【F】 Comfortable Beasts: Big Watches That Wear Well

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Some of the data collected by this provider is for the purposes of personalization and measuring advertising effectiveness.

Some of the data collected by this provider is for the purposes of personalization and measuring advertising effectiveness.

This article has been brewing with me for some time now, coinciding with my taste for diversity. I will admit to being too preachy about small-cased wonders. Yes, a 37–38mm watch will almost always wear better and less noticeably than a big 42–44mm bruiser. But there is a time, a season, and a trip for everything, including big watches and these comfortable beasts. Yes, they do exist.

I don’t mean the kind of trip where you get hypnotized by your fumé dial after one Negroni too many. I mean a summer trip, one where you explore the local woodlands, climb the odd mountain, and visit places where a big, tough, legible tool watch is the right one for the job without it sitting on your wrist like a floaty, flat, and top-heavy brick. Comfort can indeed come in big sizes, trust me.

Well, we’re all human and all the same inside despite our skin tones (word!), but wrists vary. And even with an 18cm wrist just like yours, your watch buddy Bob’s wrist differs. It might be flat on top or have a differently shaped ulna bone, including the annoying round bone tip that gets rubbed by a large watch case. Some watch manufacturers have understood that lug length means more than diameter. This is crucial, but the lugs’ angle, curvature, and case shape are equally important. So even if your local AD doesn’t have enough to show you, find a friend with your desired model and try it on before web shopping because the fit-surprise can go both ways. While a 38–39mm watch with massive, straight lugs can be immensely uncomfortable despite its smaller size (I speak from experience), here are some prime examples of how a big case can be incredibly comfortable.