Luxury Gifts for Men: Pick by the Man, Not by the Price

Most luxury gifts for men end up in a drawer: well made, expensive, and never seen again. The ones that last are the pieces he uses in front of other people, like a lighter or a pen from our El Septimo x S.T. Dupont collection, a table lighter on the bar, or a humidor on the desk. So we have sorted this guide by the man instead of the price.

What he does with his evenings tells you more than the number you had in mind. Below are seven kinds of man, the one piece we would give each of them, and the box of cigars to hand over with it. Everything here is something we carry, and the cards show the live price and stock.

We have written "he" throughout for simplicity. Every piece in this guide suits a woman who enjoys cigars just as well.

How to choose luxury gifts for men without guessing his taste

Three rules do most of the work.

Give something that gets seen. A cigar piece is one of the few luxury objects a man uses in company. It sits on the table, it gets passed around, and somebody asks about it. It is what we see across our own customers: the pieces chosen as gifts are the ones meant to be on show.

Give the tool, not the taste. Cigars are personal, and a box of the wrong strength is a polite disappointment. A lighter, a case or a humidor works with whatever he already smokes. Add cigars only when you know he enjoys them. We cover that further down.

Match the flame to where he smokes. A soft flame is the elegant choice indoors, at a desk or a bar. Outdoors, on a course or a deck, the wind puts it out, and a torch is the practical answer. It is the one technical detail worth knowing before you buy a lighter.

Seven men, seven pieces

Find him in the left column. The rest of the row is our answer.

The man	The piece	Why it suits him	Price today
The watch collector	El Septimo x S.T. Dupont Augustus lighter	He already cares how a thing is finished and how it sounds when it closes.	$1,606.50
The whiskey lover	Brizard Gatsby table lighter in whisky calf leather	It lives on the bar beside the bottle, where guests reach for it.	$240.00
The golfer	Brizard Show Band three-cigar case, Augusta / Golf Heritage	Three cigars, protected in the bag, in the collection's green leather.	$250.00
The executive	Brizard Cylindrical Desk Humidor in Macassar ebony	Ten to fifteen cigars on the desk, in something that does not look like a box.	$250.00
The man with a boat	Brizard Show Band three-cigar case, Positano	Turquoise and mahogany, and a cedar lining for a day on the water.	$190.00
The collector	Maccarrone Dolce Vita 40 humidor	Italian marquetry and room for forty cigars. Furniture in miniature.	$2,795.00
The man who does not smoke	El Septimo x S.T. Dupont Emperor Napoleon rollerball pen	The same maker and the same artwork, with nothing to light.	$1,606.50

Those are today's prices on our site. The cards below always show the current figure.

Six of the seven, ready to add to your cart. The pens are in the collection further down. Prices and stock are live.

The piece for each man, and why

The watch collector

A man who collects watches has trained his eye. He notices edges, weight and finish, and he listens to how a thing closes. Give him the El Septimo x S.T. Dupont Augustus lighter. It lights with two soft, even flames, it is refillable, and it opens with the clear ping that gives the lighter its name. We carry the collaboration in six lighter designs and six rollerball pens, each wearing artwork from El Septimo's own collections.

The whiskey lover

The best gifts for whiskey lovers finish the bar rather than add another bottle to it. He has the whiskey and probably the glasses. What the bar is usually missing is a proper light. The Brizard Gatsby table lighter in whisky calf leather is built to stay on a counter or a coffee table. One press of the chrome lever gives three torch flames, and a punch cutter is built in. Set a pair of El Septimo whiskey glasses with a built-in cigar rest beside it, and the gift covers the drink and the cigar.

If you would rather hand over the whole setup at once, El Septimo boxes a porcelain ashtray, a guillotine cutter and a triple torch lighter together in matching artwork. Those are with our accessory gift sets.

The golfer

Gifts for golfers who enjoy a cigar on the course solve two problems: protection in the bag and wind on the tee. For the first, Brizard makes its Augusta / Golf Heritage collection in green leather, eleven pieces in all. The Show Band case in that leather holds three large cigars and shows their bands through a window, so he can choose one without opening it. For the wind, skip the soft flame and add the El Septimo Double-Jet Torch Lighter and Punch, which has a punch cutter built into its base. We go into sizes and how long each one lasts in our guide to cigars for golf and poker night.

The executive

The desk is the surface people see when they walk into his office. The Brizard Cylindrical Desk Humidor in Macassar ebony stands upright, holds ten to fifteen cigars in a Spanish cedar lining, and comes with its own humidifier. It looks like an object rather than a box. We carry it in ten wood and leather finishes, so you can match the room. If he signs things for a living, there is a rollerball pen in the same S.T. Dupont collaboration, and we come to it below.

The man with a boat

Salt air and sun are hard on cigars, so the gift here is a good case. Brizard's Positano collection pairs turquoise leather with African mahogany and looks at home on a deck. The Show Band case in that finish carries three cigars up to a 60 ring gauge, lined in Spanish cedar. On open water he will want a torch, not a soft flame. For the cigars themselves, see what to bring to a yacht party.

The collector

Gifts for men who have everything need to be things he could not simply order again. Maccarrone humidors are made by hand in Tuscany, and several of the Maccarrone pieces we hold are here as a single example. The Dolce Vita 40 is the compact one: sapele mahogany, maple marquetry inlaid by hand, a Spanish cedar interior and room for forty cigars. If he collects the cigars more than the furniture, the limited El Septimo set in the next section is for him.

The man who does not smoke

A luxury gift does not require that he smokes. The El Septimo x S.T. Dupont rollerball pen carries the same artwork as the lighters. Six designs were made, each limited to 100 pieces, and all six are in the collection further down this page. The El Septimo linen smoking jacket is the other answer. It is cut unisex, comes in ten colors, and suits a man who hosts more often than he smokes.

The box to hand over with it

An object and a box of cigars together make a complete gift, as long as you know he smokes them. For a gift we would buy the box rather than a few singles. It arrives in the maker's own presentation, and it lasts him well past the occasion. All six below come from the luxury houses.

• El Septimo Kolosso Amethyst. A 6 x 60 from Costa Rica, medium to full, and the showpiece of this list. The Kolosso Amethyst box of ten is the one to give.
• El Septimo Salvador Dali. A toro from the Sacred Arts Collection, medium in strength and made in Costa Rica. The Salvador Dali box of twenty is a good one for a host, because it suits a table of mixed tastes.
• Atabey Idolos. Short and wide at 4 x 55, medium in strength, and made in Costa Rica. The Atabey Idolos box of 25 suits a man with a full calendar.
• Cohiba Red Dot Robusto. The Dominican-made Cohiba sold in the United States, medium bodied under a Cameroon wrapper. The Red Dot Robusto box of 25 carries the name he will recognize on the band.
• Zino Platinum Crown Series Barrel. A 6 x 60 with each cigar in its own aluminum tube. The Crown Series Barrel box of ten is the one the golfer and the traveler can carry without a case.
• El Septimo Mi Familia Limited Edition. Twenty cigars across ten blends in one box, limited to 1,000 boxes worldwide. The Mi Familia set is the one for the collector.

Not sure which of these fits him? The Cigar Finder gets you to a short list in four questions, and our guide to luxury cigars explains what each house does best.

Six from the luxury houses. Prices and stock are live. Choose the box from the menu on each card.

The short version

Choose by the man. The watch collector gets the S.T. Dupont lighter. The whiskey lover gets a table lighter for the bar. The golfer gets a case in green leather, and the man with a boat gets one made for the water. The executive gets a humidor for the desk, the collector a piece of Italian marquetry, and the man who does not smoke a pen. Add a box from the luxury houses when you know he enjoys them. High end gifts for men are easy to find. The ones that get used are the ones that fit how he spends his time.