Today we take the time to check out 2 very stylish Tommy Bahama men’s analog fashion watches and see how many cheesy watch puns we can fit in along the way. If you’re looking for a watch that’s comfortable, pleasing to the eye, and will help to keep you running on time for all of your important appointments, read on for the full details of these fun and funky Tommy Bahama chronographs.
What’s in a Tommy Bahama Fashion Watch?
The two watches I’m looking at today are the Tommy Bahama 45mm Men’s Analog Fashion Watch with Leather Strap (black) and the Tommy Bahama 46mm Men’s Analog Fashion Watch with Leather Strap (black). Since these watches can largely be distinguished by their colour, I will hereafter refer to them mostly as green or black. Lets quickly run down some of the key specs of each watch before I tell you about my own experience wearing them.
The green watch features a stainless steel kettle shaped case with a 46 mm diameter, a 12 mm case thickness, and a high polish finish. Its curved lugs make it wear slightly smaller than its actual size, so it works for both large and smaller wrist sizes. There’s also a convenient date window between the 20 and 25 minute markers, and the heavy duty leather strap has white contrast stitching for a little added style. This watch also features a Quartz movement, which provides highly accurate timekeeping and fewer moving parts than a mechanical or automatic watch (requiring little long-term maintenance aside from the occasional battery change). With 50 m of water resistance (which is pretty respectable for a chronograph), I wouldn’t recommend taking this watch anywhere near the water. Many people take water resistance ratings literally, but this is a serious mistake that you really need to avoid. It’s easy to find out what those ratings actually mean, and I would advise doing so if you want a watch that you can swim in. Incidentally, never activate the chronograph feature of any analog watch while under water. You’re just begging water to come into the case if you do so.
Speaking of chronograph watches, each of these models includes a chronograph feature. If you’re not familiar with the term, it’s simply a stopwatch feature that uses an extra second hand and small sub dials for counting off various time frames. For example, a sub dial may count off 30 or 60 minutes, and there’s typically one sub dial for counting off tenths or hundredths of a second. This way you can time events like races down to fractions of a second. Equally, you can time anything else that you wish, such as baking or cooking projects.
The black watch has a few key differences from the green one. First, there’s no date window on this watch, so if that is a feature that’s important to you, you may want to go with the green model instead. Other features of the black watch are its 45 mm case diameter, its 13 mm case thickness, and its slick black finish that makes it look both stylish and stealthy. This colour scheme carries over to the very soft and comfortable leather strap (which is much softer than the thick strap on the green watch). I wouldn’t say that the green watch is uncomfortable, because it’s not, but it’s not nearly as comfortable as the black watch. Some breaking-in time for the green watch’s strap should eventually equalize things.
Finally, the black watch also has 100 m of water resistance, which is really quite impressive for a chronograph. You may actually be able to shower, and possibly even swim, with this one, though I personally would advise never doing either of these activities with a chronograph, as these watches have 2 extra holes in the case (for the pushers) that make them that much more susceptible to water intrusion.
Watch Wearing
My experience wearing these watches went pretty much as one might expect—no major surprises. Both watches kept excellent time and were quite comfortable to wear (with the black one being super comfortable). Both watches also look really sharp, so it was a lot of fun to test them out. Although the black watch was the most comfortable to wear, the green was the one I spent the most time glancing at (and forgetting to check the time). Both watches also seem very solid and sturdy. Stainless steel cases will certainly do that for a watch. Overall, I really couldn’t complain about either of these watches, and I would gladly have worn them more/longer if given the opportunity.
It’s Time to Watch a Video:
Please take a couple of minutes to see these Tommy Bahama watches up close and personal. In this brief video overview, I show what the watches look like in detail and give you some of their key specs:
Final Thoughts
Since both of these Tommy Bahama watches feature Quartz timekeeping and are relatively comfortable to wear, I think that what it all really boils down to is which style do you most prefer? For me, the contest is practically a dead heat and I can’t easily decide which one I like best overall.
The green watch has the better dial, but the black is blessed with a more comfortable strap and increased water resistance. The green also has that useful date window, while the black has the cool PVD finish.
In any case, if you’re looking for a stylish and comfortable new watch that will help to keep you from being late for all your important appointments, I really don’t think you can go wrong with either of these watches.
The only type of person I wouldn’t recommend either of them to is someone with a bias against fashion watches in general.
Many watch collectors favour automatics and mechanicals over just about anything with a Quartz movement in it, and they’re especially critical of fashion watches, so neither of these pieces is likely to suit serious horology aficionados.
For everyone else—the rest of the watch wearing world, these watches are fun, fashionable, and they feel nice on the wrist. Wear them with pride and confidence!
