Father's Day comes but once a year (or twice if you take into account that the one in America and the one in Europe are on different dates) and it's a great excuse to peruse this entirely delightful list of nice things, shoe-horned into a top 10 of the Best Father's Day gifts and presents.
When is Father's Day 2020? Sunday, 21 June.
What will dads mainly be getting? Crap mugs with 'Top Dad' written on and novelty aprons.
What should dads be getting though? Something from this tasteful and lavishly hand-curated guide to the Best Father's Day presents, of course…
Fitness father, tech dad, music pops, cookin' papa and fashion pater are all catered for. And hey, if you happen to be a dad yourself, you could always leave this tab open in a place you know your other half/offspring are sure to see. You know, by accident.
Or try these:
- Best men’s watches
- Best sunglasses
- Best wallets
- Best backpacks
- Best swimming trunks
- Best laptop bags
- Best water bottles
- Best gifts for him
Father's Day quick links
- Amazon UK and Amazon US
- John Lewis
- Marks and Spencer
- Debenhams
- House of Fraser
- Firebox
- Not on the High Street
Best Father's Day gifts
You could splash out £300+ on the Philips Series 9000 Prestige edition, which sits atop our guide to the best electric shavers. However canny and/or tightwad punters might be more drawn to the Series 9000 (no 'Prestige' version), which is a mere £200. One thing that all men have in common is the need to shave every now and then, so what better bonding experience than to buy your old man the second best shaver a man can get? The Series 9000 gives an incredibly close and yet comfortable shave, even if you've not shaved for 3 days. The battery seems to last forever, and there's a trimmer attachments for manscaping your dad's sideboards or mutton chops.
Well again, you could go for the Wüsthof knife at #1 in the Best Chef's Knife charts, but maybe £122 is a bit steep for Father's Day. However, scroll a little further down and you find this Swiss-made knife – no, sadly it does not have a corkscrew attachment, and small screwdriver; it's not that type of Swiss knife.
Just £20 or thereabouts, this knife is perfectly happy in the dishwasher, will withstand years of abuse, but does in fact have a pretty keen edge – the blade is ice-hardened Japanese steel, coated with titanium, no less. It's a product on the cutting edge, at a cut price. Head to the chops now and buy one.
Feeling flush? Hey, why not buy dad a new road bike. Not so flush? Okay, how about a light then? Sitting pretty, and clearly visible, at the top of our Best Bike Lights list, the Lezyne is a doughty old campaigner that was among the first bike lights to charge via USB – there is an actual male USB port on it, hidden under a rubber cover. Unless you have a quite unusual laptop or USB wall sockets, we'd recommend purchasing a male-to-female adaptor cable, though, as it's not the easiest thing to plug in otherwise.
That aside, this will give you a maximum brightness of 40 lumens or, by going for a flashing, lower-powered light, will last for 17 hours. It won't last forever if you find yourself regularly riding through the wind and rain; it's a 20 quid bike light. But it's easy to fit and will give reliable service for quite a few years to come.
• Buy Meater+ from Amazon for £109
Not really suitable for vegetarians, this ingenious smart thermometer not only has the best product name ever, it is also a very good product. Thanks to a box that doubles as a Bluetooth extender, you can put a Meater+ into a joint of meat, in the oven, then monitor its internal temperature from anywhere in the house or, at least, from 20m or so away. The thermometer tracks internal and ambient temperature, while its app allows you to set cooks by type of meat (poultry, lamb leg, beef joint etc) or manually, then tells you both cooking time so far and a – usually very accurate – estimation of when it will be finished, including resting time out of the oven.
An interesting side effect of using Meater+ (or any meat thermometer) is that you soon realise that the cooking instructions on meat are insanely over-safe. Cooking meat by internal temperature is almost invariably quicker but, if done correctly, also just as safe.
Give Dad a way to chill out for an afternoon by building a Lego set that reminds us of the days of scientific optimism. This lunar lander creation was developed in cooperation with NASA for as much accuracy as possible, right down to the separate descent and ascent stages, and special gold finish for the bricks.
At 1,087 pieces, it's the perfect level of complexity to be properly engrossing for a weekend, and makes a brilliant seven-inch tall memento once it's made, complete with astronauts and a cratered lunar surface.
Lots of dads are wild about watches, but not so wild about having to fiddle with them to keep them going. If he owns a few automatic watches, the choices are to let the lesser-worn ones run down in a drawer, or keep them wound and ready to go with an automatic watch winder like this one from .
Far from looking industrial or unwieldy, this sleek design will look good wherever you put it, and can be powered by mains or battery.
- These are the best watch winders
Dad will love these Speedo Vintage Print 14" swim shorts, which have the benefit of being practical enough for a day out at the beach or pool while also stylish enough to wear about town. Coloured in bold red and white pattern, detailing includes an hidden press stud waistband, as they provide a comfortable, tailored fit with great eco credentials.
- These are the best swimming trunks
If your dad needs a bag for your laptop the John Lewis’ leather and felt case may be for him. Made from contrasting smooth leather and soft felt in a zip-up design, it’s a simple and sleek option. With a handle on the side, you can carry it like a clutch bag, or slip it inside a larger bag for good protection. It’s good value for such a smart-looking bag, but if you need something super or that you’re able to carry hands-free, a backpack may be a better bet.
- These are the best laptop bags
If your dad uses hair gel, buy him a bottle of Baxter of California's Thickening Style Gel, which provides high hold and high shine looks with none of the pitfalls of previous gels. The non-traditional formula contains; Birch Juice, which helps to smooth and soften hair, while calming scalp; Ginger, which helps to strengthen hair, and defend against flakiness in scalp and adds natural shine to hair; and Vitamin B5, known to plays important role in the healthiness and growth of your hair.
- These are the best hair gels
Finding the perfect wallet is all about striking the balance between size and space, leather-goods maker Nodus think they've found that ideal balance. This is the Compact Coin. This wallet doesn't have a large footprint, but still manages to pack a lot in. How much exactly? The Compact Coin has space for 15 credit cards, there's a coin pouch, dedicated compartment for folded notes and receipts, and, on top of all of that, a key pocket.
- These are the best wallets
This range of sunglasses features a clip that holds them securely in your shirt pocket when not on your face. So they won't fall off when you bend over to tie up your shoelaces. They're also a great-looking batch of sunnies, with numerous frame and lens colour options. The one above (matte, grey ink frame with iridium lenses, since you ask) is perhaps our favourite. Oakley's usual non-slip nose pads, precision optics and lightweight/tough build are all present and correct, as you'd expect.
- These are the best sunglasses
What Hi-Fi? awarded the the distinction of being the best wireless headphones in their price range, and while admittedly that range is “hugely expensive”, there are justifications for the aspirational price at every turn.
Reviewers loved the quality construction and good looks of the real leather ear cushions, the unusual blue-and-gold colour palette (a nice change from black and more black, unless that’s your thing) and the adaptive noise cancelling is hard to beat, offering crystal clear sound at the frequencies you want to listen to, while blocking the ones you don’t.
Ever thought how great it would be if your absent-minded pops could give his glasses, keys, or basically any other commonly lost item a jingle like he does his phone?
In fact, come to think of it, if your dad’s ever rung his phone to find it, only to remember it’s still on silent from its stint in the golf bag, he’s definitely the target customer of the Tile. encompasses two finders, one to stick with you, and one to go on the regularly mislaid item in question, so he’ll never have to listen to your mum say “well where did you leave it?” ever again.
If the Tile is for the dad who loses everything, then , without a cable to tether them, are unequivocally not – but they sure do look cool. Save Dad valuable minutes unravelling tangled earbud wires by doing away with the whole thing and going for these ultra-sleek wireless earbuds instead.
Reviewers say they connect straight from the box, no fiddling with software or weird setup rituals, and that the sound quality is top-notch. If your dad’s the particularly techy sort, he can configure them to respond to commands from answering calls to skipping tracks, too.
Mowing the lawn for your dad may be the most selfless Father’s Day gift, but for the less actively-inclined the Bosch Rotak 37-14 Ergo Rotary Lawn Mower makes a cracking gift. Its powerful 1400 watt motor makes short work of untidy lawns and picks up 99% of cuttings, while the user-friendly handles mean better posture and reduced muscle strain.
Amazon's 7-inch Fire tablet has a 171 ppi screen, fast 1.3GHz quad-core processor and rear and front-facing cameras wrapped in a choice of four colourful plastic bodies. Prime members can use it for streaming films and reading books and store songs and photos in the cloud for free. It’s a cheap and cheerful-ish gift for tech addicts and those reluctant to embrace the 21st century alike.
This might be the most useful and manliest bracelet created. The Leatherman Tread is composed of links including usable tools like Allen wrenches, screwdrivers and box wrenches available at a moment’s notice. The bracelet is adjustable to accommodate any wrist size and fully customisable tool-wise too.
For amateur twitchers or those who like to occasionally gaze at the sea on holiday, Luger's LR 6x18 binoculars offer 6x magnification and a 131/1000m field of view. And with change for £40, there's some money left over for an ice cream by the surf too.
The Tile Gen 2 could let forgetful dads find keys or anything else it's attached to. Once a phone is within 100-foot Bluetooth signal of the Tile it'll start the hunt. As you get closer to the lost object the signal will get stronger and the distinctive melody of the Tile can be heard to help you find what you’ve lost.
Google Home hands-free speaker is a great gift to get the whole family organised. You can ask it questions, get it to play your music, use it to control your smart home and use it to make calls, among other functions. It comes with the new Google Assistant built in, so all of Google's advanced AI cleverness is only a voice command away and works with Chromecast for easy music and video access.
The Sonos PLAY:1 is the latest addition to the Sonos wireless speaker family and brings the same high-end sound quality and ease of use to a more compact form. The small speaker can stream music from different services easily and can be controlled from a phone app. It promises crystal clear sound thanks to two amplifiers and mid-woofer and can be set up for a multi-room experience.
Dapper dads need a good shaver and Braun's Series 9 Electric Foil Wet and Dry shaver is an award winner. It features SyncroSonic technology with 40,000 cross cutting movements per minute, removing more hair in the first stroke than any other electric shaver, and is 100% waterproof for speedy shaves under the shower.
With a super slim and portable design, as well as a bucket-load of top features, the Garmin Approach G8 is simply one of the best golf GPS systems on the market today.
The G8 comes pre-loaded with a whopping 40,000 courses worldwide and, thanks to free lifetime updates, even if a new course gets built you'll still be able to use this GPS on it and score well.
Neat features such as the ability to manually move the location of the pin depending on its daily location in Green View, as well as the ability to touch the colour capacitive display anywhere and get the precise distance to that mark, make the G8 incredibly versatile to use.
Naturally, the Garmin Approach G8 also delivers top stat-tracking, recording fairways hit, greens in regulation and putts per round. What's more, the Club Advice mode records how far a user hits each club and then makes recommendations based on that data, helping them determine which club to plump for.
Father will be Rory Mcllroy in no time!
The Garmin Approach G8 is available from various retailers, including American Golf, for a price of £329.99.
Parrot’s Swing minidrone makes flying a plane easy. It’s the only one of its kind with an autopilot and vertical take-off and landing mode, but the Flypad controller also means you can rule the skies with precision and master some seriously impressive stunts.
The Sport Dad can be a tricky (and expensive) customer to buy for, but the ticks all kinds of boxes. Ideal for swimmers and outdoor exercisers, it’s comfortable, rugged and simple to use, with a 6-month battery life and fully waterproof, practically indestructible design.
Like a much more budget-friendly personal trainer, it tracks all the vitals and talks you through your workout with its real-time audio coaching function, whether running, cycling, swimming, body weight training, or working on cardio.
Transforming a regular old bog standard notebook into a touchscreen might seem like the stuff of science fiction, but really all it takes is this nifty little gadget. plugs into your laptop via USB and magnetically clings below the screen, from where it emits an invisible light field over the screen, allowing it to respond to the touch of your finger, stylus or pen (lid on, obviously). Parental units constantly fighting over the house iPad? Turn every screen into a touch screen with this little beauty.
Everyone likes a toy and the Parrot MiniDrones Jumping Race TukTuk packs an impressive punch. It can jump over 75cm high or wide on demand and always lands back on its wheels, while a wide angle camera streams live immersive views onto the piloting screen in the free app that's used to control it.
You can swipe the screen for turns or tap to perform acrobatics and a rechargeable batteries means no dashing to the shops to play again.
Powertools are a Father's Day staple and your dad will love Bosch's EasyCut 12 – the first all-purpose saw with 'NanoBlade' technology. This means the saw blade with revolving micro-chain makes for vibration-free sawing. It's cordless and can be used indoors and outdoors for lazy gardening too.
The Libratone Zipp Wireless Speaker is a stylish device for someone who probably has impeccable music taste. With built-in rechargeable batteries, it's designed to stream any audio or video service including 1000s of internet radio stations via the Libratone app and can be paired with up to six speakers around the home, with a choice of five colours available.
If camping trips with dad are a family favourite, why not treat him to a hi-tech stove? The Biolite Camp Stove 2 boasts 4 fan speeds and an integrated battery, but most importantly, it promises to boil 1 litre of water in 4.5 minutes. No more rubbing sticks and waiting hours for a cuppa.
The UE Boom 2 is a portable wireless speaker that produces 360-degree sound and has touch response so you can tap it twice to skip an annoying tune. Great for parties, it boasts up to 15 hours of battery life on one charge and can be even be controlled by an app.
The GoPro HERO5 is perfect for recording family bike rides and other memorable moments. The camera is the most powerful yet with video, voice control, one-button simplicity, touch display and waterproof design. Smooth stabilised video, crystal-clear audio and pro-quality photo capture combine with GPS for professional-looking videos.
Tom Tom Runner 3
One for fitness fanatics. The Tom Tom Runner 3 is a GPS running watch that tracks your time, pace and distance. With multisport modes it can also be used to chart your bike, swimming and gym prowess but one feature that runners will love is 'route exploration,' which finds a route back to start, enabling runners to keep their mind on technique and not how to get home.
