Should You Wear a Watch to a Job Interview?

 Interviewing for a job can be a stressful situation. That’s why I’ve spent some time covering what types of clothing is appropriate. However, I wanted to take the time now and spend some time discussing watches and if you should wear a watch to a job interview.

Some people are definitely in favor of wearing a nice watch to a job interview, especially if you’re interviewing for a professional role in finance or sales. And even academia will have a slant towards people who wear watches on interviews.

But is this the right choice for everyone? That’s what we’re going to decide together.

As I like to say in my pieces, there is often times not a one size fits all decision. Sometimes it might be wise to wear a watch to a job interview, while other times you probably want to keep it at home.

Let’s look through some of the reasons why you would want to wear a watch to a job interview, as well as some types of jobs where watches might be a net positive to wear during the preliminary  interview.

Will a Watch Impress Your Interviewer?

The first thing to consider is if you’re wearing a watch to impress someone. If you normally wear a watch, then I would suggest that you do wear one to the interview.

However, if you don’t normally wear a watch, you might to wear one just for the job interview. The same logic applies to wearing a suit. While not everyone wears a suit as part of their daily business, it’s just basic interview etiquette to wear a suit for a job interview.

The same can apply to wearing a watch. You will want to wear a watch if you are interviewing for a job that is in a corporate setting where other co-workers will be wearing watches.

There are times when a watch won’t impress, or at least it won’t impress in a positive way. And I wanted to spend some time on this one.

If you’re applying for a entry level job in a office, or if you are applying for any sort of “blue collar” job such as a laborer, porter, doorman, or other facilities person, then you should be cautious about wearing too nice of a watch.

There have been situations when an interviewer would be jealous of a nice watch, or they might be turned  off of someone who is wearing too expensive a watch. These might be envious about wearing too expensive a watch, perhaps they can’t afford such a watch.

Also, there are interviewers who don’t want to hire people who dress “fancy” or professional for roles that are more labor related.

This is true for most blue collar roles. While some professions such as Nurses can get away with wearing flashy gold jewelry and diamonds, if you are in any other labor related role you should be cautious about dressing with too much jewelry or expensive watches.

What Sort of Job Needs a Watch?

Most jobs don’t require that you wear a watch. However, some jobs have dress codes that do prefer a professionally dressed person with a watch. These jobs would include any business level analyst, sales executive that deals with clients, and most finance roles.

Internally, nurses are one of the few professions where watches are still used in the day to day job. That’s why there are special watches made for nurses (these aren’t dressy professional watches but rather digital watches made by Timex or Casio).

To be clear, the corporate roles don’t require you wear a watch. Especially in the age of the cell phone where everyone has access to the time all the time. But there is a “look” that executives like and it does include a dress watch: Omega, Tissot, maybe Rolex, or some similar dress watch.

How Flashy A Watch Are We Talking About?

It’s important to know what we mean when we say “too flashy”. An expensive watch isn’t necessarily flashy. A patek philippe watch is one of the most expensive watches you can buy, but they are not flashy.

A rolex can be flashy. But most of the time when we are talking about flashy watches we’re talking about watches that are “iced out” or “blingy”. They need not even be expensive.

Brands such as Buvola, Invicta, Michael Kors, and yes Rolex all make watches that are loud and look flashy. They either have lots of real diamonds or a bunch of crystals that imitate diamonds.

It’s almost always inappropriate to wear a flashy watch to a job interview. It doesn’t matter what role you are interviewing for.

If you are interviewing for an Investment Banking role, and you show up wearing a flashy watch you’re going to get laughed out of the interview.

And if you show up for a regular office role with one of these flashy watches you will get nervous looks and people will think you’re too showy.

A classic Rolex dateajust or Rolex submariner is fine because these watches are not the kind of “flashy” that we need to guard against wearing.

The type of flashy watch that is inappropriate for a job interview is going to be anything that would be at home in

Can You Wear a Rolex to a Job Interview?

You certainly can wear a rolex to a job interview, however, it will likely strike your interviewer as a severe statement. So, make sure that it’s the kind of statement that you want to make.

If you walk into an interview wearing a rolex, then you are basically telegraphing that you have money or else you spend a lot of money.

That’s fine if you are applying for a job in the investment banking space, or in finance. It’s also good if you are applying for a job in sales. Sales roles, be they inside sales or outside sales, or even an account executive role, then it would be fine to wear a Rolex.

However, if you are applying for a job in a administrative role, or in a role where there is less call for one to be showy and wear expensive designer suits, then wearing a Rolex might send the wrong message.

It’s important to understand the impression wearing an expensive watch will give. If your interviewer does recognize that you’re wearing a Rolex, then they will know that you’re someone who at some point was inclined the spend a considerable sum on a watch.

If the interviewer doesn’t recognize the watch brand, then it’s not worth wearing it.

So, my advice would be to be quite sure when selecting an expensive watch, in particular a Rolex since they have more name recognition than other watches, that you are interviewing for a job where it won’t be held against you.

What Kind of Watch Should You Wear To a Job Interview?

This is a completely personal choice, and one that I don’t think is a proper subject for a recruiting blog. If you're looking for particular advice, this blog has an article which covers specific suggestions on which type of watch you should wear to a job interview.

However, I do have some advice for anyone who is interested in choosing a watch for a professional interview: keep it simple.

Don’t be flashy. That means don’t wear flashy Casio watches and don’t wear a flashy million dollar audemars piguet.

Flashy isn’t ever a good look for a job interview.

So, keep your watch choices in line with the type of job that you’re looking for.

A dress watch, or something that’s professional and not too flashy would be fine for most interviews.

A G-Shock or digital watch is really only a good idea if you’re working in the labor market or in the medical field.