How to choose a children's watch? 6 things you should consider before buying

Tags: Selection Guide | Children's | Classic

5.7.2022 | 7 MIN

Kid's watches are a great idea for a meaningful gift. They will definitely make for a good show, but at the same time they will give the child the impression that they are wearing something from the adult world. If you do not know how to choose, we have a few basic tips for you. What to definitely pay attention to when choosing?

When they go to first grade, for a report card, for a birthday, or just for fun. The watch will surely make children happy. How to choose the right ones? Which parameters to focus on? And what is superior to all numbers? We have transformed our experience into a short guide and we are also adding a few tips for popular models.

1. Never skimp on quality materials. What to watch out for?

Quality comes first. If you are buying your first watch and you already know that in a year or two you will be changing them for a new one anyway, you don't have to invest a lot. But you shouldn't skimp on materials, whether they wear them for a few months or years.

This is because children's skin is sensitive and some children may even suffer from various allergies. Therefore, choose the case (body) of the watch made of nickel-free alloys and ideally with a high-quality steel caseback. If you know that even steel doesn't do any good to your child's skin, there are quality watches on the market made entirely of plastic (for example, the Swiss Flik Flak).

The back should ideally be made of steel.

Make sure to avoid alloys where you do not know what they contain. You can find many really cheap watches on the market, but they can contain, for example, a high amount of nickel, and you definitely want to avoid that.

Quality materials also apply to straps. Ideal is silicone, which is light, adapts well to the hand and can be easily cleaned. Textile straps are also suitable, and if a child with a watch does not go into the water, the leather or imitation leather is also very comfortable on the skin and does not cause any troubles. On the contrary, what we do not recommend for small children are steel bracelets, which are unnecessarily heavy.

The silicone strap is suitable for sports or even water.

You should also consider the glass material. Most often we find a mineral glass on a children's watch, but sometimes we come across a plastic one. Plastic scratches much faster, but it is more flexible, it doesn't break as easily and usually doesn't break into sharp shards when it does. Therefore, it will be a great choice for the youngest children or for sports watches.

The plastic glass is easier to scratch, but it is more flexible and less likely to shatter into sharp pieces.

2. The watch must withstand water. What water resistance to choose?

I'm sure we are all aware – in terms of water resistance, children don't pay all that much attention to it. Swimming lessons, summer holidays by the sea, evening shower... Only a handful of children would remember to take off their watches. So if you know that such activities are on your child's schedule on a daily basis, choose a watch with a water resistance of 10 ATM (100 meters).

Among the brands of quality children's watches, Lorus and Secco, for example, focus on sports watches with higher water resistance, or the popular Czech Prim Klaun, which also offer 100-meter water resistance.

Today, however, all renowned manufacturers of children's watches already offer basic water resistance to their watches. So if the watch is intended more or less for school, and your child's water funsies are mostly avoided, you don't have to shy away from a watch with 30 or 50 meters of water column.

The water resistance should be adapted to the child's activities.

An exception is the Flik Flak brand, which offers a watch with 30M water resistance, but thanks to its construction, you can easily swim and dive in the bathtub with the watch on your wrist. And they can even be washed in the washing machine, even the textile strap will be fine. They are just perfect for small children.

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3. How big is 'just right'? Which size to choose?

Size is one of the most important criteria. If the watch does not fit the wrist well, it will be left on the bedside table. Therefore, it is important that they are not too big or heavy.

The watch shouldn't be too large so they're not in the way.

For small children, we recommend Flik Flak, which are made of plastic, have a thin textile strap and a plastic glass. Thanks to this, they are really light, the strap adapts just nicely and the glass is much less likely to break compared to the mineral one.

For older children, you no longer have to hesitate to reach for a metal watch. However, the size should still match the circumference of the child's wrist. This is very difficult to generalize, because every child has a different hand at a certain age. But the smallest watches are around 23-28 mm, the larger ones around 30-35 mm.

The Bentime brand, for example, focuses on a very petite watches. They are popular with little princesses that like bows or kittens. And with boys, the football or dinosaurs motifs just score.

For older girls and boys, JVD just may offer something you'd like. Girls will surely be fond of a model with flowers, which is already more mature. For boys, we recommend a model with a backlit dial and a green strap.

TIP: True beauties may find interest in Lotus models. The Lotus Bliss collection has a beautiful glittering watch with a smaller diameter of up to 30 mm. For older boys, you can reach for the Casio Collection or the steel "adult" Festina Junior watches.

4. Indices or digitals?

In general, children understand time better on a digital display. But if it is to be the first watch that helps the child take that one step, so to speak, into the world of adults, a watch with hands and number indices would be more suitable. Plus, it will help them with learning how to read the time!

For the analog watches (ie those with hands), it is good to focus on good readability. The manufacturers are also adapting the design to this, so that, for example, the hour hand is in the shape of a pink crayon and the minute hand is a purple crayon. Children remember it better and can have even more fun learning time.

Well-defined numbers can help children read the time better.

Digitals, on the other hand, have some extra tweaks. Most often it's a stopwatch, backlight and date. In addition, they are often more sporty in nature, so they also have high water resistance and more universal motifs and colors, so they will keep your child's company for a few years.

Lorus and Secco focus on sports digitals. Both manufacturers will delight children with high-quality backlighting and a large range of color variants.

5. Colours and motifs. Universal, or fun? 

All the previous advices will be kind of useless if you do not choose the right color, motif or image. The most important thing when choosing (not only children's) watches is: you must like it.

If you are planning to buy new ones in a year, fulfill the current desires - does you child love Spiderman, Batman, Frozen or unicorns? Buy a watch with such motif. Pay attention to whether your little princess is crazy about pink and glitter, or whether the astronauts are currently the whole world for your little rogue.

But if you are choosing a watch for an older child or you simply want it to last longer, choose simple color motifs that will always be in. For example, for girls, instead of a unicorn, try subtle flowers that she won't get bored of in first or even in third grade. For boys, stylish watches. For example in blue or black-red, which won't lose on the appeal in a few years.

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6. Which fastening is the best? And spare straps?

If you are investing more money in a watch, it is definitely a good idea to look up in advance if a spare strap is available for the selected model. It is the straps that usually need to be replaced the soonest, so it would be a shame if the watch had to fly to the basket. Fortunately, most manufacturers of quality watches have no problems replacing and ordering replacement straps.

One last thing is the way to turn on the watch. Most have a classic thorn buckle. But for young children especially this method is still a bit of a struggle. Velcro straps are a good alternative. Several of such models can be found in a repertoire of the Czech brand JVD.

7. Extra TIP: Kids and smart-watches?

Maybe you are a fan of classics and smart watches for children did not even occur to you. But they also have their advantages. Parents most praise the opportunity to see the current position of the child. Feeling safe is important.

A watch with a GPS locator can be a great choice if your child goes to their extracurriculars, to school or to their grandmother by themselves.

You should give smart-watches a chance even if you don't want to buy a smartphone for your child yet, but you want to be in contact with them. From some watches you can make a phone call, or at least send an SOS.

Children, on the other hand, may appreciate that there are some games on the watch, or that they are more motivated to be active.

The selection is quite large nowadays, so we offer you a small guide with a selection of the best smart watches for children:

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Have you already chosen their dream watch? Feel free to share your advice and tips in the comments. :)