Square and rectangular faces are where Gucci feels most like a piece of jewelry, and this is the largest group in the edit. There are two families here, G-Frame and G-Flat, and they behave quite differently.

 

The G-Frame watches are the narrow ones. The G-Frame Watch, 14mm x 18mm is tiny, closer to a bracelet with a clock in it than a watch in the usual sense. The G-Frame Watch, 14mm x 34mm and the G-Frame Rectangular Watch, 14mm x 34mm are longer and slimmer, which reads sleek under a blazer or a trench cuff. The G-Frame Square Generation Watch, 14mm x 18mm is the square version of that small idea. I like these for people who find a classic watch heavy, since a narrow case barely registers on the wrist.

 

The G-Flat watches come in 24mm, 30mm and 36mm, and the three sizes change the mood completely. The G-Flat Watch, 24mm is the quiet one, the kind you wear with a slip dress and forget about. The G-Flat Watch, 30mm is my middle choice, big enough to read at a glance and small enough to stack with a bangle. The G-Flat Watch, 36mm is the bold one, and I would pair it with tailoring and a plain white shirt, where a square face looks deliberate. The G-FLAT watches in capital letters are the same idea in the same three sizes.

 

A small test: a rectangle follows the line of your forearm, while a square sits against it. If you move your hands a lot at a desk, try the rectangle first, because it tends to lie flatter under a keyboard cuff.

The last group is the one with the most Gucci codes in it. Horsebit, Interlocking G and Model 2000 are all here, plus a couple of newer shapes, and the cases run from round to the horseshoe curve of the Horsebit.

 

Start with the Model 2000, since it is where Gucci watches began. It launched in 1972, and Wikipedia, citing Guinness World Records, says it broke the record for selling more than one million units in two years. The Model 2000 Watch, 24mm here is the small, dainty version of that history, and it is a good first Gucci watch if you wear a lot of thin chains. The Horsebit Watch, 27mm x 23mm and the Horsebit Bracelet Watch, 27mm x 23mm are my choice for loafers and a trench, because the hardware echoes a shoe I already own in my head. The Interlocking G Watch, 29mm and the Interlocking Watch, 29mm have the double G on the face and feel a little more dressed up.

 

Then there are the sportier ones. The Dive Watch, 36mm is the big round option here, the 6.3" Play Watch, 28mm is named by its strap length, so check that number against your wrist before you fall for the look, and the Play Bangle Bracelet Watch, 28mm comes with interchangeable bezels. The 25H Watch, 30mm is the modern one in the group. Revolution Watch says the 25H Skeleton is only 8mm thick, which is a useful reminder that a good watch can be slim and still look confident.

 

What I would skip: a big dive-style case if your wrists are narrow and you mostly wear fitted sleeves, and any watch whose strap length you have not measured against your own wrist. Do not buy a Play watch on looks alone, because a strap that is too long or short will bother you every single day.

 

If you like a watch that reads like a boyfriend piece, the grid after these is where I would look: the 38mm and 40mm cases, the 25H, and the bracelet watches set with diamonds.

Gucci's watches did not start in Florence. Europa Star tells the story: a Belgian-born watch salesman named Severin Wunderman persuaded Aldo Gucci to order watches bearing the Gucci name, and when his employer struggled to deliver them, he set up his own company in 1972 to make them himself. He spent the next 25 years building that business. The watches were made in Lengnau, near Bienne in Switzerland, and by the early 1990s more than a million Gucci watches a year were leaving there. Wunderman sold them mainly through department stores rather than traditional watch jewelers.

 

That era is what this grid is. The change-bezel bangle is the one people remember, a gold-plated cuff with a set of colored rings that twist on and off, and Watchonista notes the house has since relaunched the 1100L version of that idea as the Gucci Play. One of these comes as a complete set in its box. The 1500L bangles in silver tone are slim and modern looking, the 6100L is a long rectangle on a chain bracelet, and the 9200L, dated 1993 by its seller, and the 2700.2.L are the gold-tone dress watches. The 8500L, sold as the Large TV for its screen-shaped steel case, is the one I would wear every day, and the 1800L is the simplest of the silver tones. The small gold-plated watch with a green and red dial borrows the house web stripe. For a bigger statement, the 1980 Horsebit Signoria in 18K gold with a tiger's eye dial and the 18K gold tank from the late 1970s or early 1980s are the serious pieces.

 

My test for a vintage quartz watch: ask the seller when the battery was last changed and check that the reference number on the case back matches the listing.

 

What I would skip: any watch with diamonds added after it left the factory. It changes the piece, and rarely for the better.

Here is how I would choose. Pick a shape first: round for the calmest look, rectangular for the sleekest, square for the boldest, and Horsebit if you want the house code on your wrist. Then read the case size in the name, and hold it against your wrist bone in the mirror.

 

One practical thing before you buy: check the product page for the movement. A quartz movement runs on a battery, while an automatic winds itself from the motion of your wrist. That tells you if you will be changing a battery or wearing it often enough to keep it moving.

 

Revolution Watch reports that Gucci watches are designed at the Gucci watch headquarters in Neuchatel, with assembly and diamond-setting at the Kering watch manufacture in La Chaux-de-Fonds, and that the dials come from Gucci's own facility in Besazio, Ticino. I like knowing that, but I still buy a watch because I love how it sits on my arm. Try it with your sleeves, your bracelets and your bag strap, and choose the one you keep glancing at in the mirror. If you want to keep browsing, I also put together Garmin Watch and Rolex Watch Dupe.