How to Wear a Pocket Watch

A wrist watch (one hopes) is a rather self-explanatory thing to wear. As the name suggests, it sits round your wrist. A pocket watch however, possesses a name which is a little more misleading, given that when wearing a pocket watch, you are not just wearing a watch which sits in your pocket, but which is also connected to either a chain, series of chains or a collection of chains and fobs, which often come with different fixtures and a large variety of potentially perplexing arrangements.

There has been something of a resurgence in the wearing of pocket watches over the last eighteen months or so, I've seen significantly more being worn on the street and more celebrities are embracing them as an unusual accessory for formal wear. I've also noticed more watches being worn at society functions too - a lot of watches were being worn as an accessory for morning dress at Ascot for example, a trend which I suspect will continue to gather pace this year. Having noticed that pocket watches are being worn a little more often than they were a few years ago, I have also noticed that very few, if any watch chains and fobs are worn correctly. This is a real shame, because wearing a pocket watch is such a clear symbol of one's intent to pay attention to their attire, that if worn incorrectly the elegant and effortless effect of dressing so well is eroded by inadvertent errors and faux pas.

With this in mind, I thought it'd be worth clarifying the different components and options for watch chains and fobs, and how they go together. The first thing to note, are that broadly speaking there are two different types of chains that can be worn with watches; the single or double Albert. The difference is obvious - one is a single chain running from buttonhole to watch pocket, the other two chains, one which runs from the buttonhole to the watch in its pocket, and the other to the opposite welt pocket on the other side of the waistcoat. Double-Albert chains are quite obviously more heavy and more dressy, so suit either larger figures or chunkier cut suits and waistcoats. I wear quite a small single-Albert because I find it doesn't over-power my waistcoats, given that I'm not an especially big chap. Low cut or slim waistcoats and slighter figures tend to suit single-Albert chains. Watch chains are known as 'Albert chains' because Prince Albert first popularised the wearing of fine silver chains from the button hole of his waistcoat, which he often attached to his pocket watches. 

I wear a single-Albert chain with a drop chain and ornamental fob, both the drop and Albert-chains are attached to the T-bar fastener which holds the watch in place, which allows both chains to fall from the waistcoat button hole.

Now, it gets tricky as we move onto discuss 'drops' and 'fobs'. A fob is a decorative pendant which is often attached to the drop, a shorter ornamental secondary chain which most commonly hangs from the button hole of the waistcoat in the same position as the Albert chain(s). Neither element is compulsory but it adds an extra element of dressiness to one's watch and gives the opportunity to add a personal touch to one's watch through the choice of pendant. Often, gold or silver encased precious or semi-precious stones can be used as fobs, but often decorative initialled silver or gold pieces, or even cast silver miniatures can be found. The fob I wear on my watch is a beautiful little antique silver lion, with his limbs outstretched, beneath which is suspended a small piece of cut topaz. I bought it for four pounds in an antique shop simply because I liked it, but apparently the lion is supposed to make me braver and the topaz will ensure that I will never be penniless. The jury's out on that.

The T-bar on the end of the watch-chain can simply be inserted through the buttonhole of choice, holding the watch-chain in place invisibly.

If you are wearing a drop chain with a fob on it, there are two ways to do so. One is to wear it hanging from the same link that the Albert chain hangs from, so that both fall from the chosen waistcoat buttonhole seamlessly, as is shown on my own chain above. Alternatively, you can hang a fob from the second chain of a double-Albert (the one which is not attached to the watch itself) this can either hang loosely, or be tucked into a second waistcoat pocket. Whichever option you might choose, its really down to personal preference and its worth experimenting to decide which option best suits your own personal style.

The final thing to consider, is the method of securing the watch chain to the waistcoat or lapel buttonhole chosen. There are commonly three types of fastener. The first and most common is a 'T-bar', which is simply a slim cylindrical bar which is inserted through the waistcoat buttonhole and hidden behind the waistcoat itself - simple enough and shown in the photograph above. Then, there are clips or hooks, which I've noticed many men hook to the button hole itself, so that the hook is visible and the chain does not appear to run seamlessly out of the buttonhole as it should. Hooks or clips should be clipped onto the inside edge of the waistcoat where the side which buttons fastens over the side which has the buttons sewn to it, so that the clip holds the chain in place invisibly on the under-side of the waistcoat. Once more, beneath is a photograph to help demonstrate this. The third method of fastening a chain to waistcoat is a button-ring, or a small ring which hooks around a waistcoat button, to which the chain is attached. Here too, the ring should be placed over a button before the waistcoat is fastened, allowing it to be hidden beneath the fastened waistcoat, and the chain run through the buttonhole with no sign of the button-ring visible. It may be necessary to un-clip the chain from the watch to run the chain through the button hole if using a button-ring or clip, but it is well worth doing so to produce the illusion of the watch chain seamlessly flowing through the chosen buttonhole.

Here, the clip on the watch chain is clipped onto the half of the waistcoat which is wrapped beneath the buttoning half, and then the chain run through the chosen button hole. The clasp is not hooked onto a button hole itself and should not be visible.

I am a great advocate of the pocket watch - it possesses a very rich sartorial history, having been the ubiquitous timepiece for tailored gentlemen for decades during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It brings with it the elegance and panache of a bygone era. A fine pocket watch also of course acts as a very elegant, unusual and yet affordable status symbol; both antique and modern pocket watches cost a fraction of wrist watches of comparable quality. When worn correctly, a pocket watch is a fine thing to behold and I hope that this explanation of how to treat a watch-chain and its fastening might be of use to those of you who hold pocket watches in high regard, as I do.