ESSENTIALS

Time Consuming

Watch the watchbands around town and you’ll see more stylish ways to mark time than ever. Swatch, the company that built its reputation on trendy, throwaway time-tellers that sell for about $35 each, is introducing a deluxe model priced at $100. Discreetly glowing with diamonds and faux rubies, emeralds and sapphires, it’s available in department and specialty stores. Or consider Slinky watches, whose bright bands resemble those coiled wire toys that “walk” down stairs. About $45 at the Broadway. And with Halley’s comet catapulting toward Earth, things cosmic are a particularly timely fashion theme. Peugeot makes just one of many moon-face watches to choose from. At Bullock’s, $69.