LEATHERMAN TREAD: JEWELRY FOR THE WORKING MAN?

We admit it. The Leatherman Tread is jewelry. But it's cool jewelry.

The Leatherman Tread is probably the most masculine bracelet you can own, and it comes packed with tools on every link. A typical link will have two screwdrivers and a box wrench, although there are a couple of links with variations on the theme, and the clasp itself (a standard folding watch clasp in operation) features a #2 Robertson screwdriver, a bottle opener, and a 1/4" socket driver. We love the inclusion of the Robertson, partly because it's useful, and partly because it's Canadian and we're patriots.

The big upside to the Tread is that if you wear it, you'll always have a pile of emergency tools on hand, and after wearing ours for a week, we'll say we were surprised how often it came in handy. Also, we think it looks cool, and perhaps more importantly, our wives love it.

There are a couple of quirks you should consider, though. First: it's huge. On our smaller staffers it looked a little...industrial. On large wrists it's less intrusive. But even our XXL-gloved editor had to remove a link to get a good fit. That's easy to do, but it does mean you have to make a choice about which tools to leave behind. On the other hand, there's a good selection, so it's not too difficult to pick your most likely choices.

The other issue is that for the first thirty minutes, you will feel like you're getting a Brazilian wrist wax. But strangely, that does go away and we can't explain why. We don't seem to have denuded our arms, but there's no longer any pulling even when intentionally shaking the bracelet back and forth. Again, we used our editor as the basic standard of gorilladom on account of his primate-like hairiness, and he agreed that the Tread became comfortable rather quickly.

The verdict: it's surprisingly useful and the industrial styling is kind of cool. But now you have to make sure you're wearing a massive mechanical watch to balance it out.