How to pair your accessories with your watch

Of all the accessories and jewellery that we come to own throughout our lives, watches are often some of the most sentimental. Passed down through the generations or gifted for a milestone birthday or engagement, a nice watch can come with as much meaning as it does style. Of course, with blocks of colour, statement materials and contemporary aesthetics, there is also a time and place for watches to be worn as a fun way of expressing your personality - worn alone as a single statement or teamed up with a pair of timeless cufflinks, a statement necklace or a cuff bracelet.

Whether you prefer wearing a special timepiece or experimenting with more playful designs, the team here at Alice Made This have put together these tips for pairing your accessories with your watch – ensuring that you coordinate your watch in a way that complements rather than overshadows it.

We will also be discussing whether you can mix your metals when it comes to wearing jewellery. For example, is it acceptable to mix your gold watch with a silver bracelet? Or a silver watch with a pair of copper cufflinks. Our founder Ed Walsh and fashion consultant Melanie Walker share their thoughts.

Create every day statements with utilitarian details

Known as much for calculators and musical instruments as they are for watches, Japanese brand Casio are the epitome of retro cool. With its unmistakable display window and authentic 80s feel, a Casio watch is proof that our can accessories can be paired with an everyday utilitarian watch as much as a heritage item – by him or by her. Here we’ve paired ours with one of our Mia statement rings.

Pair simple cufflinks with a family timepiece

From the 1990s, this Tag Heuer watch has a mid-sized face that sits compactly and comfortably on the wrist. It has six essential characteristics: water resistance (water resistance up to 200 meters), unidirectional rotating bezel, luminescent hands and indexes, screwed crown with double seal to ensure water resistance, double safety clasp and anti-scratch sapphire crystal. These features are part of Tag Heuer’s brand DNA and are illustrated in the 1991 advertising campaign "Do not crack under pressure”. We’ve matched the minimal silver tones with a pair of Oliver steel cufflinks.

Elevate an unmistakable design with engineered finishes

An early 2000 Rolex Submariner, this timepiece was designed for diving and was launched in 1953. It was the first watch to be waterproof at a depth of 100m and is one of Rolex’s classic designs. Here we’ve highlighted the watch’s beautiful form by choosing the matte silver tones of our Bancroft ring, bracelet and cufflinks.

Maximise on minimalist vibes

One of our contemporaries, Uniformwares specialises in functional and wonderfully paired back watch designs. Gender neutral and offering a warm white palette, we’ve accessorised Alice’s watch with our Oscar silver bracelet and Tio silver ring to create an architectural combination.

Don’t be afraid to be bold in monochrome

Champions of the Made in Britain movement, Instrmnt have an impeccable attention to detail and know that less can so often be more. Giving you a sneak peek of one of our upcoming Signet rings (more information to follow very soon), we’ve kept things simple with this all black design, letting the watch speak for itself.

Be bold with the petite

This Zenith manual wind ladies watch is both delicate and feminine. From the late 50s/ early 60s, this 9ct gold timepiece reflects Zenith’s founder, Georges Favre-Jacot’s, admiration of architects including his friends Le Corbusier and Alphonse Laverrière. We’ve contrasted the simple and polished 9ct gold of the watch with the textures and graphic profiles of our Anning bracelets and a stack of our Anning and Kitson rings.

Opt for a patterned strap

This beautiful Heuer watch comes with its own interesting story. The Heuer Autavia GMT 2446C watch that Ed wears here was given by Stanley Kubrick to his assistant Director Derek Cracknell as a thank you for his work on A Clockwork Orange and was purchased by one of Ed’s closest friends. This model was also worn by Red Arrows Pilots in the London to Sydney air race in the late 60s and early 70s. Here we’ve picked out the silver tones of the watch with a stack of our Bancroft cuff bracelets in a variety of widths.

Mix your metals

One of our favourite watches from this week’s shoot, this Breitling 765 Avi watch was owned by a British commercial airline pilot and was produced around 1966. To create an elegant contrast with the monochrome palette, circular details and silver tones, we have paired the watch with a stack of our thin, refined Bancroft gold bracelets.

Stack your watch and your bracelet

This exquisite Military Omega 1953 Thin Arrow watch is one of 5,900 wristwatches ordered by the British Air Ministry during the midst of the Cold War. This limited-edition watch was manufactured to the precise specification of The Air Ministry and was originally issued with “Thin Arrow” radium dials. These dials however were considered too dangerous by the MOD and were therefore recalled and redialled with safer Tritium “Fat Arrow” dials. Today, these 5,900 watches are referred to as the “53 Omegas”. Ed has accessorised this example with a pair of Alexander copper cufflinks as well as stacking it with one of our Harland copper bracelets.

In the Alice Made This studio, our signature style and language is all about experimenting with different juxtapositions. Combining the industrial with the refined, the textured with the polished, the engineered with the simple, our collections explore the idea of taking something raw and imperfect and pairing it back to create men’s accessories and women’s jewellery that are both minimal and precise.

But, one area that often sparks debate when it comes to contrasts and oppositions is mixing metals – particularly when it comes to watches and cufflinks.  Can you style silver with gold and rose gold when you’re putting an outfit together or should you stick to just one material? Does it depend on the occasion or the accessories in question? What are the rules and is it best to bend them sometimes?

To dive into this debate a little bit further, our co-founder Ed Walsh sits down with fashion consultant Melanie Walker to discuss their takes on mixing your metals. Melanie was one of the original core team working directly with Victoria Beckham to create her brand, finally stepping away from the business where she was Head of Collections for RTW to consult within a limited number of clients on an international basis across all elements of brand building.

Ed Walsh says…

“My go to pairing for a daytime look is a copper bracelet with a silver ring. I’ll play around with the different finishes and maybe go for a matte finish on the ring with a polished copper bracelet. If you’re putting together a casual look, I think mixing metals with stacking bracelets looks great, especially our base metal cuff bracelets. I love combining one of our thin Bancroft silver blasted bracelets with an even thinner gold one – the contrast of the 2mm and the 4mm widths go really nicely together and the bracelets almost sit over each other in places. It’s a brave combination without being too overbearing.”

“You can even opt to go bigger with the bracelets, mixing the Bancroft silver blasted with the Maxwell copper for a wider cuff. It all comes down to finding the right combination of the blasted, matte and polished bracelets to suit your personal style and not being afraid of choosing different widths in different metals.”

“I would say though that for a wedding I usually stick with gold, choosing a pair of timeless gold cufflinks and a gold bracelet for a minimal and clean look. My watch is generally always silver so it’s quite nice to play around with the gold tones for a special occasion.”

Melanie Walker says…

“I’d say I usually mix rose gold with silver as I think it makes a look more casual. I love the Anning ring for the daytime as it’s nice and compact whereas I’d wear the Ava in the evening. For a statement, I love the Bayley salmon pink earrings paired with the Esme gold necklace and a stack of silver rings to mix in with the gold.”

“I’d suggest finding what works on your own hands when it comes to rings. With smaller rings, I like wearing three and mixing the silver, rose gold and gold together. With the cocktail rings however, which are more of a statement, I’d keep to one colour as they are so bold. A gold statement ring on one hand and then a stack of silver on the other hand looks really lovely. When I’m not wearing a watch, I think that a thicker bracelet in a gold or a rose gold on one wrist and then a thinner silver bracelet on the other looks good too. The Oscar has been my go to lately.”

“For a wedding, it really depends on the outfit. If I was wearing something patterned then I’d choose gold jewellery, but with a navy dress I might go for some of the Patina pieces as it’s nice to have a texture. Wearing two of the earrings in one ear at once, combining the silver and the gold, is fun too. I think it’s good to have something that’s flat and something that’s textured when you’re mixing metals.”

Whether you are keen to mix your metals, and pair your silver pieces with a rose gold or a gold detail, or are looking for pieces in a single tone, you can browse our full collection of men’s accessories here and women’s jewellery here. For more inspiration, and to see how we have been mixing our metals and styling our watches, follow us on Instagram @alicemadethis. 

Photography by @janelookerphotography

Plus, if you tag your photos with #myamt #alicemadethis then you could be in with a chance of winning a voucher to spend in our online store. If we share or repost your picture, then you’ll be one of our winners. We’d love to see how you are wearing your Alice Made This jewellery.