Watches are considered as creations of art or an invaluable piece of jewellery. Initially, wristwatches were made as decorative bracelets for women, while men made use of pocket watches. It was at the time of World War 1 that the fad of wristwatches for men caught on with the military finding them easier to use than the pocket watches. They have since then grown to be one of the popular and elegant fashion accessories for men. Nowadays a watch is not necessarily required to tell the time with so many people possessing mobile phones (which obviously all include a time or watch function). But this revolution in telling time has created a market for watches that not only tell the time but have a very important requirement to make a bold fashion statement. Men now strap on their watch as a major fashion accessory, so the branding and overall design of fashion watches is now the most important part of any timepiece.

The first watch for men was called the Santos and was from the prestige watch makers Cartier, created after a pilot named Alberto Santos-Dumont personally requested Cartier to make a watch that could be used on flights. A short while after that, the Santos was made publicly available and since then every manufacturer of watches has begun to design fashion watches for men.

Some of the conventional dress and designer watches suitable for formal functions are extremely well designed and more like a piece of jewellery than a timepiece. Mens watches for semi-formal, informal and casual clothing events range from slim, bare, simple designs to large bulky and chunky divers watch style designs. These days, men do not tend follow any specific dress code for watches and the higher priced brands also seemed to have spawned the belief that the rugged, complicated, expensive sports watches are more fashionable owing to their huge cost. Some of the fashion watches come with a diamond or a gem cut in a convex shape on the crown and some others are completely designed with other facetted stones such as diamonds or sapphires.

One of the predominant fashion timepieces of recent times has been the ice watches. This kind of watch is very apt for urban fashion and it steals the primary design of a metal band or leather watch and adorns the band, face and dial with sparkling rhinestones. These rhinestones resemble diamonds and sometimes are made to deliberately clash with the bands colour to provide an impressive contrasting look.

The technologically advanced (or geek watches as they are sometimes known) simply tell the time but also incorporate complicated features such as satellite navigation, computer inspired features and several other functionalities very distant from the simple idea of timekeeping. The dual-time watch is specially designed for travellers, enabling them to know the time in their home country as well as most other countries and time zones around the world when they are abroad.

Men can now choose from the many various styles and designs available to go in sync with their fashion inclinations and also from the various well known manufacturers and brands of fashion watch to co-ordinate with their personal style and attitude.