Case Size VS Lug Length: Which is More Important?

This is an age old question in the watch industry. Many experienced watch collectors have figured out the key to this dilemma, but at the same time many newcomers haven’t even figure out yet that lug length actually plays a role in watch sizing – let alone that at times it can be more important than the case size.

I’ll start off by saying that most watch manufacturers can be unintentionally misleading when it comes to the size specs of their watches. Not because they’re listing incorrect measurements, but because they’re putting emphasis on the case size of the watch. For example, even Rolex has the case size of their watches displayed prominently on their website with lug dimensions nowhere to be found. This leads to potential buyers sizing up the watch using this widely available metric. The lug length of the watch is infrequently mentioned on most manufacturers website listings, although some niche brands are starting to catch on to this and have begun to include this extremely crucial metric.

The idea of one of these metrics being more important than the other is highly subjective and limited to realistic constraints. For one, you don’t want a watch with a gigantic case size and tiny lugs and vice versa. Realistic and logical thinking is important here to understand how you should go about navigating a watch purchase to ensure the perfect fit. With this ideology in mind, you should be choosing a watch case that you know fits your wrist in proportion to its lug length. You can size down on a watch case as long as you size up proportionally on the length of the lugs without exaggeration.

Knowing this can actually open up a whole new range of watch styles that you may have figured would not fit you before. It’s very possible that one of your favorite 36mm watches that you figured would be too small actually does indeed fit you because its lugs are slightly longer than the average. Case thickness is also an important metric to keep in mind, but it’s generally less important than the case and lug size.

In conclusion, both the case and lug size are equally important and they need to be measured on wrist simultaneously when you try on a watch. You don’t want a watch with long lugs that overhang on your wrist, and you don’t want a case size that fits too large or too small horizontally.