Because I've never remembered to have my shirtmaker adjust the circumference of the left cuff on my button cuff shirts (I only wear them a day or two a week), reading my watch is always a bother. The tight cuff means it's difficult to see the watch face, but it's just large enough to feel sloppy if the watch is worn Agnelli style like the gentleman in the photo. And I find the watch over shirt look a little affected, in an "I thought about this" kind of way.
Is it just me?
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Under or Over?
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9 comments:
I certainly look twice at watch-over-cuff, and not in a good way.
Will,
Happy February! I can appreciate your reference to betting odds on this Super Bowl weekend. My office declared yesterday NY Giants Day and everyone was allowed to come to work in Giants clothing. I resisted and wore dress slacks a cashmere sweater and saddle shoes.
But rather than choosing "over" or "under" I am going to go with a "push."
The truth is, I abhor writwatches on men especially when worn with a french cuff.On page 69 of Alan Flusser's book, Style and the Man, he writes that the Victorian notion was that the public display of a timepiece was vulgar because a true gentlemen's concerns were not supposed to include the passage of time.
So perhaps the answer is neither under nor over but rather ditch it altogether.
I haven't worn a watch in years and love the freedom and comfort of it.
Only Gianni Agnelli could get away with that. His grandson Lapo Elkann has been aping the affectation lately, and he just looks clueless (not to mention dishevelled in general). His grandfather, on the other hand, was a truly stylish gent who made that particular watch-wearing gesture entirely his own.
An answer to this problem (and I am certainly plagued by it)is a very thin watch. Although most of my watches tend to be rather bulky, multiple complication watches, I have a couple of very thin watches, my favorite being a Cartier tank watch, that fit quite comfortably under rather close-fitting cuffs
Aesthete, a number of Agnelli's stylish contemporaries, including the late Duke of Bedford who may have been the best dressed man of his generation, also wore their watch this way.
I'm not a fan of the watch over the cuff look, I agree that it looks like the man is trying too hard.
I think watch over cuff is very hard to pull of.
12 out of 10 times it just looks silly.
Will, indeed, re Agnelli's contemporaries, and I agree with you about David Beaufort. However, the watch-over-cuff person one immediately calls to mind is Agnelli, when and if the subject arises. It was an indelible part of his style persona, much more so than that of the duke.
Will, I find it completely affected, notwithstanding the praise of some of the fashionistas who support such things.
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