The lovely Joanna Goddard from Glamour’s Smitten blog asked me to put together a guy-orientated gift guide for her readers (for the ladies). You can see the full feature here.
Mother and I at the Roc Center Christmas tree.
1. Timex Military Watch for J. Crew. $150
If I’m not going to be able to wear a break-the-bank expensive watch, I want something inexpensive, timeless and cool. J. Crew’s collaboration with Timex is just that. A perfect gift that will last a long time (bad pun, I know) and look good while doing it.
2. A night’s stay at the Ace Hotel. Rooms in Portland start at $95
Staying in a hotel might be my favorite thing ever. The room service, comfy beds…all of it is awesome. A stay at the ultra cool Ace Hotel (New York–good, Portland–better!) would be an adventurous and enjoyable gift.
3. Leather belt with engraved name from Central Kentucky Tack and Leather. $32
Anything monogrammed has an instant advantage over non-personalized gifts. These leather belts are a Kentucky tradition that any guy will appreciate. And they just plain look good.
4. Custom shirt from Alexander West. $100
Alexander West makes ordering custom shirts super easy. Send them your guy’s favorite shirt and they’ll reproduce it–in any of their 1,000 fabrics–for a hundred bucks. And the monogram is included!
5. Leica D-LUX 4 Digital Camera. $850. A subscription to Flickr. $24
Leica cameras are not only cool, but they are super functional. The D-LUX 4 is a big camera in a little, beautifully designed package.
thanks so much, michael! i really love the idea of the custom shirt. xo
Nice specs Michael, who makes those?
Nice gift list but I must say I bought that Timex from JCrew and it stop working, I took it to a watch repair and they said the contact was really weak
and there wasn’t anything they could do. Could be a
bad egg in the bunch.
You got a clean haircut. Who hooks that up?
If you’re getting a quartz watch, the Timex isn’t bad. But for not much more get a Hamilton automatic, like the Khaki Field Automatic.
http://www.hamiltonwatch.com/webapp/en-us/collection/?c=ka&y=24&p=180a
Also: the KY belts look nice, but I don’t think most guys want their name on their belts.
Haircut: http://acontinuouslean.com/2008/11/05/the-morning-regimen/
Glasses: http://www.moscot.com/products/LEMTOSH.php
Having your name on your belt sure does make it easy to tell if your roommate is wearing your stuff.
Sorry, Michael, but that Timex watch, though admittedly cool looking, is still way too expensive. It’s just a quartz. That Hamilton seems overpriced to me as well. Hamiltons aren’t even made in America anymore. Now, Seiko makes a number of similar-looking military watches that are not only automatic but inexpensive: see, for instance, http://tinyurl.com/5znzb8. The only catch is that you have to order them online, because they are, like all the best American stuff these days, Japanese in origin.
Mike, mother’s duffle looks amazing! And you too decked out like a xmas tree!
Cheers!
Great list. But…
A Hamilton manual-wind field watch (issued) can be had for about $150. I’m wearing one of mine today. Why not get the original?
IMO, Pinkson’s Turf Goods offers a better bridle nameplate belt than the supplier you mention.
http://tnsil.blogspot.com/2008/06/bridle-leather-belt.html
Great list, but…it’s all crap! Thanks Tucker.
ACL
Thanks for the tip on Alexander West. They sound like exactly what I need, shirt-wise.
Great list. My fellow was impressed.
Okay, enough with the Timex. This gift guide was aimed at the ladies. Not highly opinionated gents like yourselves.
“Hi honey, here is your watch from Walgreens.” Doesn’t have a good ring to it…
ACL
For the record, I actually like the Timex. Heck, lots of folks are canvasing ebay and message boards for the quartz Marlin and Electric reissue… no reason for the J. Crew to be any different.
Nice jacket! What is it? Thanks for a nice blogg
/Henrik
Barbour Bedale in black…
i just bought the jcrew timex and its nice. it is a collectors item. we all spend money on things that are important to us. keep with it micheal