Elevate the Everyday

They say you shouldn’t change horses in the middle of the stream.

And they’re not wrong … entirely. But occasionally, there’s a better horse. Saddled, shoed and there for the taking.

Call it “leveling up,” and this your guide: Elevate the Everyday, a handy primer in partnership with our friends at Oris featuring 11 key pieces of gear to church up your day, from a space-age toothbrush that’ll render you plaque-less to some dyed-to-order sheets that’ll lull you into la-la land.

Plus: a pair of supremely handsome timepieces to help you navigate everything in between.

So go on. Take the leap. Sometimes a little something extra makes all the difference.

7AM: FOR YOUR MORNING GROOMIN’

Look, there are plenty of objective reasons that we could cite as evidence that you should switch to Sonicare’s flagship DiamondClean toothbrush not only from a standard manual, but from any other electric, as well: clinical studies, raw statistics (31,000 brush strokes per minute, e.g.), the consensus of dentists around the country. But to borrow from your local car dealer’s parlance, sometimes you just need to get behind the wheel. The DiamondClean just feels superior to other brushes, whirring and whinnying at an audacious clip as it jostles bits of plaque out of every nook of your mouth.

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7:30AM: FOR YOUR MORNING SWIM

SPONSORED

Sure, you could do laps with a naked wrist or fitness tracker. But ideally there’s gonna come a time when the water you’re jumping into is deeper, bluer and teeming with marine life, so why not get you a stylish, rugged timepiece that’ll carry you from the pool to the ocean’s depths and look damn sharp everywhere in between? The Oris Divers Sixty-Five fits the bill, boasting a stainless steel case, domed sapphire crystal, eye-catching blue dial with luminescent hands and indices, and a handsome braided textile strap made from recycled ocean plastic. When people compliment you on it (and trust us, they will), you’ll earn a lil’ environmentalist cred to boot.

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8AM: FOR YOUR DONNING OF PROFESSIONAL ARMOR

Abespoke suit is legit, no doubt. But don’t sleep on the custom shirt as a true hero of your workaday getup — closest thing to your body, after all. And no one does it better than the storied Italian house of Zegna, who’ve been around since 1910 crafting the finest luxury menswear for not only their eponymous line, but also the likes of Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Dunhill and Tom Ford. These babies fit like armor, making you look slimmer, staying tucked better, and going easier on your wallet than a full kit. It’s the best way to upgrade your officewear in one move.

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8:30AM: FOR YOUR MORNING BREW

Nice and easy, sir — step away from the Keurig and put the pod down. Your better way has arrived, its name is Spinn, and it works like this: as you get dressed, you grab your phone and hit a button (or holler at your Alexa). In the next room, a handsome robot machine grinds fresh beans and brews you a perfect [insert one of Spinn’s crazy number of gourmet joe options here]. You enjoy the delicious convenience of the future while also saving money and the environment. Everybody wins.

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10AM: FOR YOUR KEEPING OF DOCUMENTS

What makes for a perfect first impression? Certainly a keen wit, well-pressed suit and being on a first-name basis with your barber. Less obvious but no less vital is your briefcase. It’s your constant companion, so you’d do well to place your trust in Ghurka, whose 40-year history of leather craftsmanship has caught the attention of McLaren and the White House. The Examiner No. 5 has timeless style, to be sure, but its elixir of life lies in meticulous hide selection and finishing. You may slump at the end of a long day. It won’t.

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11AM: FOR YOUR KEEPING OF APPOINTMENTS

SPONSORED

Give the folks at Oris a round of applause for taking the concept of a business calendar and turning it into a gorgeous head-turner: their Calibre 113 sports not only day and date windows, but month and week indicators inscribed around the edge of the dial, creating a truly unique triple calendar aesthetic that laymen and watch fiends alike will appreciate. Add the Oris in-house caliber 113 movement with an impressive 10-day power reserve (handsomely featured on the right side of the dial) and elegant touches like rose gold-plated hands and markers, and you’ve got yourself a serious water-cooler conversation piece. The crocodile strap? Just the icing on the horological cake.

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2PM: FOR YOUR OFFICE COMFORT

No amount of exercise balls or standing desks can dethrone the office chair. And besides, it’s hard to inspire confidence atop anything inflatable. Not so with Cosm, a feat of furnishing from Herman Miller that can trace its lineage back to the Mad Men-era Eames chair. But even those weren’t engineered to support your spine for eight hours (or likely more) a day. That’s where Cosm’s proprietary Auto-Harmonic Tilt and Intercept Suspension come in. Go on, take a seat.

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5PM: FOR YOUR STYLISH HAPPY HOUR

Our opinion: every gent should own a pair of horsebit loafers. They’re the perfect intersection of casual and elevated, adding a welcome dose of prep flair to suiting kits and jean-and-tee getups alike. These hand-stitched numbers from Chicago’s Oak Street Bootmakers are crafted from Horween Chromexcel leather, an exceedingly rare hide that takes 89 separate processes and a month of man hours to get right. The result: a pair of handsome, glossy kicks that’ll only get better with age. Like the guy wearing them, hopefully.

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7PM: FOR YOUR EVENING REPAST

If you’re going to be a man who cooks (and you should), a top-shelf chef’s knife is a 100% must-own. And while options abound, few in the cutlery game would argue that the Premier Chef’s Knife from Shun (pronounced “shoon,” rhymes with “moon”) is a superlative slicing instrument — handcrafted in Seki, Japan, each Shun blade takes more than 100 painstaking steps to complete. That’s one for every year they’ve been in business, if anyone’s counting.

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9PM: FOR YOUR NIGHTCAP

Very little beats a glass of scotch after a long (and productive) day. Allow us to submit, however, a dram of something similar but a little more unique: Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey, an “American single malt” distilled by a motley crew of Denver craftsmen in small batches using premium ingredients and Rocky Mountain snowmelt. Our favorites of the Stranahan family? The Original, with notes of warm caramel and spiced pear giving way to a finish of oak and tobacco, and their Diamond Peak, aged in #3 char New White American Oak barrels and boasting flavors of butterscotch, dark-roast coffee and Mexican hot chocolate. Not a bad way to toast your accomplishments, believe us.

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10PM: FOR YOUR RESTFUL SLUMBER

Ahigh thread count does not a good night’s sleep make. How then do we choose the linens we spend one third of our lives in? First, with attributes we understand: extra-long-staple cotton (i.e., soft and strong) that is residual-chemical free and DNA-tested — which is what you’ll get when decking out your bed in luxury sheets from Flaneur. But instead of settling for a run-of-the-mill color palette, they offer any color your heart (or your lady’s heart) desires. Simply upload a photo to match, enter a Pantone code or let their concierge guide you to the epitome of beauty sleep.

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