Style-conscious contemporary urbanite seeking a portable entertainment unit in the modern metropolis? Don't reach for that touch-screen so fast; there's more to mobile lifestyle-enhancement than iPhones, you know. The aptly named hip flask is enjoying a revival in the most unusual places. Perhaps fashion designers read the winds and sensed an especially icy winter when they created their new collections; maybe it's another phase of their sporadic love of field sports. Whatever the motivation, flasks appear to be swinging alongside the most discerning gentlemen this season.

Kim Jones, who sent his models down the catwalk with hip flasks dangling from their belts, instigated the resurgence. Now, in the middle of the hunting season, William & Son - the shooting and luxury goods label established a decade ago by William Asprey, seventh generation member of the famous family that established its own luxury brand in 1781 - has produced this elegant example.

Since the 18th century, people have been producing slim, ergonomic flasks for carrying distilled, usually alcoholic, drinks without drawing attention to themselves - at the rugger or the races, it remains the ex-public schoolboy's more presentable alternative to the brown-bagged bottle. But it would be an injustice to a noble tradition of heroes and adventurers to dismiss it as a drunkard's accessory: the intention was always for the contents to be shared, making it possible to toast success wherever it came.

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.