The Swiss are rightly recognised as making some of the world’s finest watches, but are they the most popular choice among male watch buyers? No. In fact they barely get a look in. The watches that leap from the shelves and from the pages of online watch retailers by the cartload are the quartz powered designer brands who have extended their ranges to include watches as lifestyle accessories. A trusted name in fashion and clothing can quickly become a trusted name in time telling – and many of them don’t have so much as a single Swiss component in their watches. Designer watches are pitched to make purchasing decisions a doddle. Whereas a Swiss watch is an investment, a cool looking designer watch is an impulse purchase.

Here’s a selection of popular fashion brands that have latched onto the bandwagon of watches as lucrative lifestyle accessories.

Ben Sherman

Incredibly, Ben Sherman is celebrating its 50^th anniversary this year. It was one of the coolest mod brands of the 60s and 70s. Ben Sherman was around at the dawn of British youth culture. The Ben Sherman shirt was revolutionary and so was the ‘mod movement’. Through fashion and music, London and Britain were cool again, the swinging 60’s was in full flow and the atmosphere was euphoric. That cool ethos has remained with the brand ever since.

Ben Sherman Black Dial Watch £40.00

So what happened to their watches? It’s easy to get attracted to Ben Sherman’s cool mod fashions, but their watches dawdle some way behind. There’s plenty of choice, but it’s not an exciting choice, and the watches don’t seem to complement the mood of the clothing. This is a rectangular black dial quartz watch with gold tone hands. The brand’s watch buyers need to work a little harder.

Ted Baker

Ted Baker is a Scottish brand that originally launched, like Ben Sherman, as a shirt specialist. Today the brand has expanded to become one of the UK’s most popular lifestyle brands with retail stores in every major city.

Ted Baker Gents Watch £105.00

This dress watch from Ted Baker looks clean and sharp and would complement many of their clean cut clothing lines. It’s a basic quartz analogue chronograph that would horrify the Watch Snob, but at only £105, it probably sells in obscene numbers.

Guess

During the 1980s Guess was one of the most popular brands of jeans. It’s hard to exaggerate how popular they were. The company was one of the first companies to create designer jeans. While the first jeans were for women, in 1983 a men’s line debuted. In 1984 Guess introduced its new line of watches known as “Guess”, “Guess Steel”, and the “Guess Collection”. The watch line is still in existence today, and has been joined by a number of other accessory sidelines.

Guess Chaser £170.00

Guess has been in the business of offering watches as a lifestyle accessory for longer than many designer brands, and their collection shows their experience. This is a sharp looking chronograph in rich gold tones against a contrasting black dial – black and gold being a hot colour combination for watches at the moment.

Michael Kors

Seemingly from nowhere, Michael Kors has become THE brand. Both men and women want to be seen wearing his clothes and sporting his lifestyle accessories. As he is principally a designer for classic American women’s clothing, his lifestyle accessories have taken off because women buy his stuff for their boyfriends.

Michael Kors Two Tone Chronograph £191.00

An interesting looking watch from Michael Kors, with a 2-tone resin bracelet and a brown dial that features a chronograph function. No one’s going to get remotely excited about this watch in the horological sense, but you can bet a loving girlfriend would buy it – and probably share the wearing of it.

Hugo Boss

Hugo Boss dates back to 1924. Today they are a huge worldwide lifestyle accessories brand for men offering everything from sharp suits to cellphones, all with a powerfully masculine German/European styling.

Hugo Boss Chronograph £399.00

Hugo Boss watches are made for the brand by Movado which is why their watches look several steps up from your usual ‘let’s also make watches’ designer brand. This is a great looking quartz analogue chronograph with three sub dials against a black guilloche dial.

Emporio Armani

Emporio Armani offers high quality in cheap fashion clothes and focuses on trends and modern traits. Emporio Armani is the only Giorgio Armani diffusion line that is mainly designed by Giorgio Armani himself – probably one of the most respected and most popular designers of the past 30 years. All the different Armani brand names, Girogio Armani, Armani Exchange, Emporio Armani, can get confusing, but the fashion choice is usually excellent.

Emporio Armani Silver Tone Ceramica Chronograph £538.00

Consistently one of the most popular fashion choices for men, their watches are some of the bestsellers on Britain’s leading watch retailing sites. Men feel confident that Armani represents style. This is another quartz analogue chronograph but in on trend ceramic.

Burberry

One of the most iconic British brands, it nearly lost its way for a while when it became the fashionwear label of ‘chavs’. If Ben Sherman became famous for its shirts, Burberry became famous  – almost too famous – for its Burberry Equestrian Knight classic check. Recently the brand has moved away from the check to include almost grungy denim wear in its collection, as well as cutting edge fashion  such as the extraordinary blue leather jacket shown above.

Burberry The Britain £1,275.00

Easily the most expensive watch on show here. This Burberry the Britain Automatic Men’s Watch was designed by Burberry Chief Creative Officer Christopher Bailey. Functions include hours, minutes small seconds and date. The watch is powered by an ETA 2824 Swiss made automatic movement with 25 jewels.