Bear’s birthday is coming up soon and the silly kid wants nothing more than a watch for his present! We’ve been working on telling time and his fascination is unreal. But, when it came to buying a good watch, I was lost! I never knew there were so many different types of watches available and was overwhelmed when I started researching!
Watches can be fantastic gifts for family and friends. With the many different types and styles available today, you can find the perfect fit for anyone.
Choosing the Best Watches
1. Swiss Army
Victorinox Swiss Army watches are incredibly popular in the United States. Manufactured by the same company that makes Swiss Army knives, these watches are known for their durability, quality performance and variety of built-in tools. Swiss Army watches tend to be made of stainless steel and different models contain different features and tools. Some are waterproof or water-resistant, others have multiple chronographs so you can use them for multiple time-telling functions, including alarms and stopwatches. Because each model has unique features, you may easily find a Swiss Army watch that fits your gift recipient’s needs and interests.
2. Smart Watches
There are many different types of smartwatches on the market now. Most of them can interface with your smartphone, allowing you to browse the internet, check your email and answer calls and texts. These also commonly track heart rate and steps taken and have built-in GPS technology. Due to their touch screens, they have digital faces instead of analog. They also tend to be more fragile than a traditional watch. However, their time-telling capabilities are highly accurate and they won’t lose any accuracy if they run out of charge, unlike the slowing of a traditional watch when the battery or mechanical wind-up runs down.
3. Sports Watches
Similar to smartwatches, sports watches have fitness tracking features available. These tend to be highly specialized for specific sports. For example, a swimmer would want to make sure that his or her watch is waterproof or water-resistant and can withstand certain depths. Many of these watches include stopwatch or timer features to measure speed when the athlete is running or swimming.
4. Children’s
You can even purchase watches as gifts for children. These watches tend to be cheaper, as well as much more durable and easier to read than watches meant for adults. Made mainly of plastic and rubber and missing many of the more intricate features of watches for adults, children’s watches are usually brightly colored or showcase characters from popular children’s media. These watches can help teach children to tell time and track the time they spend on various activities. They can also allow children to feel more mature and responsible by having a watch just like one of their parents.
5. Tactile
With a tactile watch, you don’t even need to look at the watch face to tell the time. You can check what time it is just by touching the watch. There are a few common ways these watches are designed. One method is to leave the lens off and reinforce the hands so you can touch the hands to check their positioning. Another method is to use rotating ball bearings to tell time rather than hands. A third common method is to print the numbers on the watch in braille. These watches are perfect gifts for someone who is blind or visually impaired.
6. Moonphase
A more intricate and expensive timepiece, moonphase watches can be incredibly unique gifts. These watches have highly accurate date and day-night indicators that provide an accurate depiction of the current phase of the moon. They also usually built-in perpetual calendar features. A moonphase watch may not be the best gift for someone who prefers a simple, elegant method of checking the time, but their accuracy and unique features may be a draw for someone who likes one-of-a-kind items.
7. GMT
A GMT watch is a great gift for someone who often travels between timezones, including pilots and flight crews, frequent vacationers and those who travel often for work. These watches are special because they are able to track two or more timezones simultaneously with their rotating bezels. They can be expensive and the watch face may look a bit busy, but their accuracy and their ability to show you various time zones on one face make them quite useful for people whose jobs or families require them to keep track of time in multiple geographic areas.
Everyone has a different idea of the perfect timepiece, but there are plenty of options for you to choose from to find the perfect gift.
