and situations you find yourself in.
In our opinion, a man should own at least 3 watches in his collection. A mistake a lot of people make is that they may have multiple watches in their collection, but they are all built for the same purpose. For example, they may have three dive watches. Whilst this can be nice, we recommend that you at least have three different types of watches and you can then complement your collection with variants and different watches within these categories as you build your watch collection.
The three most central types of watches that lay the foundation for any man’s watch collection are the following:
- Dress watch: a watch that can be worn on formal occasions with a suit or a jacket.
- Sports watch: a watch that can be worn on sporty occasions, such as when you are at the beach, swimming, or performing other sports
- Everyday watch: a versatile and simple yet robust timepiece that can be worn every day and on most occasions. Think of this as a timepiece that is sporty enough to be worn on casual occasions, but also elegant enough to be worn on semi-formal occasions such as with a shirt at the office
By having these three watches in your collection, you have a great foundation to continue to build upon when expanding your watch collection and adding new timepieces to it.
How many watches should a man own?
There is no golden rule as to how many watches you should have in your collection. But as we concluded above, it’s not necessarily about the number of watches you have in your collection but more so the types of watches you have in your collection. At the very least, you should have three different types of watches in your collection, a dress watch, a sports watch, and an everyday watch.
Let’s look at these timepieces in detail.
1. Dress watch
Dress watches are exactly what they sound like. Dressy and elegant timepieces for formal occasions. Every man needs at least one elegant dress watch in his collection that he can wear on formal occasions.
Dress watches are the ultimate choice for formal occasions such as parties, business meetings, tuxedo events, and similar. Dress watches are meant to be refined, sleek, and clean. Their purpose is to enhance and complement the style without stealing the show. They are also generally quite slim to ensure that they slide under the shirt cuff easily and effortlessly.
Dress watches exist in an endless selection of different styles and iterations. Stainless steel, yellow gold, rose gold, metal bracelet, leather straps, and of course an endless selection of different dial colors and designs. Their functions also vary from time-only to highly advanced complications such as perpetual calendars and annual calendars.
What most dress watches have in common, however, is that they are meant to be minimalistic, clean, and elegant, and should work well on formal occasions. They shouldn’t be loud, bold, or stand out too much. Most dress watches come fitted with leather straps for an elegant touch but they can also be found with metal bracelets.
When choosing a dress watch, you should really look for the characteristics you prefer most, but also consider the type of occasion you’ll likely be wearing it. Note, however, that this is only when you are looking for your first dress watch. Once you’ve added one basic dress watch to the collection, you may have different considerations about what you need in a dress watch.
2. Everyday watches
The next watch every man should have in his watch collection is an everyday watch.
An everyday watch has a balance between elegance and sportiness and should work well on most occasions, but in particular for casual everyday use. Everyday watches should be somewhat robust and durable and they should have at least some level of water resistance.
Since there’s no official definition for what constitutes an everyday watch, there’s really a huge selection here. For some people, their every day consists of mostly casual and relaxed events. For others, it may be to sit in an office in business-casual attire. Therefore, how you will intend to use the dress watch will decide how elegant or casual the watch you choose should be.
For some people, the best everyday watch may be a field watch with a more sporty presence. For others, it may be something more classic.
Everyday watches tend to be relatively simple and often come with a metal bracelet. They often have some kind of additional functionality such as a day or date function to add further practicality and functionality which can be useful for everyday wear. Everyday watches are much more sporty and less boring than dress watches. Instead of simple and minimalistic dials, they may have bold and more interesting dial colors and dial designs.
3. Sports watch
Every man needs a sports watch. This is a robust and durable timepiece that can be worn on sporty and casual occasions.
Most people opt for a dive watch as their first sports watch. In fact, a lot of people choose a dive watch as their very first watch. This is because they are highly iconic and their design is loved by most people. In addition, dive watches are surprisingly versatile and can work on many different occasions.
If you are going to have only one sport watch in your collection, it should be, at least in our opinion, a dive watch. But the decision is of course up to you to make.
A sports watch should have at least 100 meters of water resistance, ideally, at least 200-meters so you can go swimming with it. It should be able to withstand harsh environments such as warm beach days or cold days in the snow.
Add additional watches to your collection to serve your needs
As you have probably noticed, there is a large selection of different watches on the market to choose from. First and foremost, you have watches in different styles and designs. Secondly, you have watches with an endless selection of functions. There are chronograph watches, GMT watches, Dive watches, and other types of watches with many different functions.
Once you have built your basic collection of three timepieces, you can continue to build upon it as you please. Perhaps you have a dive watch as your sports watch but find yourself traveling a lot. In this case, it could be a good idea to also add a GMT watch to your collection so that you can keep track of multiple time zones simultaneously.
Once you have built the basic collection of the three watches you need to have in your watches, you can add timepieces as you please based on what you enjoy, even if it means having two or three of the same type of watch in your collection, for example, two dress watches and three dive watches.
The amazing thing about watches is that they are available in so many different shapes and forms to cater to all tastes and preferences. You have an endless selection of dial colors, case materials, straps and bracelets, sizes, and much more.
Having additional watches in your collection in the same category can be really useful for mixing and matching with different outfits. For example, on one occasion, you may be wearing an all-black tuxedo. In this case, a minimalistic dress watch with a black dial will work best. On another occasion, you may wear a blue suit and in this case, an elegant dress watch with a blue dial may work best.
So although one versatile dress watch will work on most formal occasions, you get greater freedom of choice to make an even better combination between your outfit and watch to look on point.
When we talk about mixing and matching watches with outfits, there’s really no limit to how many watches you can have. Having a large watch collection will be really helpful in pairing the most suitable watch, but if you only have a few to choose from, it may not always be an ideal combination.
Additional watches to add to your collection
Once you have added the three most important types of watches to your collection, you now have a solid base for all of life’s different occasions.
But once that is done, you may also want to add additional timepieces to your collection so you can mix and match and choose timepieces based on your mood and exact outfit. One day, you may decide on a more luxurious look with your suit and opt for a solid gold dress watch. On a different occasion, you may want to be more discreet and wear a dress watch in steel. But when you only have one watch to choose from, you don’t have that opportunity.
With that said, having a large watch collection of different timepieces really makes it possible to choose the perfect watch for the occasion, outfit, and mood.
Since the term “sports watch” is so broad, it rooms many different timepieces. Whilst the most common and most popular is the dive watch, there are plenty more to choose from. Let’s look at two of the most popular that you can add to your collection:
Chronograph
The chronograph is a highly popular sports watch. Chronograph watches have, as their name suggests, a chronograph function, meaning the ability to time different things. Most chronograph watches have so-called “sub-seconds” on the dial which gives them a distinct and unique style. Due to their capability of timing different events, they are also quite practical if you learn how to use them.
Chronograph watches exist in a wide array of different styles. Some may be more elegant whilst others may lean more towards sportiness. Some of the most iconic and popular chronograph watches include Rolex Daytona, Omega Speedmaster, Zenith El Primero, and others.
GMT-watch
Last but not least, we have the GMT watch. GMT watches are equipped with an additional hour hand which makes it possible to keep track of multiple time zones simultaneously. This feature is very practical when you are traveling the world across different time zones. The world’s most iconic GMT watch is the Rolex GMT-Master but there are also plenty of other GMT watches to choose from in all kinds of price ranges.
Every serious watch collector has at least one GMT and one chronograph in their collection so if you are looking to build upon your collection after the first three watches we discussed, they are a great place to start.
