Issue #289 | The Best Budget Watches of 2023

The Best Budget Watches of 2023

With watch publication and seller Hodinkee, coverage usually doesn’t even happen unless there’s a piece involved starting at a couple thou—it’s often Rolexes, Cartiers, and more of the biggest names in horology at prices just as grandiose. But look at them now, making a bid at modesty with a roundup of wrist watches we can spring for without relying on an inheritance. This is the intel we need—how to spend a little and still get a hell of a lot, starting at $75.

Hodinkee

This Puffer Is Like Wearing a Sleeping Bag

[Partner] There are sleep sacks you can wear around the campsite to cook, chop wood, or do whatever it is you like to do in the great outdoors, but it gets a little cozy-chic to walk around in the bed you slept in. While standing, Proof’s hooded Powerfill down jacket is easily the best way to keep warm. It offers cocoon-levels of comfort with 90/10 duck down at 650 fill-power (some really solid numbers when the chill factor is in play) and a tough nylon shell that’s treated to keep cold, wet weather out. When the sun is shining, it packs down into its own sack, making it easy to tote—and deploy at a moment’s notice.

Don’t sleep on this jacket.

Luxury Stores Are Bursting With Unsold Stuff

It turns out, we went ham with spending on luxe goods during the pandemic, and now the brakes are being applied. “The boss of online luxury goods seller MyTheresa said the company is experiencing ‘the worst market conditions since 2008,’ and had 44 percent more inventory by the end of its latest quarter than a year earlier. Burberry is buying back unsold products from department stores,” reports the Wall Street Journal. One answer is to push goods to outlets, where inventory at slashed prices tends to move pretty quickly. But can one Band-Aid stop the bleeding?

Wall Street Journal

How to Care for Your Coat This Winter

Love your clothes, and they’ll love you back. A good coat, especially, can last a lifetime if cared for properly, and you’d be wise to give it the attention it deserves, since it was likely no small investment. For spot cleaning, there’s the cold soda water trick, where you gently dab a stain out. Going deeper, you can wash with white vinegar to remove strong odors, like smoke or mildew. Keep these tricks and more in your back pocket to maintain your beloved coats, and miles down the road they’ll return the favor.

Valet

Daniel Day-Lewis’s Best Outfits of All Time

You know him on-screen as Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood, or Bill the Butcher from Gangs of New York. But when he isn’t channeling a character, he’s curating ones of his own making. “Day-Lewis’s off-screen ensembles are as eccentric, referential, and as carefully curated as his roles,” says GQ. “Over the years, we’ve seen the British actor reinvent himself over and over again sartorially.” Recently, he donned double-knee Carhartts in a workwear version of himself, but across decades it’s been one reinvention after the next. These are the best ones.

GQ

• J.Press Shaggy Dog Sweater – $245

• Upstate Towel Bundle – $125

• The North Face Thermoball Mules – $59

• Wonder Valley Two Deserts Soap – $18

• Caswell-Massey Oaire Eau de Parfum – $200

Good style shouldn’t be a secret.

You’re clued in and looking tack sharp, thanks to Blazer. But that friend (or two) could stand to take some tips on style. Drop a hint and loop ’em in.