Protection racket: most contemporary watches are built to take a knock

Bull bars on cars started getting popular in the 1950s. At first they were a practical way to keep wildlife from embedding itself in your grille, but because some people thought they looked cool, they became fashionable.

Incredibly, protective steel bars on watches came along a lot earlier than the automotive versions. Before the dawn of the 20th century, the watch was a delicate item carried in the breast pocket. Then with the outbreak of WW2, the watch became a vital piece of battle kit and needed to get tough quickly. Most early war watches were pocket watches that were adapted by adding wrist straps and rudimentary protective bars across the face.

As watch companies started making watches specifically for the wrist, they began to think of ever more ingenious ways to keep them safe, and war was not the only motivator. In 1931, Jaeger-LeCoultre made the Reverso, a watch where the whole case flips over to keep the dial side protected during particularly vigorous games of polo. The watch continues to be a big seller today.

Improvement in material technology over the past century means that watches are no longer the fragile flowers they once were. It is hard these days to find a watch without a decent level of water resistance. And most decent ones have scratch resistant sapphire crystals that can take a knock.

Pro tip

In the unlikely event you choose a watch not fitted with bull bars, it is important to consider the quality of your glass. Scratch resistant sapphire crystal is really the only choice to go for and most decent watchmakers know it is well worth the extra cost. Various types of reinforced glass are second best, but avoid acrylic as it is only marginally more scratch resistant than a decent bar of soap.