My modest collection is missing something crucial, and since I don't know how to fill the gap it's driving me bawwabajagga. What I need is a gold-cased 3-hander with a nice brown leather band that's not so spendy that I wouldn't feel comfortable using it for daily wear. Either auto or hand crank is fine.

A fair portion of my wardrobe includes various earth tones -- browns, greens, ocher, russet, etc. I'm dissatisfied with the way steel looks with that palette, and find that yellow gold with brown leather is much more to my taste. I have two gold plated quartzes from my pre-WIS days, but they're plated and they're quartz. And they're both too small for my current tastes, one's a 33mm and the other a 34mm. The closest thing I have to what I want are my bronzes, which all wear brown leather: a Kaventsmann Bathyal, a Heroic 18 bronze, and a Maranez Bangla bronze. The problem is that bronze is not gold, and doesn't really scratch that particular itch. Also, the three bronzes are all big honkin' Brobdingnags, and don't play well with long sleeved shirts.

At first I thought about going vintage. But there are several problems with that. First of all, I don't know a damn thing about watch resto & repair, and don't know of a good watchmaker in my neck of the woods. Then there's the annoyance that vintage pieces are almost always too small, since I prefer something ≥ 38mm ≤ 44mm. And finally, there's the issue that I don't know anywhere near enough about vintage pieces to be able to evaluate prospective buys.

To complicate matters immeasurably, it seems that 18ct yellow gold has gone out of style for all but the upper strata of watches, and I'm not in a position to spend mega-shekels on this. Ideally, since this will be primarily for daily wear, I'd like to keep it to ≤ $4k. I'm definitely okay buying used, assuming excellent condition.

So...any suggestions for makes & models?