A watch is never a bad addition to an outfit (unless it’s an Apple watch, they’re naff), helping an otherwise ordinary look to build its function and aesthetic in an understated way. With a huge range of looks and styles, if you’ll forgive the cliché, I reckon its time you got a watch.
Watches are not necessarily an easy fashion fix though, bringing with them a handful of questions. How big of a face do you go for? Analog or digital? Metal bracelet or leather strap? Most importantly, particularly for students, how much do I want to spend? When I bought my first watch, I like to think I struck a solid balance between price and style, thanks in part to the algorithms which seem to govern our lives.
My own journey with watches began in summer of 2023 when my Instagram feed was suddenly dominated by platoons of menswear influencers and infinite carousels of Amazon adverts hocking the products they promoted. I’m sure the two events are unrelated.
Being a shameless victim of social media-driven consumerism, I succumbed to the ads and invested 37 of the King’s finest in a catchily named Casio AQ-230GA-9DMQYES (It looks a lot better than its name sounds, take my word for it). Features include a gold-on-gold colour scheme, adjustable metal bracelet, as well as both analogue and digital displays, imagine that! It boasts stopwatch, alarm, timer, and calendar functions, and can support not one, but two time zones!
On top of its simply exhilarating functionality, which is bound to thrill uncles nationwide, it looks smart and is relatively inexpensive. Out of every item of clothing I’ve owned in my life, this watch has by far the best ratio of money invested to compliments received.
Casio is, in my opinion, one of the best value for money brands in the world. Thanks to luxury brands such as Rolex and the celebrity attraction to oversized, rhinestone encrusted pieces, watches tend to have a reputation for being eye-wateringly expensive and, oftentimes, not looking particularly good. Casio, however, seem to do everything right. Their pieces are well made, not just stylish but also stylistically diverse, and, are generally inexpensive. Casio is also responsible for the calcu-lighter, one of the greatest multitools of the twentieth century.
They are far from the only budget watch brand, too. As the vintage clothes market booms, so too does that of vintage watches. Cartier Tanks, bygone Omegas, and a whole host of other designer watches are available for fractions of their original MSRPs.
Like so many other fashion trends, the watch rabbit hole feels like one which I could quite happily fall down, regardless of how far into my overdraught I will have to venture. IF you're pondering how to go about making your outfits more interesting, why not get a watch?