While there are endless designs of chains which can be made in any number of metals, there are four main styles of watch-chain available today:

·         Double Albert chain, characterised by having a T-bar in the middle of two chains of equal length.  Generally worn with one chain in each of a waistcoat's two pockets.

·         Single or Half Albert chain. Like the Double Albert, it has a T-bar for attaching the chain to the wearer's clothing. All T-bar chains are meant to be worn with the T-bar threaded through a buttonhole, usually of a waistcoat. Unlike the Double Albert, however, this chain has only one length trailing from the T-bar.

·         Spring-ring chain. Spring-ring chains are usually longer than Double and Single Alberts. The reason for this being that unlike the T-bar chain, which is fastened to a buttonhole, the spring-ring chain is fastened to the belt-loop of the wearer's trousers, and therefore need to be of a greater length.

·         Belt-hook chain. Like the spring-ring chain above, the belt-hook chain is used when one's pocket watch is to be stored in the watch-pocket of one's trousers. This is the most common style of chain seen with cheap quartz and mechanical pocket watches of modern manufacture.