Should You Take One Watch Or Several When You Travel?

I was halfway through packing for a few weeks in Europe when the question stopped me: how many watches does a trip like this actually require? Not how many I own or how many I could justify bringing. How many would I honestly reach for after packing them and finding myself standing in an airport queue, wondering if I had made the right call?

It is a small yet surprisingly loaded question, as the answer says something about how you actually use watches day to day, not just how you think about them sitting in a drawer at home. There is a real case for both approaches, and I have made enough mistakes to have a firm opinion now.

This has come about because I am embarking on a trip to Europe shortly. You see, I live in sunny Sydney, Australia, so a trip to Europe is a significant logistical undertaking. As part of this, I needed to determine which watch to take on my journey. I, for one, prefer the notion of simply wearing one watch, but I’ll explore the arguments for both strategies today. Let’s dive in.

The case for packing several

On paper, it’s easy to make the argument for bringing a small rotation of watches. A trip through several cities and a range of occasions — museums in the morning, a swim in the afternoon, dinner somewhere that expects a jacket — makes it hard for one watch to cover everything gracefully. A dive watch feels slightly out of place at a formal dinner, and a dress watch feels slightly precious worn into the sea. There is a strong argument that matching the watch to the moment is part of dressing properly for a trip, not an indulgence layered on top of it.

We also shouldn’t dismiss the simple joy in variety. Part of why most of us got into watches in the first place is the pleasure of choosing one each morning, and a long trip is exactly the kind of occasion that makes that ritual feel special rather than routine. Packing three or four watches lets a holiday feel like an extended version of that everyday pleasure rather than a pause from it.

The case for packing just one

Against all of that sits a much more practical set of concerns. Every additional watch is another item that can be lost, stolen from a hotel room, or simply forgotten on a nightstand as you rush to check out. Plus, travel insurance rarely covers a watch collection the way it covers the rest of your luggage. Airport security trays are not designed with a watch roll in mind, and neither is the process of explaining to a customs officer why your carry-on contains several thousand dollars of Swiss engineering.

There is also the matter of decision fatigue, a phrase that gets thrown around too easily but genuinely applies here. A trip already involves enough small decisions — which train, which restaurant, which museum is worth the queue — without adding “which watch suits today” to the list every morning. One watch removes an entire category of minor decisions from a trip that already requires plenty of them.

Water resistance decides more than people admit

This is where a single travel watch earns its keep in a way that rarely gets enough credit. A truly water-resistant watch removes an entire category of packing anxiety — no debating whether it is safe to shower with it on, no taking it off before a swim and hoping the hotel safe actually locks, and no separate travel pouch just for “the good watch” while a cheaper backup handles the pool. A single spec on a sheet quietly answers a dozen small daily questions before they even come up.

A watch rated to 100 or 200 meters can go from a museum to a shower or an unplanned dip in the sea without requiring a second thought. That single feature simplifies a trip more effectively than an entire rotation of specialized watches ever could because it removes the need to plan around the watch instead of simply wearing it and getting on with the day.

Why I land on one watch

I am firmly in the one-watch camp, and it comes down to exactly that reasoning. My daily drivers for trips like this are the Tudor Black Bay 58 in navy blue and the IWC Mark XV, and neither is a coincidence. The Black Bay 58 carries a 200m depth rating, more than enough to handle a hotel pool, an unexpected downpour, or a spontaneous swim without a second thought, while still looking entirely appropriate under a shirt cuff at dinner. It is, in a real sense, a watch built to be worn constantly rather than rotated in for specific occasions.

The Mark XV is a slightly different case. It is rated to 60 meters rather than 200, which rules out serious scuba diving but comfortably covers rain, hand washing, and the general daily wear and tear that a watch on your wrist for three straight weeks will encounter, regardless of the itinerary. It is not a dive watch pretending otherwise, and it does not need to be. What both watches share is a legitimate versatility across registers. They are both casual enough for a hike, smart enough for dinner, and robust enough that I don’t worry them after putting them on. That last point matters more than any other.

A good travel watch

A good travel watch should disappear into the background of the trip rather than becoming a small, ongoing management project. Bring several watches, and you inevitably spend part of each day thinking about which one to wear, whether it is safe to leave the others in the room, and how to fit a small padded case into an already full bag.

Bring one genuinely versatile piece, though, and the only decision left each morning is what to do with your day.

Concluding thoughts

None of this makes the multiple-watch approach wrong. Plenty of people travel happily with a small rotation and never think twice about it, especially on shorter trips where the logistics of a few extra watches barely register. For me, though, the entire appeal of a holiday is thinking less about logistics and more about actual living. A single water-resistant, versatile watch does more for that goal than any carefully curated selection ever has. The Black Bay 58 or the Mark XV goes on my wrist before I leave the house, and it stays there until I get home. Everything else about the trip gets to be the interesting part.

How about you? Do you take one watch or several when traveling? Let me know in the comments!