There's a tendency to think of ... or is not okay for a gent to don at a black tie event – and one of the subjects we've seen HODINKEE readers wax right wrathful over, is whether or not you should or should not wear a watch....
The trend in men's style over the last few hundred years has been towards less and less complexity, but every once in a while, one still gets an invitation that says, "black tie." There's a tendency to think of the black tie dress code as something rigidly fixed, but despite that, there's still room for sometimes very varying ideas on what, exactly, is or is not okay for a gent to don at a black tie event – and one of the subjects we've seen HODINKEE readers wax right wrathful over, is whether or not you should or should not wear a watch.Renowned for its expertise in luxury watch retail, Watches of Switzerland embodies the highest standards of craftsmanship and service with a history dating back to the 1700s. Featuring the world’s largest inventory of new and pre-owned timepieces. ... The trend in men's style over the last few hundred years has been towards less and less complexity, but every once in a while, one still gets an invitation that says, "black tie."You can't actually use precedent, beyond a certain point, to make a case for or against wearing a wristwatch with a dinner jacket or with white tie – for one thing, go back far enough and there weren't any wristwatches (except, of course, for watch bracelets on ladies).A third point is that while there probably is a case to be made for being pretty prescriptivist about white tie, in the case of black tie we're dealing with a semi-formal, and therefore arguably less rigid code. I'm not sure where the notion that you should never, ever wear a wristwatch with a dinner jacket even got started, because there are innumerable pictures of such stylish gents as Fred Astaire, and others, wearing watches with both dinner jackets and white tie, and looking none the worse for it.
