The "Everyday" Watch

In Esquire magazine's Novemeber issue, attention was given to watches; specifically on building one's watch wardrobe to include a weekend watch, an everyday watch, and then the more exotic "Third" and "Fourth" watches. To focus on the majority of us who want maximum versatility, I wanted to emphasize today the importance of the "Everyday Watch," which should work well with casual wear as well as a two-piece suit and well-shined shoes.

The everyday watch should be professional and sensible, but at the same time, need not be a slim and uncomplicated dressy number. The everday watch should do more than tell you just the hour and the minute: functionality is very important here, so select a watch with one or more complications. To simplify the definition, complications are any features on the dial of a watch that do something other than tell the time. The most common complication is a date window, allowing one to reference the date as well as the time. Sometimes watches display a day of the week as well, which would serve as yet another complication.

Chronographs (stopwatch capabilites) are a handy feature, allowing us to get slightly indulgent when measuring elapsed time (yes, indulgent: you will at some point clock the time of everything from your coffee break to your convenience store run, no matter how unimportant the data). Automatic chronograph watches can get quite pricey, so this will probably mean searching for a nicer quartz version, but this will also insure paramount accuracy.

For an everyday watch, durability is also key. The amount of wear the watch receives may lend itself better to a metal band rather that leather; leather may wear like iron but can over the days and weeks and months and years get a little... funky. I'm sure you know what I mean.

The last (and possibly the most important) feature one should require for his everyday watch is an analog readout. We're looking for a professional watch that gives your credibility at the office here, so save the digital watch for the weekend. I repeat; "Your everyday watch should absolutely not be digital".

My everyday watch is shown above, and while I used to cycle through a multitude of watches throughout the week, this quartz chronograph from Swiss manufacturer Ebel has become my old trusty and works with about anything I could wear, short of a tuxedo. It measures elapsed hours, minutes, seconds, and get this... tenths of a second... the perfect feature to allow exceptional indulgence when clocking my coffee breaks.
Until next time,
Cheers!
-Paul