The Holiday Watch Gift Guide

Under $100: quartz classics from Citizen and Casio that look far more expensive than they are. Ideal for sons, brothers, nephews and anyone getting their first proper watch.

$200 to $500: the automatic sweet spot. Orient and Seiko offer sapphire crystals, in-house movements and bracelets that would cost twice as much from a Swiss name.

Above $1,000: Swiss automatics and GMTs for the person you know well. Buy only when you are confident about their taste.

The young professional: a clean dress watch or an everyday three-hander on steel. Something that works with a suit and survives being worn every single day.

The outdoorsman: a field watch or a 200m diver. Legible, tough, waterproof and happy being knocked about — a watch he never has to think about.

The frequent flyer: a GMT or a world-time style. Tracking a second time zone is the one complication that gets used weekly rather than shown off once.

The tinkerer: he reads specs for fun and will open the caseback in his head before he thanks you. Give him an automatic with a real in-house movement and a sapphire crystal — the details are the gift.

The one who has everything: buy him the style he does not own. If his drawer is all steel sports watches, the answer is a slim dress watch on leather — the gap in the collection is the gift.

Holiday stock and shipping windows both tighten in December. Order by the first week of the month and you avoid the two most common disasters: the sold-out model and the parcel that arrives on the 27th.

To get sizing right without asking, borrow a watch he already wears and measure the case, or note the reference number on the caseback. Failing that, 38 to 40mm is the safe zone for most wrists.

Check the return window before buying. Every seller we link to accepts holiday returns, but the deadlines differ and it is worth thirty seconds of reading.