Best gift for him under £250

Why this one

The hard part of buying a gift at this price is that almost everything in the bracket is either forgettable or a guess about taste. A mechanical watch is neither. It has no battery to replace — the 4R36 movement winds itself from the motion of his wrist, and can be wound by hand if it has been sitting in a drawer. That is the thing people react to when they open the box: it is a small machine, not an appliance, and it costs £200 rather than the £1,000 most people assume a mechanical watch starts at. Practically, it also removes the usual gift risks. The bracelet adjusts, so there is no size to get wrong. It is rated to 100 m, so it survives swimming and washing-up and being forgotten in the rain. And it is the most recognised watch in its class — 4.5 stars across several hundred reviews, and consistently one of the best-selling men's watches on the site — so it is not an obscure punt made on his behalf. Two honest drawbacks. The crystal is Hardlex, Seiko's hardened mineral glass, not sapphire: it resists knocks well but picks up fine scratches that a sapphire crystal would shrug off. And at 42.5 mm the case is generous — on a slim wrist it will read as a large watch. The steel bracelet is also the weakest part of the package, and a £25 leather strap transforms how it wears, which is not a bad second half of a present.

What it beat

• Citizen Eco-DriveNever needs winding or a battery, but it is quartz — accurate, and nobody opens the box impressed.
• Orient KamasuA sapphire crystal for similar money, and the better watch on paper. Harder to buy in the UK and unknown to the person receiving it.
• Timex MarlinThe prettiest of the four and genuinely charming, but hand-wound only and rated to 30 m, so it cannot be worn without thinking.
• A leather wallet or cardholderSafe and useful, and forgotten inside a month. A watch gets looked at every day.

Specification