9 Essentials Every Man Should Own

Nine essentials for men which they use every single day, usually own a version of, and only need to buy properly once. Nothing here costs more than ₹40,000.

There's a pattern to how most of us spend money. We agonise over the occasional big purchase the phone, the laptop and give almost no thought to the things we touch every single day. So we end up with a flagship phone and a wallet falling apart at the seams, a wardrobe full of clothes and one battered pair of sneakers.

This list of essentials is the fix. It follows an ordinary day, from what goes on your wrist in the morning to what's playing in the living room at night.

The Daily Watch: Seiko 5 Sports

Your phone tells the time. That was never the point. A watch is the one piece of jewellery and among the essentials most men will wear, and the difference between a considered one and a forgettable one is the difference between looking put together and looking like you got dressed in a hurry.

The Seiko 5 Sports is the default answer for a first proper watch, and it's held that position for decades. It's automatic, so it winds itself from the movement of your arm and never needs a battery. It handles rain, a pool and everyday knocks. And you can see the movement working through the caseback, which is the moment most people get properly interested in watches.

Buy a version you can wear with everything. A black or navy dial on a steel bracelet goes with a kurta, a suit and a T-shirt equally well. Save the unusual colours for your second watch. It goes for rupees 25,000 - 35,000 in the market.

The Sunglasses: Ray-Ban Wayfarer

In this country sunglasses aren't an accessory, they're equipment. If you drive, ride or walk anywhere between ten and four, you're squinting for hours a day, and squinting gives you headaches and lines around your eyes. The Wayfarer has been the default recommendation since the 1950s for the simple reason that it suits most face shapes and has never looked dated. It's neither delicate nor aggressive, it works with formal and casual clothes, and everyone recognises it. Two things actually matter when buying. First, real UV protection the cheap roadside pairs darken your view without blocking UV, which makes your pupils dilate and lets in more damage than wearing nothing. Second, the fit of the frame shouldn't touch your cheeks when you smile, and shouldn't slide down your nose. Try before you buy if you can. It costs between rupees 11,000 - 14,000.

The Wallet: Nappa Dori bifold

The wallet is the least glamorous item here and the one people judge fastest, because it comes out at every counter, every dinner, every fuel pump. A bulging, fraying wallet undoes an otherwise good outfit in a second. Two principles. One: carry less. Most of what's in your wallet is old receipts, a gym card you don't use and three ATM slips. Two: buy full-grain leather, which ages into something better rather than peeling. That's the difference between a wallet lasting five years and eight months. Nappa Dori is my pick because it's Indian, it's genuinely well made, and its leather goods develop a proper patina. Hidesign is the other obvious home-grown option with stores in most major cities, so you can handle the product before buying. It costs around rupees 3,000.

The Daily Sneaker: New Balance 2002R

Most men own running shoes they don't run in and wear them with everything. The fix isn't more shoes. It's one neutral, well-built pair that looks deliberate with jeans, chinos or shorts, and that you can walk ten kilometres in without thinking about your feet. The 2002R is the one I'd point almost anyone towards. It began as a serious technical runner, was archived when it didn't sell at its original price, and returned years later as a lifestyle shoe built on the old 860v2 outsole. That history matters, because it means the comfort isn't decorative. In grey or bone, the suede-and-mesh upper reads as smart-casual rather than gym kit , exactly what a daily shoe needs to do. It costs anywhere between 19,000 - 35,000 depending on the colourway.

The Signature Scent: Bleu de Chanel EDP

A signature scent is the one people associate with you, the one a friend notices in a lift and recognises a year later. Owning ten bottles is a hobby. Owning one good one is a habit.

Bleu de Chanel is the default for good reason: fresh enough for an Indian afternoon, smooth enough for an office, grown-up enough for a wedding. It opens bright and citrusy and settles into cedar with a light smokiness. It's hard to wear it somewhere it's wrong, which is the entire job description. It goes for rupees 11,000 - 13,000.

Its obvious rival is Dior Sauvage, at roughly ₹8,500–12,000 here. It performs brilliantly. It is also on approximately every second wrist in every mall in the country, which rather defeats the purpose of a signature scent.

The Phone Sanitizer: A UV-C sanitizing box

Think about where your phone actually goes in a day: your pocket, the dining table, a restaurant, the car, the gym, the bathroom, then up against your face. It is the single most touched object you own and almost certainly the least cleaned one. A UV-C sanitizing box is a small case you drop your phone into and close. Ultraviolet-C light runs for a few minutes and kills bacteria across every surface, including the seams around the buttons where a cloth never reaches. Most units at this price also work as a wireless charger, so the natural habit is simple: phone goes in the box at night, comes out clean and charged in the morning. Here's the honest part. UV-C sanitizes, it does not clean. It kills what's living on the surface but it will not remove fingerprints, grease or the pocket lint packed into your charging port. It costs rupees 2,000 - 4,000.

The Coffee Machine: De'Longhi Dedica Style EC685

Two cafe coffees a week costs around ₹1,500 a month. The machine pays for itself inside a year, before you count the mornings you don't have to leave the house. The Dedica EC685 is the standard recommendation for a first proper espresso machine in India and it earns it: a genuine semi-automatic with a metal body and a manual steam wand, so you learn actual technique rather than pressing a button. It's also about 15cm wide, which matters enormously in an Indian kitchen where counter space is the scarcest resource in the house. Be honest about which kind of person you are, though. A semi-automatic needs roughly two weeks of bad coffee before it gives you good coffee. If that sounds like a chore rather than a hobby, buy a Nespresso Essenza Mini instead — it does one thing consistently and asks nothing of you. The worst outcome is an expensive machine gathering dust because it wanted more effort than you did. It goes for rupees 16,000.

The Bluetooth Speaker: Marshall Emberton III

The soundbar below is for the living room. This is the one that follows you around the house the shower, the kitchen while you cook, the balcony on a Sunday, the hotel room, the beach.

The Emberton III is the pick because of one specification that actually changes how you use it. Itt has 32 hours of battery, the longest in its class. Speakers that need charging every other day end up in a drawer. This one you charge on a Sunday and forget about. Its multi-directional drivers also fill a room more evenly than the usual cylinder pointed at one wall, and the IP67 rating means rain, a splash or a dusty balcony are all fine. It costs rupees 17,000.

The Headphones: Sony WF-1000XM5

Of everything on this list, this is the item you’ll use for the most hours. A commute, the gym, a flight, a long call, two hours of work when the house is loud, earphones are on your body more than your watch is. Which is why the free pair that came in the box isn’t good enough. Cheap earbuds make you raise the volume to drown out traffic, and that habit, held for years, is how people damage their hearing without noticing.

The WF-1000XM5 is the pick because noise cancellation is the feature that matters most in this country, and Sony’s is the best in the business. The point of good ANC isn’t silence for its own sake, it’s that once the bus engine and the horns are gone, you can listen at a far lower volume and still hear everything. It’s the one audio feature that is genuinely good for you. It goes for rupees 17,000 - 22,000.