Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Fashion & Style
  3. Legacy Archives

The Manual may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site.

WHAT’S IN YOUR BAG? New Years

Ok, you’re about to get your pack-on for New Year’s. So we at The Manual wanted to inspire the pack possibilities. Whether the destination is warm or cold, or you’ve got a staycation planned, we’ve got some great ideas to make pulling it all together, that much easier.

COld
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Cold
Tumi – This lighter and stronger Alpha 2 carry-on roller bag weighs only 10.7 lbs. and is made of ballistic nylon. Perfect for TSA guidelines, this bag may be your year round travel essential.
Hawke & Co. – Need a ultra-lightweight jacket that is not only warm, but is packable into it’s own pocket? Done and done. Weighing just 3.10 oz., packs away to 9”x 6”. Sometimes small IS better.
Cockpit USA – Yes, shearling-lined leather. Military inspired, and the perfect vest to wear with a sweater, or layered over a jacket. Made by American craftsmen and features hand warmer pockets and a heavy-duty brass zipper.
Coach – Wool & Cashmere. Combining hounds tooth and stripes, make this a twofer scarf of sorts. Lightweight yet perfectly warm, it measures 72 inches x 16 inches, which makes wearing it numerous ways is easy.
L.L. Bean – This classic Portuguese brushed flannel shirt features two button pockets. Perfect on it’s own, or layered over or under. Very lumbersexual or woodsy, but all-American style.
Levi’s Made & Crafted – These are a pair of jeans that every guy needs to know. Narrow, not skinny, that sits at the natural waist and has two percent stretch. This may be the perfect storm of a man’s jean.
Waltzing Matilda – Made of Horween© leather and hand-sewn in the U.S., this 7-eyelet boot has rawhide laces and Vibram Christie soles. The best feature of this moc color (think light caramel) is that it gets better and better and better with each wearing.
Persol – Style icons from Steve McQueen to Paul Newman, and recently George Clooney all have worn Persols. This new style inspired by a vintage frame comes with their signature green internal anti-glare treatment.
Amos – This Dopp kit is made of merino wool felt with vegetable tanned leather, and features one interior zip pocket and two slip pockets. Fits all your needs.
Das Boom – The Everything Box (the actual box stays home) has the four essentials: the hand-forged steel straight razor combined with a boar bristle shaving brush, an Everything Bar of soap, and a pocket comb.

Warm
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Warm
Lotuff – This classic men’s duffle is made with hand-selected, tumbled, and vegetable-tanned leather. It has a removable shoulder strap and all doubled-stitched handles and all brass hardware. The bag is unlined and features a double-layered bottom. It’s handcrafted in the USA, and is the perfect carry-on.
Craft Atlantic – ‘Crafted for a journey’ is this brands mantra, and this lightweight jacket, made of Italian nylon, is packable into it’s own pocket. Ideal for a cool night’s campfire at the beach.
Sunspel – This 100% Egyptian cotton striped t-shirt combines a clean look with a classic fit. Perfect from beach cabana to boardwalk café.
Aether – From chillaxin to going for a run, this knit short is made from breathable, wicking French-terry performance fabric, but feels as great as cotton.
MacKeene – Inspired by the military, this ultra-fast drying swimsuit, has 6% stretch, which is great for SUP and windsurfing.
Sperry – The Baitfish Thong Sandal pairs leather and molded-rubber, for a most comfortable, durable and stylish sandal, this side of a full-on beachfront luau.
Feltraiger – This pair of Protestor sunglasses that feature Carl Zeiss (a German optical instruments maker from the 1800’s that basically influenced how today’s modern lenses are made) lens, are their newest extension of the Feltraiger brand. The smokey-clear frame is a more refined design element, while still making a style statement.
Baxter of California – From Dopp kit, to all the grooming products you’ll need on this, or any trip, Baxter has put it all together. From shaving to shampoo, these TSA-friendly sized product say “pack me”.

Tom Handley
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Tom Handley is a contributor for TheManual. As a professor of public relations and social media strategy at Parsons The New…
Swatch’s new gold MoonSwatch is priced like it’s 1969
The Mission to the Moon 1969 packs 11 grams of real 18K gold — priced at the 1969 gold rate.
Wristwatch, Arm, Body Part

Guess what? It's another MoonSwatch — but this isn't just another colorway. The new drop from the Switzerland-based watchmaker, the MoonSwatch Mission to the Moon 1969, is the first to use real gold across the dial, hands, crown, and pushers.

The watch marks the anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on July 21, 1969.

Read more
Breitling’s new Top Time is a wearable tribute to the Aston Martin DB5
The new watches rep the iconic Bond car right down to subdials shaped like its dashboard gauges.
Car, Watch, Man

Breitling just released a trio of heaters: the Top Time B01 Chronograph 41 Tribute to Aston Martin DB5, a three-edition collaboration with the British carmaker. The connection between the Swiss watchmaker and the British car company runs back to 1965, when a Top Time ref. 2002 appeared on Sean Connery's wrist in Thunderball, worn alongside the DB5 — the first Q-modified watch in the Bond series. It's a nice bit of trivia that the DB5 and that Top Time shared the screen in the same film, and both went on to outlive the movie by decades.

The car cues go deeper than the "squircle" gauge-shaped subdials: a wooden inner ring nods to the DB5's steering wheel, and each edition rides on a hand-colored gradient calfskin strap meant to read like automotive upholstery. All three run on Breitling's in-house Manufacture Caliber 01, a COSC-certified automatic chronograph with a 70-hour power reserve, visible through a sapphire caseback and finished with an Aston Martin-engraved rotor. The case measures 41mm. The editions are divvied up by material and rarity. Stainless steel with a silver dial is limited to 1,022 pieces and sticks closest to the original ref. 2002, while steel with a platinum bezel and black lacquered dial drops to 315 pieces.

Read more
Look to the sky for these space themed watches
These 5 space themed watches will have you seeing stars
Accessories, Strap, Wristwatch

It was the 1960s. We were in the middle of a Cold War with Russia, and instead of escalating to an actual war with bullets and bombs, we took the conflict to the sky. We created a war of economics, science, and morale in a race to the sky to be the first nation to reach the moon. While the race picked up throughout the decade, it came down to the wire before the USA won the race by landing on the moon (if you believe that sort of thing and don't believe Stanley Kubrick directed the greatest ruse of all time). In any case, no race can be run without a good timekeeper. And watches were a must-have for all involved. Ever since, chronophiles like me have been obsessed with space-themed watches and, in particular, moon mission watches.

That is why I happened to have this list in my head. Five watches that bring the space race and the great beyond to the forefront of thinking to build a collection that is out of this world.

Read more