Wow, some of those posts have been above and beyond! So thanks to everyone who has contributed so far.
It seems that I'm pretty well in the minority, though I did sense a little fellow feeling -
@yokel - and I'm actually happy to be in the minority. It's a peculiar trait of my character that I seem to have an obdurate desire not to have what everyone else seems to have, nor to want what everyone else seems to want.
The first major point that jumped out at me was to do with the word rugged. Rugged and masculine. Though I think it is possible to be completely masculine without being rugged. Think urbane and sophisticated. Think subtle. Think Cartier Tank. A Bond style submariner can certainly achieve this, but a Seiko diver can't; well, not in my opinion.
Sizes - yes, I know there are a whole variety of them. And bezels; I have watches with bezels but I like them to be narrow. A great big wide bezel cuts down the amount of dial area, and many dive watches also have big luminescent indices and rather fat luminescent hands, all of which appear to reduce the apparent size of the dial. I like my watches in general to be mainly dial, and the way to avoid the so-called dinnerplate is to have a smaller watch.
Cases - someone mentioned chunky and hefty. Not for me, overall I prefer slim and lightweight. The three watches I wear on bracelets all come in between 140 and 150 g. I had a CW GMT diver that came in at over 190 g and had a 43 mm case - I really struggled with that, even though I did like it. Found myself walking round in circles with my LH knuckles dragging on the floor!
Colours - I thought I liked colourful watches, but in terms of dials I seem to have coalesced into black, white, silver and blue. I have a little splash of orange in the GMT hand of my CW Sealander. I like white lumed hands on black and blue dials, and on the white and silver dials which tend to be the more dressy watches, I like blue hands and no lume anywhere. And I like gold, but only on small and discreet vintage watches.
Since retiring I don't have to wear a jacket and tie very often, but I still like wearing watches like the Cartier with very casual clothes. And I do like my colourful shirts, though I think
@Roger the Dodger slightly outshines me in that department. Again, I'm perfectly happy to wear something like the Cartier or the Ulysse Nardin with a snappy shirt, shorts and flip-flops.
Someone said that every collection needs a dive watch. Well, I've got an old Orient Mako somewhere and I do have my Sealander which is not really a dive watch, despite having some of the characteristics. I could equally say that every collection needs a dress watch, but some would disagree.
Horses for courses. We like what we like. Fascinating to hear all the opinions, though. Thank you.