5 Style Tips For Matching Your Watch With Your Outfits

You can easily dismiss a watch as just an accessory that tells time. However, this isn’t always the case. A watch is a fashion statement. When paired correctly, it can bring out your style, poise, and posture. At the same time, when worn poorly, a watch can easily break your outfit. This is especially the case for men since they have limited accessories that they can wear to complement their outfits. 

Unfortunately, most men don’t know how to style this accessory. It’s common to find a man with a robust watch but a poor combination with his outfit. For example, imagine a man walks into an office to make a pitch. He is looking sharp in his classic fit suit. Just as he is about to start the presentation, he lifts his hand to check the time. The man is in a sports watch. How underwhelming right? He may have managed to disappoint an entire room before he even speaks—that’s how powerful a watch is. 

So how can you make sure this doesn’t happen to you? Well, to start, fashion experts have recommended reading about watches. Learn about the different types of watches and some tips for matching them with your outfit. The best part is that this article can be a starting point for learning about this staple accessory. Keep reading to learn more!

#1 Understand The Formality Of Your Watch 

The basic principle about complimenting your style with your watch is matching formalities. If you’re wearing a formal outfit, your watch should be too. The same applies to causal looks and other laid-back styles. 

So how do you tell a casual watch from a formal one? You start by understanding your type of watch and what they communicate. 

• Dress Watch: This watch is characterized by its simplicity. As such, it has a plain white face without any additional features. The most a dress watch can have on its face is roman numbers. The bands of a dress watch are black, and they’re made of leather to bring out some elegance and sleekness. A dress watch is as formal as a watch can get. 
• Sports Watch: Although a sporty or Chrono watch isn’t an actual dress watch, you can use it as a dress watch when dealing with higher brands. The sporty watch is made of high-quality plastic. Its face is quite busy and often consists of GPS technology, pulse monitors, odometers, altimeters, and other technologies that promote an active lifestyle. 
• Dive Watch: This watch was initially designed for deep water diving. It’s therefore water-resistant, and its bands are made from metal with hash marks. The only extra feature a dive watch can have is a date complication. A date complication is a feature that shows the date on the watch. 
• Racing or Driving Watch: This type of watch is identified by its bright colors. It also has a stainless-steel case and straps made of either metal or leather. The driving watch also has other features such as the date complication and a chronograph. 
• Pilot Watch: The pilot watch was initially designed to be worn by pilots. It, therefore, has a large diameter of over 50mm with large numbers and luminous hands to clearly and quickly tell the time while still flying. This type of watch shows the weekday day, date, and time in a 24-hour clock system. 
• Field Watch: The first field watch was made during World War One. Since it’s built for the harsh outdoor environment, the watch is made from scratch-resistant and water-resistant material. It’s, therefore, tough and rugged while remaining functional. The field watch has a minimalist style since its face only has Arabic numbers. However, sometimes it may have a date-only complication. The straps of a field watch are either made from canvas or leather.

#2 Match Your Watch With Your Level of Formality 

Now that you know the different types of watches, here’s how to match them with your level of formality. 

• Casual Look: Metallic bands are best suited for casual looks even though sometimes leather watches can be used since they’re all-purpose watches. Other than that, digital watches are meant for everyday looks and workouts only. 
• Sporty Look: Working out doesn’t have to be boring. You can still work it out and keep it fashionable. As the name suggests, a sporty watch will help you pull a sense of style in your workout outfit. Besides being stylish, this watch has firm bands to make sure the watch doesn’t fall as you work out. Additionally, in the unlikely case that it falls off your hand, the watch is made of hard material that protects it from shattering, unlike other fragile watches. 
• Black Tie or White Tie Event: If you’re looking to attend a white or black-tie-themed party, the dress watch will help you stay classy and straightforward. 
• Business Look: It’s recommended that you pair your Monday to Friday official wear with a gold or silver watch. The watch should preferably be minimalist with little to no complications and a thin dial. The watches that fit this description are a diver or dress watch with leather bands. 
• Business Casual: After a long week of suffocating in a tie, it’s Friday, time to bask in the business casual outfit. This is the time to make use of your field or pilot watch. 

#3 A Leather Watch Fits Best With More Leather 

If you’re going to put on a watch with leather straps, you’re advised to have one more leather item in your outfit. It could be your shoes, belt, office bag, or even a bracelet. But style isn’t about just pairing two pieces of leather. Here are some of the things you should consider:

• Watches with leather straps are considered more elegant than metal or silicone straps. 
• Furthermore, black leather brings out that formal look than brown leather straps. 
• The color of your leather belt and shoes should first match before introducing the watch. If your shoes are black, wear a black belt and leather watch.
• If the exact color isn’t available for the straps, you can play around with the shade of brown for a brown-themed outfit.

#4 A Metal Watch Compliments More Metal

This is the same principle as that of leather, complimenting more leather. Here are a few things to consider while going for metallic bands. 

• A silver watch should match with a silver belt, ring, shoe buckles, brooches, tie buckle, chain, and earrings for women, among other accessories that you may have. The same applies to a gold watch. 
• A watch with a golden plate goes best with earthly-toned colors. That is, grey or black. 
• If you’re wearing gold or silver accessories, don’t pair them with a leather watch.

#5 Have The Color Of Your Watch Match Your Outfit 

Other than the old and silver color, watches such as the driving watch have brighter colors. If you decide to wear a watch with a blue color, having the color elsewhere in your outfit will work magic in your look. The blue can be on your shoe buckles, the purse for women, or sometimes the buckle of your belt. 

When playing with colors, always remember that contrasting light and dark colors will bring out a stylish, neat look. 

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Conclusion

Now that you know the power of matching a watch with your outfit, consider using the tips listed above to pair your clothes better. Knowing the different types of watches and what they are good for will also be helpful in deciding which type is best for you. When it comes down to it, don’t worry about matching your watch perfectly; instead focus on finding a look that makes sense given the occasion or event at hand! Stay elegant, stay stylish!