How to do jewelry as a man

As a man, jewelry can be a completely foreign world. Some men go all out with ostentatious bling, while for most guys it is just a wedding band and a Timex. Here's how to add a little bit of flash and keep it tasteful and masculine.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• A bit of cash
• Patience
• Decent judgment of sales people

1. Realize your goals in acquiring jewelry. Are you trying to impress at a high school reunion, or are you trying to add some polish to your appearance.

2. Begin by looking at casual dress watches. Most will feature leather or stainless steel bands and stainless steel cases. Unless you are paying upwards of four figures any gold you find will be plate, and even many higher end manufacturers such as Movado and Tag Heuer use gold plate on pieces in the low four figure price range, though the quality of plate will be much higher.

3. Go to a large jewelry mega store and say you are looking for a (fill in the blank) watch. Pick an expensive yet obscure and hard to find model like an Omega Seamaster Deville. When they say they don't carry it have them show you offerings from other high end Swiss manufacturers. Look at the details and note what you like. Milk the sales people for information while resisting the urge to buy on the spot.

4. Go to a more reasonably priced retailer and look for watches in the low to middle price range from manufacturers like Fossil, Seiko, and Invicta and find a watch in a look you like with a quality of manufacture on par with the more expensive pieces from the jewelry mega center.

5. Consider an automatic winding timepiece, the action of the second hand will be smoother than on a quartz watch and it will not require batteries. Also consider sports chronographs and diver's models. Divers tend to be made more ruggedly than most others watches while still maintaining a clean look.

6. Buy a nice pen. Sterling silver works. Cross makes excellent pens and are a standard tool in upper management and executive circles. It adds an impressive touch when you offer it to to a client or colleague in need of a tool to scrimshaw their mark on the dotted line.

7. For casual wear consider getting a sterling silver necklace. Crucifixes are popular options as are other religious emblems. Also an option is a fairly heavy sterling silver figaro-type chain necklace in sterling silver. It is the kind with the flattened links of sizes and this sort can be found at Wal-mart for not all that much.

8. As you rotate out your things that wear out consider accessories like money clips and golf tool key chains that are shiny in general.

Tips & Warnings

• Other suitable yet affordable metals for many men's accessories and jewelry items include titanium and tungsten. Titanium is a little softer a duller than steel while tungsten is harder and shinier.
• If you have the money and find platinum overdone, Rhodium is the ultimate jewelry metal, but it has a price floating around $10,000 an ounce as of early 2008. It is hard, wear resistant and carries a supreme shine, but it is out of almost anyone's price range to do much with beyond plating or accents.
• Avoid plated metals in items that will be used frequently. Even the thickest plates can wear.