If you are given to the bold and colorful when it comes to your personal fashion choices, you may have, at one time or another, avoided the classic and timeless. Perhaps you still do. Maybe these items seem too safe or understated, not like the big, loud fashion statements you’ve built your identity on.

The problem is, without aspects of your personal style that are based in the timeless fashion values that have gone before, your look might have the shelf life of a gallon of milk. Classic brands like Cartier have a way of anchoring an otherwise wild style into the bedrock of time-honored tradition. Here are some of the reasons this works.

• If Everything You Wear is New and Crazy, You Might Look Like a Clown. People who only wear clothes that are crazy, colorful, and/or avant garde have a tendency of looking like carnival entertainment, or like members of a traveling funk band from the 70’s. There’s nothing wrong with that if that is your goal. But you’ve got to recognize that consistently unconventional styling takes immense skill to get right. What’s more, it takes a deep understanding of classic styling, with which you are choosing to perform a contrast. Iconic watch brands are a great way to bring classic elements to your otherwise edgy style. These accessories show the world that you aren’t someone who jumps at the latest trends without any consideration.

• Classic Watch Brands Hold Their Value. If you’re into buying up fashion trends, you know that not every item in your closet has much in the way of resale value. Dressing up in the newest and the wildest is a bit like investing in brand new stocks. You might get a few big winners, but most of them are going to lose all of their value within a year. A classic iconic watch, due to its incredible design and impeccable beauty, will be worth close to what you paid for it for years. Decades from now, it could be worth far more. All you have to do is go up to the attic and take a look at mom’s bell-bottoms from the 70’s to know that not all fashion choices appreciate in value this way.

• Subtlety is Sexy. There are lots of clothes worn by the young and hip that absolutely scream sexy, to the point where the statement means almost nothing anymore. If you’re sitting in a sea of people all trying to make the same statement with the same methods, the message starts to mean very little. Today, by choosing classic brands, you can send a different message: one of subtlety and sophistication. In an era of fashion excess, classicism is a new kind of sexy that more and more people are becoming aware of.

Classic brands are having a resurgence in an era where more people are starting to think of burgeoning fashion trends as artificial and fleeting. If you want to update your style with a fashion values of timeless vintage, Cartier is a great place to start.