Corporate Style – Part 5: Watches

Introduction

Men have a tenuous relationship with jewelery.  Almost without fail, more is definitely less.  However, I would highly recommend saving room for a watch.  And not just any watch, a watch that makes sure you’re dressed acceptably wherever you are, or perhaps one that puts you in a certain mood in light of its associations with car racing, scuba diving or sailing.  In the words of British GQ editor Dylan Jones, “You can be walking along a deserted Caribbean beach, wearing only a pair of shorts, but if you’re sporting an expensive watch, then you’re still well dressed.”  There is no question that this is a true statement – there are very few better ways to tell quite a bit about a person than to take a glance at their choice of wrist wear.  For example, a man with a Chopard Mille Miglia (see below) is likely to be interested in cars.  The guy with a Corum Admiral’s Cup is almost assuredly someone that sails (or wishes that they did).  And a man with a Patek Philippe is very likely a man with great taste that run towards the traditional and has very deep pockets.

 

But you shouldn’t buy a nice watch to send a particular message to other people; you should buy it for yourself.  For many men, it comes down to a fascination with the incredible engineering that goes into a fine Swiss watch.  For others it’s a love of the elegant design or, as I said before, the frame of mind that a particular watch puts you in.  I know men that have a particular watch they wear during the work week, and something sporty like a chunky TAG Heuer diving watch that they put on over the weekend.  That watch means its time for them to relax and enjoy their time off and shakes off the prim and proper elegance of their more business appropriate weekday wear.  For others, watches are a means of celebrating something, such as a wedding, a birthday, an anniversary or a promotion.  They can even be a means of remembering a loved one or cheering yourself up a bit.  Overall men, we’ve been given a grand canvas for our personality, our interests and our own projection of who it is we want to be, and so we shouldn’t waste that opportunity.

As someone that for quite some time did not wear a watch, I now realize that this was a mistake.  Even though we now are surrounded by gadgets that tell us the time (BlackBerry’s, iPods and the like), there is still something manly and prepared about having the time strapped to your wrist.  It suggests to others that you’re responsible and, well, a man.

One Guy Recommends: Brooks Brothers Fitzgerald Suit

Much like Ford and General Motors, there was a time a couple of years back where Brooks Brothers was largely resting on its laurels, selling tent-like suits at Manhattan prices. They wanted you to picture JFK confidently striding across Capitol Hill, when you generally pictured someone’s grandfather wearing an ill-fitting suit he purchased 20 years before. For the most part, unless you were entirely devoid of personality or enjoyment of clothes, I would never have recommended their suits. They were the equivalent of purchasing a Toyota Camry, which is the car you buy if you really don’t like cars all that much: reliable, generally refined but scoring a “0” in the personality department. However, Brooks has taken a step away from that dismal state of affairs with the hiring of their first Italian CEO, who has seen fit to bring in a slimmer, more updated and tailored look to the Brooks Brothers arsenal in recent years. Chief amongst these additions is the ‘Fitzgerald’ line of from their 1818 collection. The Fitzgerald sports narrower lapels, higher arm-holes, flat-front pants and a trim, more modern fit. Finally a suit that does bring back images of John F. Kennedy and is probably one of the most universally appropriate suits you could ever buy. The Fitzgerald is two-button (as nearly all Brooks Brothers suits tend to be) with a single vent and tailored in Italy (obviously with the CEO’s nationality playing some role). Furthermore, it is available in a wide variety of colours and patterns, including navy, grey, pinstripe and glen-plaid.

However, the biggest reason for buying the Fitzgerald right now is that Brooks Brothers is having their annual summer sale and so the price of the Fitzgeralds have been cut from $900 US to a far more reasonable $499 US. Check them out online at www.brooksbrothers.com or at your local Brooks Brothers location. For Canadians, we can look forward to Brooks’ coming invasion of the Great White North in the fall. As always, if you do buy a suit, be sure to take it to a tailor to get it properly fitted.