For the last year or so I’ve been wearing a men’s watch. I’d needed a watch, but hadn’t found any watches I liked; the men’s one was 75% off and it had three programmable timers, which is perfect for making sure I don’t forget my choice of three important daily schedule things. I bought it as something to fill the “Until I Find My Perfect Watch” gap, but then I kept wearing it and stopped looking for another one.

I’d imagined that this large men’s watch made my wrist look small and delicate in comparison. Then I saw a picture of myself wearing it, and realized that instead I look like a woman wearing a bulky and kind of ugly men’s watch. The quest is BACK ON.

Geneva Platinum Polished Swirl Cuff Watch (photo from Target.com), $19.99. This claims to be platinum, so I assumed that meant it looks silver, so I thought the picture must be a little off—until I found the one that really does look like silver, so I assume this one is more gold-like (which I’d prefer, as long as it’s light/realistic rather than the more usual hard bright brassy fake-gold color). I’m not sure if this style would bug me or not: I’m accustomed to a strap-style instead of a bracelet-style. And it’s only available online, so I can’t go try it on.

Women’s Croton Gold Bracelet Watch With Flower Dial and Tiger Eye (photo from Target.com), $79.99. This one is my style (I like gold, I like brown, I like flowers), but it’s more than I want to spend, and it looks completely decorative: no timers to alert me that oops, a child is still eating breakfast and the bus is coming in 2 minutes.

Timex Women’s Easy Reader Watch (photo from Amazon.com), $23.50. I think I’ve owned this watch two or three times already. It’s brown (I think black is too harsh with my skin tone), gold (I usually wear gold earrings and I like to match metals), and a good brand. But…I’m tired of it. And the gold that looks so light and realistic in the official shots is brassier in person (as you can see by the customer-provided photos on that listing).

Sprout Women’s Diamond-Accented Eco-Friendly Dark Green Corn Resin Watch (photo from Amazon.com), $39.99. There is no reason the combination of diamond-accented and corn resin should strike me as funny, but it does. This watch has all kinds of good qualities: green is one of my favorite colors; there’s no gold to maybe-look-brassy; I like the whole overall look of it. But I don’t think it would be a quick-visual improvement over my current bulky dark watch.

Russian Imperial Guilloche Watch (photo from MetMuseum.org), $145.00. Well, goodness, that’s just lovely, isn’t it? As it should be, for $145. But it has 14K gold overlay, so that should keep the gold from looking brassy, and it’s very very pretty.

Greek Palmette Watch (photo from MetMuseum.org), $70.00. Another very pretty one I probably won’t seriously consider because of the price. I love how from a distance it has a sort of tortoiseshell-brown look—that’s the color I usually choose for hair accessories.

French Evening Watch (photo from MetMuseum.org), $145.00. Okay, ONE FINAL WATCH from the Met, because ack! the pretty! I think with this one I would have to keep telling people it was a French evening watch, just so they’d know.

La Mer Bali Watch (photo from UrbanOutfitters.com), $140.00. I seem to have completely lost track of my price range, but I like how this one is a watch AND bracelets.

Double Case Leather Watch (photo from UrbanOutfitters.com), $34. This is the one I’d want if Paul had to spend extended time periods in another time zone, or if one of my kids goes far away to college. (Now I have lost track not only of my price range but of my MISSION, which is to get a watch for REALITY.)

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