Ernest Liberty Floral Grey Watch

How this fabric strap watch fastens

Instead of a buckle and pin holes, the case sits on a continuous length of fabric. You lay the watch face on top of your wrist, cross the two ends underneath, bring them back up and knot them. A single knot holds for a normal day. A double knot is steadier on a narrow wrist. The loose ends stay visible, which is the point of the design: the strap reads as a scarf, not as a watch strap.

Grey ground, pink and white flowers

The print is small in scale, so it stays quiet from a distance and only shows its detail up close. Pink and white blooms sit across a mid grey ground, with gold-toned foliage filling the gaps. The dial stays well out of it: a white face, black numerals, slim silver-tone hands and a fluted crown at three o'clock, with the Ernest signature above the centre and the word quartz below it. Colour comes from the cloth, not from the case.

Sizing it to your wrist

Nothing here is notched, so the tension is set by hand every time you put it on. That suits a slim wrist and a wider one alike: the slim wrist takes up the slack in a second knot, while a wider one simply keeps the knot flatter. Worn high on the forearm, it reads as a cuff. Worn low, it behaves like an ordinary watch. Do not pull it tight, though. Fabric creases where it is stressed, and a knot pulled hard is awkward to undo one-handed.

What to wear it with

Grey behaves like a neutral, so denim, off-white, camel and navy all work with it. The pink shows up best against a pale or rolled-back sleeve rather than under a buttoned cuff. Against a printed blouse, leave the rest of your wrist bare and let the knot do the talking. The same idea comes in other colourways across the rest of the tie-on watches in the range.

Keeping the fabric clean

The fabric is what ages first: it picks up dust, perfume and hand cream long before the case shows anything. Dab the mark itself with a barely damp sponge, then dry the strap flat, away from a radiator. That deals with most of it. Keep water off the case, and untie the strap before you store it, so a crease does not settle in the same spot week after week.