Watch Buying Guide

The first thing to consider when buying a watch is, what is its purpose? Will you use it to time your lap speed, your flying speed, or your lunch hour? The wide availability of watch styles and features allows you to pick the watch that fits your needs, style, and taste perfectly.

Form & Function

This list below will help you choose the right features for your purposes:

Casual

Look for casual features that ensure you can keep your mind on taking it easy. Choose a watch with a comfortable band and higher water resistance so you don't have to worry about your watch when you're reaching in the cooler for a drink or slipping in for a swim. View our casual Skagen watches for men and women.

Dressy

For a more formal look, choose a watch that matches your attire. A stainless steel bracelet band and a black face perfectly match a black sweater and gray pants. Or if you wear a leather belt, choose a watch with a matching black or brown leather band. Michele and Bulova watches for women feature luxury touches like diamond and gemstone bezels, and Skagen offers watches for men and women with cutting-edge Scandinavian design.

Diving

Look for screw-down crowns and casebacks and extreme water resistance. Also, a unidirectional bezel helps you keep an eye on how long you've been underwater. View our Seiko and Chase-Durer watches for men featuring screw-down casebacks and crowns, and water resistance to at least 330 feet or deeper.

Racing

Whether you're in a car, a plane, on a bicycle, or on foot, these watches will help you measure your time. To find your miles per hour, rotate the tachymeter to target your exact speed, then set the elapsed timer to pinpoint the distance you covered. Some watches even store lap times and split times. View our men's racing watches by Festina, the official racing watch of the Tour de France, and our Chase-Durer watches for men, built specifically for racing and flying with navigational slide rule bezels and tachymeters that help you measure speed over time.