If you are in the US get an eco-drive you feel would fit him from this ebay store. They have the best prices. At the moment they do t have the most stock but there are enough to pick one.

Here’s one that might fit your description.

An all stainless steel (without gold colored plating) would probably fair better over time like this one (this model has a fixed bezel, there are other models with a similar (diver) style that have a rotating bezel that can be used as a 60 minutes timer like this one - o The larger side). The dive style of watches is the most popular stye of watches among men.

There’s also an extra 25% off coupon at the moment for some models including both of the ones I mentioned.

Eco-drives are very good practical everyday watches. They are durable, accurate and don’t require any sort of mentenance, just don’t hide it in a drawer in the dark when not wearing it so it can get some daylight and it’ll just work for many years.

Keep in mind the size also. Usually around 40mm is ok for most wrists for a watch without an external bezel and around 42mm would be a good size for a dive style watch. Depending on how big his wrist is you can go higher or lower than these measurements.

Also, titanium watches like the o e I mentioned are much lighter than the stainless steel ones, some people like that, others don’t.