21 Best Men’s Fashion Watches
Forget the runways or trendy window displays–the street itself is where style is born and where it thrives. But the street is more than that. It’s where a city finds its soul, its pulse, its purpose. If you want to know what’s going on in say Paris or New York, you don’t look to the municipal buildings or the museums or even the restaurants, you look to the people, to the street, and it tells you all you need to know about the city itself.
We’re no strangers to street style here at Man of Many, but we’ve recently taken some time to veer away from our own awesomeness and see what the other street style blogs are up to. As a favour to you, dear readers, we’ve even compiled a list of the 21 Best Men’s Street Style Blogs not called Man of Many. Feel free to check them out at your leisure. Just don’t forget who sent you.
Imagine a blog so committed to men’s street style its creator essentially developed his own philosophy. That, in a nutshell, is Guerreisms. Sustained by a principle that “style goes beyond fashion,” Guerreism explores emerging trends as the evolutionary result of unlikely creative forces. The site utilizes videos and photos from around the world to highlight and review the latest in trailblazing gear and sophisticated menswear.
The uprising of social media has seen a dramatic increase in the number of trend-setting individuals making successful careers as influencers on all forms of social media. Whether they’re keeping it traditional with a men’s fashion blog, curating the perfect fashion Instagram feed or handing out the latest style tips on Tik Tok and Youtube, influencers are on the rise to offer endless amounts of men’s fashion inspiration.
The last decade has seen the rise of all types of social media platforms become a part of our daily lives, ingesting most of our information and inspiration from social media platforms. Instagram is one of the most prevalent platforms to jumpstart the fashion influencer era and establish the everyday person as a fashion icon. Male influencers in particular have been on the rise the last few years, showcasing their individual talent and unique eye for men’s fashion, curating the perfect place to inspire men all over the world.
Top 5 Male Fashion Watch Influencers of 2023
From our all-time favourite men’s fashion bloggers to new up-and-coming male influencers that are sure to make a lasting impression in the industry, Instagram is the place to find the influencer who reflects your personal style. If you’re searching for the perfect men’s fashion influencer for you to follow, we’ve put together a list of our top 5 male Instagram influencers that are sure to stay at the forefront of the online fashion scene in 2023.
Jose Zuniga also known by his Youtube and Instagram name, @teachingmensfashion, is one of the most influential male fashion influencers of 2023. Offering a classic take on blending smart and casual styles, Jose perfects sleek and sophisticated looks from laidback New York inspired streetwear to swarve, formal attire, he can do it all. Balancing both high-street brands and designer menswear brands perfectly, Jose’s style is easily attainable for the average guy.
King of monochromatic looks, Jose is often seen sticking to clean and simple colourways, using pieces with varying structures and silhouettes to achieve that effortlessly cool vibe. Jose is the perfect inspiration for men who want easy-to-wear outfits that can seamlessly take them from the office to off-duty weekend looks whilst staying up to date with the current trend cycle.
Parisian male fashion influencer, LIO brings a fresh and unique style to the influencers of 2023. Taking classic masculine silhouettes and tonal colourways, LIO manages to inject current trends and colour in a subtle way. Using simple, relaxed fit pieces each with their own uniqueness, LIO layers various different textures and styles of clothing in a way that creates a perfectly balanced and aesthetically pleasing look.
Keeping his colour palette simple with earthy tones with the occasional show stopping pink suit or colourful top, he brings to the table everything from a classic tailored men’s suit to loose fit jeans and an oversized t-shirt. Whether you’re looking for inspiration to elevate your classic street style looks or looking for ways to inject current trends effortlessly into your wardrobe, LIO has got you covered.
Typically associated with men and our idea of the ‘modern gentleman’, the luxury watch is proving to be popular beyond its typical male-dominated market. Recent years have shown a rise in interest in luxury watches amongst women, thus cementing the lasting power of this exclusive collector’s item.
But what explains the watch’s endurance in the hearts of consumers? Well, not only are they practical, but they’ve also become the final flourish for a showstopping outfit, serving as the perfect fashion all-rounder.
Convenience
The primary use of a watch is pretty clear. Nestled nicely on your wrist, you can subtly check the time without having to fish out your phone. Constantly looking at your phone can also be seen as disrespectful, as if you’re looking for distraction whilst in company.
Not only is a watch in the perfect place for a swift glance at the time, but you also look great whilst doing it. James Bond is testament to that.
Reliability
Unlike with phones, you won’t be faced with a black screen because you forgot to charge it the night before. Traditional watches are equipped with mechanical clockwork technology that generates electricity. It’s powered by a complex network of cogs that move when you move, meaning that your watch will never run out of juice.
The same can’t be said for your phone!
Style and sophistication
You can’t deny the sheer elegance of a good watch. For men, in particular, it’s a universally used accessory that elevates all outfits. Worn against a good suit, a watch effortlessly adds another layer of craftsmanship and sophistication.
Moreover, it’s also a great way to show off personal style. With modern watches coming in all shapes and styles, the owner can wear their quirks on their wrist. And if you don’t believe us, have a think about Ross Geller’s dinosaur watch in Friends.
Promote exquisite craftsmanship
There’s a reason luxury watches come with a hefty price tag. They’re an incredible feat of engineering and craftsmanship, some of which classify as high-functioning pieces of art. Some watches require several months of labour that require a painstaking level of detail. Luxury watches are the pinnacle of human ingenuity.
In this way, they are a great thing to hand down to future generations and can be treasured as a family heirloom. It’s no wonder men and women are investing in these beautiful instruments; they will always hold inherent value.
No distractions
Anyone else reach for their phone to check the time and ends up spending 20 minutes on Instagram? With a watch, there’s no risk of falling down a social media rabbit hole or WhatsApp conversation train. And in today’s modern world, you can’t put a price on that.
Its Fake Watches Swiss Watchmaking
And speaking of quartz watches, it was a Christmas present to the Swiss from Seiko in 1969 that incited what would be the most devastating blow to mechanical watchmaking the industry had ever seen. A small gold watch called the Astron, powered not by a spring, but by a battery, announced the beginning of the Japanese incitement of the cheap quartz watch—and the end of Swiss dominance. Seiko nearly wiped out the whole Swiss watch industry enitrely.
Well, this is the smoke in the whole messy ordeal; the fire actually started at the beginning of the decade. Surprisingly, it wasn’t advanced technology that signalled the beginning of the end; electronic watchmaking was no new thing, the Swiss already experimenting with electron-powered timepieces way before Seiko ever did. Even Patek Philippe knew change was in the air, leading the charge by producing the first fully electronic clock as early as 1956.
No, this change of power started with the first Grand Seiko, a mechanical watch. Seiko was only known in Japan at this point, a domestic brand that kept out of Swiss business since its founding in 1881—that’s just six years after Audemars Piguet and twenty-four before Rolex—until, in 1960, the first Grand Seiko was produced. And it was produced for a very specific purpose: to beat the Swiss at their own game by winning the revered Swiss observatory trials accuracy competitions.
To accelerate the process, Seiko opened two factories with the sole purpose of pitting them against each other in an effort to build the best watch. By 1963, Seiko had achieved a tenth-place finish; by 1966, ninth. 1967, however, yielded fourth. Following this, the trials were cancelled and never repeated.
So, in 1968, Seiko attended the Concours de Genéve instead, where it earned every place from fourth to tenth. But what of the top three places? Those were won by the Beta 21, a concept quartz movement developed by the Swiss. This meant that Seiko had manufactured the most accurate mechanical watch in the world. The concours, like the trials, were never held again.
By Christmas of 1969, the Astron was an inevitability; the Swiss had shunned Seiko and were fully entrenched with quartz technology. But costs tumbled with development, and soon the Swiss were priced out of the market, with Seiko left investing further in electronics and automated production, becoming the largest watch company in the world.
Grand Seiko—and indeed Seiko—started life making watches with mechanical movements, and it still does today. Automatic, manual, hi-beat—Grand Seiko makes it all. But unlike much of Switzerland’s high-end watchmakers, Grand Seiko still dabbles in quartz. In fact, Grand Seiko doesn’t just dabble in this cheap technology—it revels in it.
For many Swiss brands looking to recover from the quartz crisis, quartz movements offered a more affordable way for people to buy into their watches, but the more the industry has recovered, and the Swiss watch regained its premium reputation, the last vestiges of quartz have begun to fall away.
Not so with Grand Seiko. In fact, the brand has doubled down, not only investing in quartz manufacture, but a quartz-mechanical hybrid called Spring Drive as well. A Spring Drive movement uses a mechanical mainspring to spin a glide wheel that generates a charge, which vibrates a crystal. An electromagnet regulated by the crystal then acts as a brake to control the velocity of that same glide wheel—the escapement, if you like—from which the power to the hands is drawn, producing a smooth sweep around the dial.
Perhaps you’d think that with this advanced hybrid technology, quartz would be obsolete within the Grand Seiko range, but that’s not the case. In fact, it’s far from it, because quartz movements don’t just fill a few of the cheaper watches—there are dozens of them. And it goes even further than that, because Grand Seiko actively celebrates its 9F quartz movement. There’s pride there … in a quartz movement.