These Watches Make the Best Graduation Gifts

It’s a time-honored tradition to give recent graduates a present that honors time. Not merely a symbol of accomplishment, the grad-gift wristwatch is also an object that inspires quiet reflection from the young scholar. It offers an opportunity to reflect on a past devoted to long hours of loving study and a future overwhelmed by decades of student-loan debt. Here are some choice Class of 2017 timepieces for the cap-and-gown set, however old they may be.

How can you resist procuring one of these Nomos Glashuette Club Campus series watches for the college-bound person in your life? They’ve got the word campus right there in the name. Their fresh faces are bookish but relaxed, and the arrangement of Roman and Arabic numerals provides a lively spin on the traditional California Dial. It’s a great accessory for procrastinating outside the library on a sunny day. The Club Campus (left) is 36 millimeters in diameter; the Club 38 Campus and Club 38 Campus Nacht are 38.5mm. It is free to engrave a message on the back, such as “Call Your Mother.” $1,500–$1,650