For men, accessories are often a bit of a conundrum. Anything that looks or feels like women’s jewelry can be suspect, and sometimes is tacky besides. But most guys already wear a watch, and now there’s a good way to bring some pop and life to your wrist without spending a fortune.

Ever since college, I’ve worn the same Fossil watch. Rectangular face, metal band, chronograph, silver face. It goes with basically everything, and gets me some compliments from time to time. But it’s kinda boring. So this weekend, I upgraded my watch game and my whole approach to accessories for sixty bucks.

First, I went to Target. They carry a very basic Timex watch with a partial leather band for $30. It comes with either a brown or black band; I chose the brown because the third (seconds) hand is red, giving a little bit of color to the white face and plain black numbers. Because it’s so basic, it’ll go with a lot. Plus it’s cheap and very classic; it’s not going to go out of style because it just ain’t stylish to begin with.

Then I went to Brooks Brothers. They sell nylon watch bands (with stainless steel and brass details) in a variety of colors that roughly correlate to their most popular and iconic necktie patterns. I grabbed two of them for $15 apiece.

A little bit of tooling around with the watch soon followed, and with the pins properly configured, I now have two different bright colors available for my wrist. Swapping the band out takes 30 seconds, tops. You can match the band to what you’re wearing, or provide some contrast to your outfit.

Another nice benefit is that it’s a lot lighter than my all-metal watch. It’s so light that I almost accidentally put my other watch on this morning because I didn’t notice I was already wearing the nylon banded Timex.

Alex already highlighted the personal touch in menswear. This is a great, practical way to bring something unique into your wardrobe.

-Rob Hays