Men’s Watches

The Girlfriend’s Guide to Guys’ Watches

Where do you get advice on buying watches for men? We searched all over the internet, ourselves, and we couldn’t find a simple guide to shopping for a watch for a man. So we wrote our own. This is a web exclusive, then.

On this page you’ll find some basic advice, and we also have an advice page on strategies for shopping for guys (and incidentally, these strategies have application beyond merely watches). Be sure to also look at our page on watch styles: men’s watches just might be more complex than women’s.

Keep some basic advice in mind:

Know your man and follow your intuition. This is the best advice we can give you. What kind of guy is he, really? Is he bold? Or is he reserved?

What do you know about what he likes about other things? What colors or styles does he like? What does he tell you about things he likes (e.g. cars)?

Does he like flashy colors?
Does he like sleek lines?
Does he like big and glossy?
Does he like cool or even dark?
Or does he like practical and smart looking?

Never forget the Mars and Venus thing. Remember this: most guys are just simpler than women. They want something that very straightforwardly meets one or two of their basic needs. Guys think about what they need.

Is he trying to move up in the corporate world? Then he needs a smart-looking watch that will fit in with the rest of the guys in the boardroom.
Does he really just need to tell the time?
Or does he need a watch that does more? If he’s an avid sports fan, runner or swimmer, then follow from that.

One aspect to this is that, in general, a woman might know more about style than a man. A guy might think that his sport watch is perfectly fine for a business meeting, but you know better. In general, we’ll say that the gift-giving girlfriend looking at watches has an advantage: she knows how to accessorize much better than the average male.

In other pages of this Girlfriend’s Guide to Gifting a Guy, we also offer…

some major concerns when looking at guy’s watches
some strategies for shopping for a watch for a man and
a brief overview of watch styles to suit any man