Take your favourite jacket with you when you try on a watch. It sounds an odd thing to pack until you fall for a chronograph across the counter, put your jacket back on and spend the next five minutes trying to pull the cuff over it. You’ll learn more from that sleeve than you will from another hour comparing case diameters.
Shopping pre-owned makes that little experiment more interesting. An older Cartier Roadster, a black-dial TUDOR Black Bay and a Breitling Navitimer on leather could all catch the eye of the same buyer. They’ll look very different with the clothes that person already owns. The trick is working out which one you’d reach for on an ordinary Thursday.
Start with the clothes you wear most
Think about the last three outfits you wore. If two involved an Oxford shirt, pay attention to how the watch sits under a buttoned cuff. A Cartier Santos is worth trying here. Its square dial has plenty of presence even in a smaller size, and the exposed screws give it enough character to wear with faded denim when the working day is over.
If you spend most of the week in knitwear, overshirts or a chore jacket, you have a bit more room to play with. A black-dial Black Bay on steel works particularly well with a navy overshirt and an ecru T-shirt. The broad bezel holds its own against heavier fabric. Try that same watch with your narrowest shirt cuff before deciding it can do both jobs.
There’s room for a less obvious choice, too. A Navitimer has one of the busiest dials you can buy, but put it on black leather with a plain grey crewneck and it makes perfect sense. Sometimes the most distinctive watch is the easiest one to dress around.
Look beyond the diameter
A round watch and a square one can share a width on paper and look a full size apart on the wrist. The square case carries its width into the corners. On a round watch, the lugs can extend well beyond the dial, so a seemingly modest case can still overhang a narrower wrist.
When buying online, ask for the lug-to-lug measurement and a side-on photograph. Compare both with a watch you already find comfortable. For a bracelet, ask what wrist size it currently fits and whether the spare links are included. A watch can look perfect in the photographs and still need an extra link before you can wear it.
UK independent retailer MVS Watches holds and photographs the watches it sells. That matters when you want to ask about one particular example. A photograph of the actual clasp, case edge or bracelet can answer a question that a manufacturer’s image leaves open.
Decide which signs of wear you can live with
A few fine marks on a steel clasp may barely register once the watch is on your wrist. A single nick on a polished bezel might catch your eye every time you check the hour. Both could sit under the same broad condition grade, but they’re quite different things to live with.
The same goes for straps. If you love the watch but the leather strap is tired, price a replacement into the purchase. If you specifically want the original bracelet, check that it comes with the watch. Finding the right bracelet afterwards can be a much bigger undertaking than changing leather.
This is where buying pre-owned gives you a choice that goes beyond price. You might prefer the dial, proportions or finish of an earlier generation. Buy that version because you like what changed, or what hadn’t changed yet.
Make a shortlist of three
When you browse pre-owned watches, choose three watches you’d genuinely wear and give each one an outfit from your own wardrobe. Then pit the favourite against the least convenient part of your day. Button your cuff. Type at a desk. Pull on a coat. If you’re buying online, use the watch you own as a reference and ask for the one measurement or photograph you’re missing.
And if the watch you keep coming back to is the eccentric one, give it a fair shot. Take the Otsuka Lotec No. 7.5. On paper, it’s an unlikely everyday choice. Then you see the hour jump in that little circular window and realise you’d quite happily wear it with jeans and a plain T-shirt. Sometimes that’s enough.
