Do You Let Your Wrist Size Dictate Your Choice of Watch?

Because I have a large wrist I only wear 40mm or bigger. Preferably 42mm-44mm. I do have a vintage 38mm dress piece.

When it comes to size, I'm drawn to all kinds of watches. The watch I'm wearing right now is nearly 45mm in diameter and a little under 15mm thick. The only limiting factor for me is whether or not the watch overhangs my wrist. Thankfully, at about 6.8 inches my wrist is just large enough that I can wear a pretty wide variety of different sized watches that catch my eye.

I used to buy watches online based entirely on their appearance. That led to a few watches that were worn only a handful of times and now sit in a watch box. Luckily, these were not expensive pieces, and the experience of trying a few helped to gauge a) my style and b) my size.

Now that I have a better understanding of what'll work for me, I can choose slightly more-expensive pieces based on their specs. Anything else I would need to try on.

For me, if the watch overhangs, there’s no issue.

I see the logic in that.

See, I’m thinking a 7.5” wrist is a good clean canvas for even some behemoth watches.

I've seen 50mm watches on 7' wrists and they look big.

I've seen 50mm watches on 81/2 in wrists and they look big.

Big watches are big and small watches are small-no matter the wrist size.

I wear what I like.

47 +mm

29mm

That’s the beauty of watches. It helps us preserve our freedom of choice.

There ya go…

People think I favor normal (read small in the modern context) watches because I have a somewhat slender wrist. This is not true. They look better on everyone and my distaste for the behomoths is only exacerbated when they are on a dinky watch. I maintain that traditional sizes are more comfortable and attractive for all. I am one of all, that is all.

I can appreciate that.

I let the eye glass prescription dictate the dial size. Have built the muscles for a heavier watch but alas my eyes fail me...

I have wide, flat, 8-inch wrists. Watch size, big or small, is no concern of mine. As long as the watch looks nice, there's no problem with the size.

Touché! I understand that one.

I have very small wrists (6.5") so it is frustrating to find the right proportions. My sweet spot is 38-40mm

Agreed on that one. I’ve got five sisters and grew up seeing an ecosystem of watches on their wrists.

All of your watches look good on your wrist as I have noticed them.

I selected B just because "appropriate" is different from "comfortable".

In "traditional" watches I find 46-47 mm lug to lug most comfortable though I can go up to 48.5 mm L2L with the right lug design and strap. That puts me squarely in the 38mm to 40mm case size category most of the time though depending on the watch I can go up to 42mm cases. The exception has to be G-Shocks where I can wear much larger sizes because they are still comfortable to wear.

I’m somewhere in-between. I wear watches within a certain fit, but what’s comfortable for me is broader than what most people usually think is right for me. My wrists are 6.25” and my watches are between 36 and 42mm, with lugs up to 50mm or so. Anything longer than that usually feels a bit big, but it’s also highly dependent on the shape of the lugs and the case.

50mm

31.5mm

I definitely agree! 😁

40mm-47mm for me. 8 inch wrist

Cheers!

I have an 8 inch wrist. I happily wear everything from my 51mm Garmin Fenix 7x to my grandfather's old 34mm Seiko.

U50 indeed. It’s pretty much as big as I’ll go on my 6.5-6.7” wrist. I think that photo makes it look slightly small than IRL based on the focal length. For context, this 36mm Hamilton wears small for 36mm but almost looks the same size as the u50 in the other photo.

I think I’m also a little bit more sensitive to size than most others.

I voted B but I'm somewhere in between. I'm fine with lug overhang with sport watches but not with dress watches. I can go up to 50mm lug-to-lug on Sports watches but prefer less than 47mm lug-to-lug on dress.

8 inch wrist here and on top of that its kind of wide and flat meaning I can "fit" up to 60mm lug to lug pretty comfortably so my choices are effectively unlimited.

I also wear a 46mm garmin 955 on my left forearm 24/7

So in that context I tend to modern sizing (40-46 mm across) on modern watches because:

a. it looks better on its own, and

b. it visually and mentally balances my left forearm and right wrist

I do wear smaller vintage watches however going as small as a 29mm trench watch from 1919. Why the difference?

Because a small vintage watch is an intriguing relic of a bygone era, a small modern watch is just small.

I like that chart! The other thing about my wrist is that it’s very square in a way that it’s smaller across the top wear the watch head sits and a bit longer as the bracelet falls on either side of my wrist. It’s so funny to talk about my wrist in this much detail. This hobby is funny

Also, I love that Seamaster

Wow that’s interesting. Thanks for that data, I really didn’t know that. Well then I’m just weird because my 34mm Tudor felt perfect on my wrist.

My wrist is about 6 1/2”. I’ve got a couple watches in the 42-44 mm range but I prefer under 40mm. A 38 is just about perfect for me…but I’m older and most of my experience is from an era when smallerwatches were in style. I don’t care for the humongous watches that are stylish today. Don’t really care for divers although I used to use one when I did some actual scuba diving decades ago…

Once upon a time, I paid absolutely no heed to watch-case size and simply rolled with it (7" wrist here). But over the last handful of years I've been veering toward stuff not much larger than 40-42mm, and the last watch I purchased drove the point home hard: a 90s-era Seiko SUS chronograph with a 36mm case which, with hooded lugs with a pronounced taper, looks and fits better than anything I've ever worn, to the point that I've largely worn nothing else since getting the thing last November; by contrast, my 44mm Casio Edifice EQS-A500DB now looks uncomfortably close to silly, its relatively short and tapered lugs being a saving grace. My 38mm 017 Alpinist and 40mm 6139 chronograph have now become my close-to-max-size standard.

Not spending thousands of dollars on something that looks ridiculous on me. I've come to accept that there are just beautiful watches out there that are just not for me. That's fine.