Nomos Sundial New York Watches are just about the only jewelry many men feel comfortable wearing. But women collect watches too. And many of them like jewelry just fine, TYVM. This functioning sundial, by the hot "new" German watchmaker Nomos, simultaneously says “I’m fussy about telling the time,” and “somebody loves me.” Perfect. $185 Nomos
Worn & Wound Watch Roll The sock drawer is the wrong place for a high-end watch, so many connoisseurs wrap their pieces in protective rolls. This is the absolute best one. Constructed of water-shedding waxed cotton and lined with ultra-suede, it will soon become your giftee’s favorite thing. Save, of course, the Breguet her real friends got her. $125 Worn & Wound
Hodinkee Traveler Sport Coat by Freemans Sporting Club The perfect tropical dial Autavia is available in Brussels, and the auction starts in 9 hours? Get to the airport—STAT! Watch guys live the James Bond life—or at least they think they might have to at any point. This blazer is made for it: hand-crafted out of Italian cashmere, it even has a dedicated watch pocket for hauling home the auction booty. $1,375 Freemans Sporting Club
Burgeon Spring Bar Tool The pocket knife is not the right tool for changing a watch strap, and yet it’s common to see someone risking the gold finish on their multi-thousand-dollar Omega with a Leatherman. Give your horologically-inclined giftee what the pros use. Its forked prongs securely grip the grooves on the pins that keep a timepiece fastened to a band, so they won’t slip off and mar anyone’s prized possession. $38 Otto Frei
Ticket to La Chaux de Fonds In Das Kapital, Karl Marx hails La Chaux de Fonds, the sleepy mountain city on the France/Switzerland border, as a “huge factory-town” due to the presence of the watchmaking industry. It’s still not huge, but it remains the beating heart of horology. A trip here—along with some factory tours—is the trip of a lifetime for any real watch nerd.
Le Creuset Fondue Set Whether you’re a die-hard Rolex-er or 200% on team Hublot, people who love watches can all agree that Switzerland is just boss. And so is the Swiss National Dish. Give the gift of melty cheese, and be forever immortalized as The One Who Revolutionized Latkes and Saved Hanukkah. (TRUST ME) $200 Le Creuset
Loupe System Loupe You don’t buy a vintage watch without looking at it, and watchfolk don’t trust their own eyes. They use loupes, small magnifiers that help them surface flaws and forgeries. This little beast uses a 5-element lens with a super wide field of view that’s made for the challenging, low-light situations in which a lot of vintage pieces are acquired. From $525. Loupe System
Wolf Meridian Single Winder Automatic watches transfer the movement of your wrist to a spring that powers the movement. Awesome, except for when you don’t wear your Lange for a week and then have to spend an hour re-setting the perpetual calendar. First world problem? Absolutely. Also a great opportunity for a gift. This Wolf winder is tunable between 300 to 1,200 turns per day, and looks smashing on top of that walnut valet. $275
NATO Straps from Crowne & Buckle It’s not uncommon to see a watch band sell for hundreds of dollars. It’s equally common to see a $30,000 IWC riding around on sub-$10 nylon strap. They’re called NATO straps, and you can get your watch-o-phile a different one for every day of the week and still get change from three twenties. $7.80 Crowne & Buckle
Swatch Sistem 51 No, you can’t afford the watch he wants. But you can afford the one he needs: A knockaround watch that still meets the bar of awesomeness. The Sistem51 is the first self-winding (no quartz here) Swatch, and gets a knowing nod of street cred from anyone in the know. It’s also only 150 bones, which means you can actually wear it to the beach, bar, or badlands. $150 Swatch
Cloth Addiction This is the best microfiber cloth on the planet. [4TH WALL SHATTERS] I have dozens of them and it’s never enough and they clean everything so well and you should get this for anyone you love because nothing says love like the absence of smudges. $8 Cloth Addiction
What do you get for the person who has everything? Nothing. You get them nothing, because they have everything. They are total pains in the ass around the holidays. You know who’s almost as bad? Watch people. Because even though they don’t have everything, they want another Patek Phillipe 5038. The perpetual calendar. White gold is fine, and it’s a bargain—no, an investment!—at $50,000 used. Or, if you must get something new, an FP Journe is a steal at $37 G’s, and now is the time, you know, because François-Paul is still putting his hands on each one of these things. It is like talking to the coffee pot in the psych ward.
OK, breathe. Now, seek to understand these people: They are lovers of machines and collectors of wearable art. They embrace anachronism when it is framed in beauty. And even though you should almost definitely not go watch-shopping, it is possible to get the Timepiece aficionado in your life a gift that will support his living La Vida Tourbillon without a taking a trip to the loan shark.
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