Jewellery is tough to pull off if you don’t make your money spitting bars. Which is a large part of why men obsess over watches. Turn up to a business lunch with inch-thick gold draped around your neck and you’re getting seated by the bathrooms. But if it’s around your wrist? “Please, sir, do follow me to the chef’s table”.

But you can’t rely on one knockout timepiece. As with your wardrobe, a deep wrist rotation allows for better dressing and the chance to switch up your style. Trust us – an alarm clock-faced pilot’s watch glinting on your wrist kills your black tie look as much as a pair of Air Jordans (got that, Ed Sheeran?).

A sports-led chronograph on a steel bracelet may fit the boardroom, but it’s by no means classic enough for a wedding. Which means unless you’re fine wearing the same outfit everywhere, you need multiple options.

That’s all well and good, you say, but there’s the small matter of the five-figure price tag on a Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin dress watch. Dropping a house deposit on something designed for red carpets isn’t realistic unless you’re walking them regularly. Thanks be, then, for the subtle – but important – distinction between a watch wardrobe, and a watch collection.

What Is A Watch Wardrobe?

A ‘watch collection’ is for men who describe themselves, without a glimmer of irony, as ‘horologists’. Those who don’t think: “Does that blue face work with this bomber jacket?”, but “Which of my pinstripe navy suits should I wear with the Patek?” Watch collections tend to appreciate in safes, as multi-thousand pound piles of precious metal.

“Connoisseurs can collect timepieces that never see daylight or complement their owner,” says Damian Otwinowski, Vice President of Watches of Switzerland. “That’s an injustice to the craftsmanship.” Or, you know, the equivalent of Smaug the dragon lounging on his pile of treasure.