Which do you wear and enjoy more: dress watches or sports watches?

[SeikoForum]

With 75% of my collection consisting of sports watches, I do indeed wear sports pieces most of the time. However, I believe dress watches are more difficult to understand and collect due to their varying dial colors and textures apart from the typical black matte dials found in sports models.

I would say 36mm dress watches are some of the most comfortable watches I’ve ever worn, and I enjoy my Datejusts and Seiko dress pieces very much. My sports watches range from 38mm (62MAS) up to 50mm (6159 Tuna), and naturally, they are nowhere near as comfortable as my dress watches.

So it’s a bit weird because while my dress watches are more comfortable to wear, my wrist time is mostly dominated by sports watches. I guess it’s because I enjoy their ruggedness and darker dials.

Do you enjoy dress watches more than sports watches? What about vice versa? Do you agree with the points I’ve outlined above?

 

[prajaofetra]

With 75% of my collection consisting of sports watches, I do indeed wear sports pieces most of the time. However, I believe dress watches are more difficult to understand and collect due to their varying dial colors and textures apart from the typical black matte dials found in sports models.

I would say 36mm dress watches are some of the most comfortable watches I’ve ever worn, and I enjoy my Datejusts and Seiko dress pieces very much. My sports watches range from 38mm (62MAS) up to 50mm (6159 Tuna), and naturally, they are nowhere near as comfortable as my dress watches.

So it’s a bit weird because while my dress watches are more comfortable to wear, my wrist time is mostly dominated by sports watches. I guess it’s because I enjoy their ruggedness and darker dials.

Do you enjoy dress watches more than sports watches? What about vice versa? Do you agree with the points I’ve outlined above?

View attachment 25592

Agree 100%. I don't wear dress watches any longer because I like the ruggedness of sport watches, You don't have to be too careful with them. That being said, I still love dress watches.

 

[wvclockdoc]

With 75% of my collection consisting of sports watches, I do indeed wear sports pieces most of the time. However, I believe dress watches are more difficult to understand and collect due to their varying dial colors and textures apart from the typical black matte dials found in sports models.

I would say 36mm dress watches are some of the most comfortable watches I’ve ever worn, and I enjoy my Datejusts and Seiko dress pieces very much. My sports watches range from 38mm (62MAS) up to 50mm (6159 Tuna), and naturally, they are nowhere near as comfortable as my dress watches.

So it’s a bit weird because while my dress watches are more comfortable to wear, my wrist time is mostly dominated by sports watches. I guess it’s because I enjoy their ruggedness and darker dials.

Do you enjoy dress watches more than sports watches? What about vice versa? Do you agree with the points I’ve outlined above?

View attachment 25592

Oh, more sport watches definately. I like the ruggedness more so than the glam.

 

[neeble]

I've said it before, but I don't recognise the distinction the way that these terms seem to be used nowadays. I don't own any of those giant tool watches that most people would call "sports watches", but I wouldn't call most of the watches I own "dress watches". In fact, many of them are sports watches.

The way people use the term "dress watches" these days is a bit like calling a tweed sports jacket a dinner jacket, just because it isn't a flak jacket or an overall...

 

[SeikoForum]

but I wouldn't call most of the watches I own "dress watches". In fact, many of them are sports watches.

Which watches in your collection would you count as sports watches? I would call the ones I’ve seen dress pieces.

 

[neeble]

Which watches in your collection would you count as sports watches? I would call the ones I’ve seen dress pieces.

All of those c-case style watches with screw-down case backs and some degree of water resistance (when new) would have been regarded as “sports watches” when they were made. Something like the IWC Yacht Club especially. That term has evolved and to some extent was always a little vague, but they are certainly not dress watches. A dress watch is a formal piece, often in gold, slim, hand winding and perhaps without a seconds complication, designed to be worn on formal occasions. A watch designed for everyday wear isn’t a dress watch.

The King Seikos are a bit unusual in that they have quite a sharp look without being dress watches as such. They would have been designed to have been worn as every day watches, although their particular aesthetic also lends them to more formal wear too.

A Rolex Datejust or Explorer is certainly a sports watch.

I don’t mind if people now like to restrict the term “sports watch” to giant tool watches, but it constantly bugs me when every day watches are described as “dress watches”… They were made in a time when most people would only have owned one watch - they are just watches.

 

[neeble]

I do realise that language evolves of course, and that most people now use "dress watch" to mean anything that isn't an obvious tool watch. I just don't like it..

 

[Fledegg]

From my perspective I would class dress as pure time only.
Sport as Chronographs
Tool as divers or gmts or any watch for specific purpose other than pure time.
In this case my collection is 75% dress.

 

[twhp101]

Hmm this is tricky.

I enjoy all watches equally (although some more equally than others obviously ).

I think rather than dress or sports, my two categories (maybe three categories) are: too good to damage, some damage acceptable, wear to work on a bad day.

Depends on my mood really.

 

[Th3realicon]

Sports watches for sure. Simply because a sport watch can get away with being used with formal attire as well, while a dress watch looks weird on tracksuits and sneakers.

 

[neeble]

Sports watches for sure. Simply because a sport watch can get away with being used with formal attire as well, while a dress watch looks weird on tracksuits and sneakers.

If you mean "sports watch" and "dress watch" as the terms are popularly used nowadays, I actually think the opposite..

I think a tool watch looks completely wrong with formal attire (even if you're James Bond), while a normal watch ("dress watch") looks fine with anything. I don't have any "sports watches" and I rarely dress up.

 

[Fledegg]

This is when I miss living in a city, I would love too dress up in a fine 2 piece suit, Oxford shirt gold cufflinks and brogues with something like my universal gineve or better still a reverso.
But I have to be content with jeans, t shirt and wax jacket and wellies.

 

[Carter]

From my perspective I would class dress as pure time only.
Sport as Chronographs
Tool as divers or gmts or any watch for specific purpose other than pure time.
In this case my collection is 75% dress.

Because you are a Dartmoor Dandy.

 

[neeble]

This is when I miss living in a city, I would love too dress up in a fine 2 piece suit, Oxford shirt gold cufflinks and brogues with something like my universal gineve or better still a reverso.
But I have to be content with jeans, t shirt and wax jacket and wellies.

I've recently taken to wearing brogues with my jeans and dufflecoat. But then I'm currently single and trying to rectify that, and the women and shoes thing is most definitely a thing...