Women's multicolored elastic watch Ernest E64001

A stretch watch strap you pull on one-handed

Anyone who has fiddled with a small buckle while holding a bag will see the point of this one straight away. There is no buckle on the Ernest E64001 and no pin to line up. The flat band stretches open and springs back, so the watch goes on with your free hand, and it sits wherever you push it on the wrist instead of at the nearest buckle hole.

Fit without a buckle

Because there is nothing to adjust, the band copes with a fairly wide range of wrists on its own. It lies flat rather than hanging loose, and the printed surface runs right round, so no plain underside shows when it turns. If that way of wearing a watch suits you, the rest of the pull-on range carries other dials on the same kind of band.

What the printed dial of this elastic watch shows

The face is printed edge to edge, not set with stones or applied markers. Against a coral ground sit round medallions in blue, green, purple and yellow, each outlined in black as though painted separately. Twelve black Arabic numerals are drawn over the medallions rather than between them, in a deliberately uneven script, and three slim silver hands sweep across the whole face. A silver-coloured case with a thin polished bezel frames it, and a small orange dot on the crown is the only colour that escapes the dial itself.

Colours that sit well with it

Instead of matching the watch to an outfit, work the other way round and pick one colour out of the dial. Coral is the obvious one, and it reads as a warm neutral against denim. Blue and green are the quieter choices, and they let the medallions read as a pattern rather than a clash. Black and white clothing does something different again, since the print then supplies all the colour on that arm. What rarely works is a second strong pattern on the same side of the body. Ernest brings the same appetite for print to the rest of its range, so other printed dials from the label come in both louder and quieter palettes.

Keeping the print sharp at a desk

Almost all the wear on a printed band is picked up at a desk. It rubs along the edge while you type, it catches the cuff of a jumper, and it gets soaked at the office sink because nobody takes a watch off to wash their hands. Push it a few centimetres up the forearm before you turn the tap on and the soaking stops. A dry cloth at the end of the day takes care of the desk rub and the cuff snags, and the watch is best stored flat afterwards, out of the sun, rather than folded into a bag pocket.