Best Gifts for Men Under $250

Seiko's modern 5 Sports: a 100m water-resistant automatic in a diver-style case, with a day-date display and a movement that both hand-winds and hacks.

A mechanical watch is the classic gift at this budget for a reason: no battery ever, a machine wound by his own movement, and an object that will still be running in twenty years. This is the one to buy — the most-recommended first automatic there is, and unusually for a mechanical watch it is rated to 100 meters so he can swim in it. Wind it and set it before wrapping, and write one line explaining that it stops if it sits unworn.

Leatherman's best-known multi-tool: 18 tools including two knife blades, a saw, replaceable wire cutters and outside-accessible blades.

The buy-it-once version of a multi-tool. Eighteen tools including outside-opening blades that work without unfolding the pliers, replaceable wire cutters so the part that wears out can be swapped rather than binning the tool, and a twenty-five-year warranty Leatherman actually honors. It is heavy and bulky and it cannot go in hand luggage — so buy it for someone who is home more than they are in airports.

A dress watch with a domed crystal, applied numerals and an in-house automatic movement, on a leather strap.

If he wears a jacket to work or to dinner, a dress watch is the gap in his wardrobe and this is the best-looking way to fill it. The domed crystal is what does the work — it catches light like a vintage watch and lifts the whole thing well above its cost. Automatic and hand-windable, with an in-house movement. Low water resistance, so it comes off before the pool.

A waterproof e-reader with an adjustable warm front light and weeks of battery life.

The safest gift on this page for a man who reads, because it sidesteps the impossible problem of choosing a book for someone else. Weeks of battery and a screen that works in bright sunlight — neither is true of a tablet — and it is waterproof, so it goes in the bath and to the beach. The adjustable font size matters enormously to older eyes. A committed print reader may not want one, which is the only real risk.

A leather wallet built around an aluminum card case: a lever slides six cards out in a fan, and the metal itself provides RFID protection.

The wallet with a mechanism. A lever slides the cards out in a fan, the aluminum case protects them from bending and provides RFID blocking, and the leather outer can be replaced without replacing the card case. Practically it is a good wallet; as a gift the appeal is that it does something, which is why people who own one demonstrate it unprompted. Six-card limit, so count his cards first.

A pocket-sized percussive massage device with a few speeds and interchangeable heads.

Percussive massage devices are widely owned and rarely used, and size is why: the full-size ones live in a cupboard. This one is small enough to keep in a gym bag, which is the difference between using one and owning one. Quieter than the full-size guns. It has shorter reach, so it is hard to use on your own back, and it is not a medical device — not the right gift for an actual injury.

The classic thick-rimmed acetate frame, in original and new slightly slimmer shapes.

Sunglasses are a slightly brave gift because frames interact with faces, and this is the frame that suits the widest range of them. Acetate takes knocks better than thin metal, and the New Wayfarer runs smaller if his face is narrow. Buy from somewhere with a straightforward returns policy, and check he has not already got a pair — it is common enough that he might.

A leather folio holding a passport, boarding passes, cards, currency and a micro pen.

For someone who travels for work, this solves the thing that actually causes airport stress: documents in four different pockets. Passport, boarding passes, cards, currency and a micro pen in one leather folio, and it holds more than one passport so it works for a couple or a family. It is genuinely useless to someone who flies once a year, so this is a gift with a clear target.

A slim steel dress watch powered by Citizen's Eco-Drive technology, which runs on any light and never needs a battery change.

The alternative to the mechanical watch at the top of this page, and for many men the better one. Eco-Drive runs on light and never needs a battery replaced, so the most common reason a gifted watch quietly stops being worn never happens. Slim and dressy enough for an office, quartz-accurate, nothing to wind. Buy this instead of the Seiko if he wants objects to work and then be invisible.