Hermes Tube H Belt Buckle & Reversible Leather Strap 38 mm Box 135 and Togo Calfskin Palladium Buckle Silver Noir Gold

If I had to keep one belt from this whole batch, it would probably be this one: black and gold-tan in Box 135 and Togo calfskin at 38 mm, with palladium hardware that stays out of the argument. It does nothing clever and nothing wrong, which is rarer than it sounds in a belt worn six days a week.

The Tube H buckle is the one flourish, an H formed from a rounded tube of metal, softer in profile than a flat plate and finished in cool palladium. It is the sort of detail you notice in a photograph rather than across a room, which suits the plainness of everything else here.

The strap flips by rotating the buckle between the glossy Box 135 face and the pebbled Togo reverse. The tan side picks up brown boots, olive and camel; the black side takes charcoal, navy and black. The grained face is the more durable of the two and the one I would take travelling, while the glossy side is the one for dinners.

Honest trade-offs: Box 135 marks and asks for an occasional wipe, and at 38 mm this strap is comfortable in denim and chinos rather than in slim suit loops. Neither has made me reach for a different belt. Waist sizes run from 80 to 115 cm, in five-centimetre steps, at the point where you would wear any other belt, and the increments leave little room for error.