A watch can say a lot about a gentleman. His values, his personality, his place in life.

Be it vanity, social-proof, general fashion conscientiousness or for real-world, no-looking at your smartphone, practical time keeping – there have never been more options and opportunities for timepiece shopping in Perth City.

From top-of-the line luxury brands to smartwatches, sports and active-friendly designs- there’s a style and brand for every man about town.

Our journey starts in one of Australia’s most prestigious highstreets, King Street, Perth City.

Watches of Switzerland

I began my Perth watch odyssey at Watches of Switzerland on 38 King Street.

At Watches of Switzerland, you’ll experience one of Perth’s most comprehensive collections – some of the best-known and most aspirational brands found anywhere.

This is the most dedicated, high-end store in Perth; top of the list for any gentleman remotely interested in purchasing a watch, or at least window shopping.

The store is home to brands like Rolex, Breitling, Cartier and Tag Heue. Watches of Switzerland is also Perth’s exclusive dealer for Panerai, IWC, Hublot and Jaeger-LeCoultre.

The sales staff are extremely friendly, helpful and beautifully presented. This is a popular destination for tourists and discerning locals alike, with many customers hailing from overseas destinations.

Georg Jensen 

Still on King Street, you’ll find the esteemed Georg Jensen store – a fine store with luxury men’s watch brands mixed with other amazing, aesthetic designs. A Scandinavian brand, these watches promised a meeting of minimalism with bold style.

The friendly staff showed me to the beautiful Georg Jensen range of men’s watches.

These were really works of art.

I discovered the Koppel range of watches – with large faces, some with slightly bulging glass fronts, with a variety of leather straps to suit every preference.

The Delta range of watches were either sports orientated, or smaller time pieces with leather straps or steel bands for more conservative activities.

Hardy Brothers

The Australian owned Hardy Brothers store stands proudly on King Street, right up there with their more international competitors. The Hardy Brothers staff were really relaxed, professional and extremely happy to chat.

The store is about to undergo a major renovation. A new storey will be completed in 2016, with the top level home to a large floor space primarily dedicated to Omega. I was also told negotiations were underway in Switzerland (at Basel World no-less) to bring more brands onboard as the Australian operation makes an aggressive play in the Perth marketplace.

Brands in-shop include Baume & Mercier, Buben & Zorweg, Breitling, Bell & Ross, Ebel, Longiness, Oris, Omega and Zenith.

I arrogantly asked to see the most expensive watch in store and I was not disappointed.

In fact, I may have found the last of a very special edition Zenith watch.

Valued at over A$70,000, the Pilot Type 20 Tourbillon Tribute was made specifically to tantalize rare watch aficionados in Australia. The piece is dedicated to the great Charles Kingsford Smith, containing 48mm of titanium and a rose gold case, featuring the Southern Cross, Federation star and a tourbillion (used to counter the affect of gravity on the accuracy of the watch).

What a beautiful, rare and remarkable site it was.

Tiffany and Co

Before we leave King Street, we had a quick look at Tiffany and Co. – because how often do you get the excuse to?

The classic New York style icon, T and C have been pushing the boundaries of watchmaking for some time, their latest luxury item is the Tiffany CT60.

The CT60 is a vintage design, the watch typeface is really compelling, displaying numerical minutes and hours, and months of the year alphabetically, with role gold, white soleil finishing’s, this was a treat to handle.

Versions that caught the eye include the Arlas 3-hand inspired by the Atlas clock on Fifth Avenue, New York and another remarkable design was the Tiffany ‘East West’ 2-hand model a 42 x 25 mm watch with alligator strap.

Culture Kings

Let’s go down-town for some real culture.

Ballers and street brawlers will want to head to Perth’s only Culture Kings for your watch needs.

The popular Aussie-brand is always packed with shoppers, so you’ll need to ask the staff at the counter nicely about looking at the brands on sale. You’ll discover a range of watches designed for an active lifestyle, or for a more relaxed way of going about your day.

Brands you’ll find at Culture Kings include Meister for casual play, G Shock and Tendence for very active, sports orientated lifestyles, Simple Watch Co, 9Five, Nixon, Carre and Casio – brands with designs typically for days involving relaxed leisure activities.

City Beach

The guys at City Beach have a large and comprehensive cabinet of sports watches, specially for water sport fanatics, skaters and generally outdoorsy highly active activities, from skydiving to deep sea diving.

We also found Perth’s biggest collection of Nixon watches from gold watches at around $7000 down.

City Beach, as you would expect, stock a number of popular surf brands like Rip Curl and Quicksilver (starting from $89).

Rip Curl had a range of watches specifically targeted at surfers, which include in-build GPS tracking device for monitoring your time in the chop – these were selling for $500.

We also found street brands like Zoo York, Adidas and TW Steele.

You’ll find a great range of sturdy looking and colorful watches for those who undertake extreme physical activities outdoors, G Shoc (selling from $250) and Lucia (starting from $50) brand watches were there.

Fossil

One of the world’s most famous brands, Fossil has a great range of vintage inspired watches for the various weekly scenarios – from sports watches, to everyday working day watches, mechanic time pieces for leisure.

Fossil’s watches are typically crystal-coasted and often come with leather bands. The Fossil philosophy for watches seems to be for the every-man, care-free type.

Price start from $229 to $1,500.

Apple

Let’s go smartwatch shopping! Apple’s early generation smartwatch range can be found in the middle of the Apple Store on Hay Street.

A typically friendly and nerdy Apple sales staff member will happily take you through the range and impressive capabilities of the Apple Watch.

The Apple watch range of designs is actually quite significant – from sports focused, health app designs to gold plated luxury versions. The sports models start from about $300 to the gold watched that can be up to $17,000. The designs range from heights of 38 and 42 millimeters.

David Jones

David Jones in Perth City tends to stock middle-of-the-range to high-end watches, starting from $100 for a Timex sports watch, through to the most expensive Gucci brand watches at around $1,400.

The staff are knowledgeable and engaging, I highly recommend you make the David Jones stop part of your watch shopping journey in Perth City.

Brands on display at David Jones Perth include TW Steele, Calvin Clien, Gucci, Michael Kors, Frederique Constant, Timex, Gant, Skagen, Armani Exchange, Emporio Armani and Diesel.

Myer

You’ll find a busy and comprehensive watch selection at ground level at Myer Perth City.

Be it a gift for someone else, or something for yourself, the range is quite good and there are a lot of brands to choose from. Casio, Citizen, Diesel, Daniel Wellington, Karl Lagerfield, Lacoste, Seiko, Jag, Huge Boss, Guess, Gift Box, Skgen, Michael Kors, Tommy Hilfinger, Timex and Trend Nathan.