During the pandemic, I went through somewhat of a dress watch revolution with my collection. In the past, it was diver, sport chronograph, or nothing for me, and I would look at any watch without at least 100m of water resistance with a sense of disappointment – “Ugh! As if!” I would mutter, a la the true classic, Clueless.
And then, what once was commuting to an office five days a week in any and all Boston weather swiftly shifted to a fully at-home life. My commute went from an hour to all of seven seconds, all the way from my bed to the dining table. There was no weather to dress for, no boots to lace up, and despite my best efforts early on to continue with a wardrobe routine, I too succumbed to balancing my put together top half with sweatpants and slippers. While my posture suffered, my foot comfort flourished, and I started to feel my more formal side slip away little by little.
Enter: dress watches. Specifically, vintage and microbrand dress watches. Oddly enough, the less office-oriented my life became, the more I gravitated towards these little flashes of formality. I took a particular interest in Japanese brands, having always been a fan of Seiko, deep diving into Grand Seiko, and then King Seiko, and then the Lord Marvel and Lord Matic vintage lines. The simple, elegant designs, incredible movements, easily wearable case dimensions…all so good. This led me to search for something contemporary with a similar design language, and fairly quickly the internet plopped me in the next phase of my new obsession: Kurono Tokyo, the creative brand outlet for watchmaking genius Hajime Asaoka.
In effort to keep this particular piece of writing under the too many words threshold, I’m going to save many of my thoughts about Kurono Tokyo for a future article, but for now, know this: I absolutely love this brand, and their watches are an outrageous value for their price point. Elegant, timeless designs in a small-batch, intentionally constructed format. But again, more on Kurono Tokyo at a later time.
As my collection of dress watches took shape, their setups were largely stereotypical for that world of watch types. Leather straps were the go-to, and with good reason; there’s an abundance of different colors and textures to find and explore, the look is classy, and there’s something quite nice about a leather strap that’s worn-in and taken on a bit of a wrist shape. Seemed straightforward enough, until I came across Talking Watches interview on Hodinkee featuring Shuhei Nishiguchi.
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed most of the Talking Watches episodes – there’s something calming about just listening to a conversation about a common area of interest – but this particular episode lifted the lid on what seemed to me to be one of the best kept secrets of the watch world:
NATO straps on dress watches.
If you haven’t seen this episode yet, take a few minutes to check it out here:
https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/talking-watches-japan-shuhei-nishiguchi
I will admit that my initial thought was, “huh…uh…hm…uh huh…hm.” There was a certain intangibility that I felt accompanied this combination, and, at the risk of getting too deep with it, this intangible feeling is what prompted me to start trying out some of these combinations.
…yeah, it works. Even putting the strap on the watch itself almost feels like it shouldn’t work…but it does. There’s an understated, comfortable quality to the look, one where the watch still is able to show off its own bits of personality, yet without that *lifts nose slightly higher* fanciness that dress watches are intended to carry. The familiarity is really something special, and especially with the Lord Marvel pictured above, throwing a NATO strap on in breathed new life into the piece. This setup became the perfect middle ground between my formal, work-ready top half and my casual, nap-ready bottom half.
While the above example shows just how much a group of grey shades can go together, the shot below gives an example of how much a classic grey NATO can elevate a brighter dial (I was this close to making a 50 Shades of Gray joke here, but to be honest my thoughts got a little…tied up…okay I’ll show myself out).
With such a brilliant dial, the strap’s casual character makes for a nice bit of play between the two; a “favorable contrast,” as one of my college English professors would say. Of course, there will always be a place for leather straps, metal bracelets, and single-pass alternatives for all the dress watches out there, but for a taste of something different, straight from the personal practice of a fashion icon such as Shuhei Nishiguchi, a good old NATO takes the cake on these smaller statured dress watches. Maybe it’s your thing, maybe it’s not, but hey, what’s the harm in trying? You might just find your new favorite combination…
As always, wherever you are, and wherever you’re going, many thanks for stopping by.
Before you go, I would like to take the opportunity here to acknowledge the terrible situation in Ukraine. It is easy in times like these to feel powerless and hopeless, but even from afar, there’s always something we can do, even if only to spread a message of support or make a resource contribution. If you would like to help support the people of Ukraine, here is a running list of organizations coordinating ongoing relief efforts:
https://www.npr.org/2022/02/25/1082992947/ukraine-support-help
Excellent article! I love the bit of humor sprinkled in, even if I did roll my eyes at the pun (which, to be fair, I feel is the best response to a good pun). The kurono really does *pop* with the grey NATO. Can’t wait to head to the watch box and try some NATOs on my dress watches! Thanks Mike :)
Great Read! The dichotomy of pairing a NATO with a dress watch is really growing on me. I too like to throw on a dress watch when I dress down. Just this past summer I wore my Cellini with shorts and a T-shirt. I’ve yet to put it on a NATO but it’s not out of the question especially after reading this article. 😉