I have six and a quarter inch wrists. I tend to favor 36-39mm watches with excptions on either side. As with anything you wear i think it is about understanding what you like and what attributes you have and wearing things to highlight your best qualities. I have at times worn vintage or modern womens watches because the size is a better fit. But smaller is not always better. If a company just shrinks a larger watch often the proportions of the case and the dial look odd. Out and about, It is nice to see when people wear watches that fit them, their attire and their personality. But going beyond that is a fool’s errand.

‘Hate’ is perhaps a bit strongly put: people may wear what they want, however ridiculous it looks.

But otherwise I am fully with you: large watches often look laughable on people with smaller to medium wrists. Wherever the lunacy came from that putting a frisbee or dinner plate sized watch on your wrist is ‘manly’ is a complete mystery to me. It is frankly sad to see so many people being insecure on their wristsize, which is really not that easy to influence. To think that one might ‘compensate’ by actually accentuating the puniness of one’s wrist with a massive clock on top of it is misguided if not pathetic. Just deal with who you are, I’ld think.

Fortunately indeed there are … (a) … a large number of viable vintage options around, which tend to be more in say the 31-37mm range; (b) … increasingly brands that do veer back from the oversizing madness: 36mm is definitely back in the picture, along with 37-39mm; © … if need be unisex or even ‘for females’ labeled watches to consider, why not? Just wear what you like and fits well! (d) … certain somewhat larger (eg dive/Flieger/…) watches that by their purpose and/or proper design (eg of the lugs) sort of work on smaller wrists.

I think it’s more about what you feel comfortable. For me I don’t give a shit what people think. I wear between 22 and 55mm, I had a few woman watches so I share wearing with my wife.

I also don’t care about what you’re wearing. I don’t like however when most people here see a + 39mm and automatically go “deym it’s to big”. I personally hate small watches and a 38mm is already too small for me. I also don’t like to see such a small watch on a man’s wrists.

But I never even once commented or said “it’s too big for you” here. That’s why I can’t stand the way people complain about watches being too big. And it’s way more usual to see people complain about watches being big than otherwise. Here or on YouTube.

Just wear whatever you feel comfortable with and please don’t come to me “snobby” and tell me (or others) that their watch is too big.

Nobody in the real world cares about the size of your watch. If they did then Invicta wouldn’t have any success selling their massive monstrosities.

Wear what you want, but if you’re talking about actual women’s watches (i.e., watches in the 20mm range), hopefully you wear dresses cause otherwise they’re not gonna look good with anything else you wear. Actual women’s watches are more jewelry than watch.

I mean we live in a time where straight men are wearing dresses and the fashion powers to be are totally ok with it. I think you can wear a woman’s watch. There are plenty that are unisex in styling, or go all out with pink diamonds if you want.

As with anything, wearing a watch comes with some unwritten rules and advices.

I like to compare it with clothes. Sure you could go everywhere in your pyjamas. But you mostly don’t because clothing in society comes with some rules.

You may break them, and more power to you if you do and if you’re feeling better that way. No one has a right to tell you otherwise because ultimately we’re talking about things that don’t really matter.

But that doesn’t mean those rules and advices should be disregarded, especially if you’re starting to learn about a hobby.

Yes, if you have a small wrist, you might want to wear smaller watches. That’s the advice, and a good one because it will most likely suit you better.

As the saying goes, you don’t break rules before understanding them.

I have a 6.5-6.7 inch wrist and I agree, a good fit is important. However I do own a junghans chronoscope and a king turtle lol. The junghans is 40mm I believe but the lugs are super tiny, like it’s difficult to attach a single pass strap. Because of the short lugs I think pretty much anyone could pull off a junghans. Same with the turtle, small lugs make it wearable

I think my point is that lug to lug is way more important than dial size

I have skinny wrists and 38-39 mm is probably the sweet spot for me. But unfortunately they don’t have the seamaster that I really like in that size. So i wear what I have, because I like the look of the watch and even though its a bit bigger than I would prefer, its not a total faux-pax for a diver to be on the bigger side.

This is going to trigger another rash of hyper insecure “is my watch too big” posts

I much prefer the 38mm-42mm range, and don’t really like smaller watches, despite them being in trend, unless they are vintage.

I also don’t care for watches much bigger than that. 43mm-44mm seems a little oversized to me. That said, there are a few higher watches in that range that I really like and would consider that just aren’t available at smaller sizes (for example, IWC 43mm pilot, Moser Pioneer, Omega World Timer).

Are you kidding me ? People in this sub have a hard on for small watches. Just look at all the posts about the tiny PRX launch and the microscopic Cartier Tank.

Wear what you want. Others will wear what they want. No one will usually notice anyway.

I quit worrying about everyone else. If they like it, fantastic.

Until 2000s male watches used to be 34mm, chronographs included (check the magnificent Blancpain ones). Things have changed in the last twenty years, teaching the current, non sensical situation, probably to please vulgar customers who wanted to show off their expensive products. Therefore no worries and get a “woman” model if it fits you better.