Chunky knits, long johns, shearling jackets, knapsacks and hiking boots all add to a practical, outdoors mood this season. When they first sent their autumn/winter collections onto the London and Paris catwalks back in January, Dunhill, Louis Vuitton, Lanvin, Hermès, Dior and Paul Smith all riffed on the sturdy boot, and Milan's big menswear names trod the same path.

Boots are being offered with thicker soles in a lug pattern, and in variants that veer more or less towards hiking boots or casual dress boots. They can be high or low, leather or suede, laced or slip-on; it is the sole that is the defining fashion statement. Skinny fashion boys around town like to wear them with an Artful Dodgerish, Victorian dandy air, while British menswear's designer-of the-moment Aitor Throup is rarely seen without trousers tucked into the long socks that rise above his.

Dunhill's new hiking boots come in three colours of nature: navy oiled wool, brown vegetable-tanned calfskin and, most luxurious of all, rich and waxy green alligator skin. These are paired with gunmetal hardware, bright yellow laces and welted Vibram soles - first invented by Vitale Bramani in the 1930s, after an Alpine mountaineering disaster that was blamed on inadequate footwear, and later worn by the Italian team that first conquered K2. Not only are these boots on trend, they could even be a lifesaver - a perfect fit for the safety-conscious, stylish gent.

In watch history terms, Bell & Ross is a new kid on the block. But it would be hard to tell that by looking at some of its wrist candy. While the BR 01 - a square giant, flashy favourite and the kind of watch Thor would wear, if he kept to a schedule - has been central in Bell & Ross's rise, it hasn't quite stolen the thunder of their other feats; the company has also cornered the macho market for more understated, military-style timepieces. It even supplies the actual armed forces, notably the French Army's bomb disposal squads (the Type Demineur's anti-magnetic case won't accidentally set off the explosive), while other models have gone into space and to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest point in the Pacific Ocean.

Its Vintage line, however, is pure style and could have been designed at any time since the 1940s, being all Bauhausian rigour in the dial and strong, warm leathers in the straps. Among the latest standout models are the Carbon 123 and this chronograph, the Vintage BR 126. The off-white dial adds to the aged feel, but the design is actually all contemporary quirks, at least for watch buffs: the signature off-centre date box, for instance. Or the standard chronograph feature that is the 12-hour sub dial, usually located at 12 o'clock, but here left off altogether - if your mission lasts longer than 30 minutes, chances are it's straight to the POW camp for you, sonny.

With so much attention paid to the suit and what goes under it, it's easy to give short shrift to the final piece of the equation. But the overcoat shouldn't be something you just sling on as you head for the door; it is one of the most important, and often one of the most costly, items of clothing most of us will ever purchase.

Luxurious statement overcoats dominated the men's shows for winter, with some of the best seen at Burberry, YSL, Armani, Dior, Kenzo and Gucci. In the prescribed autumnal palette of greys, browns and khakis, the heavy-duty coat is cut to perfection and constructed from the finest fabrics.

Savile Row tailor Richard James (who, by way of alternatives for the price-conscious, has also just designed a new ready-to-wear collection for John Lewis) sought out the finest material for his snug version of the overcoat. His textural take on the concept is made from alpaca, the glossy yarn which is not entirely unlike human hair, and for which the llama-like animals of the same name have been domesticated in Peru for thousands of years. But that doesn't mean you have to wear it like some Andean mountain warrior - high-end teddy bears are sometimes made of lesser-grade variants of the very same stuff.