“Many guys have begun to view bracelets as a way to separate themselves from the herd,” Mr. Bennett said. “It’s the same reason men have started wearing pocket squares and wacky socks; accessories are a way to feel unique, without abandoning the uniform.”

Even for men who keep it to one or two, bracelets offer a subtle hint at rebellion that can still be hidden under a jacket sleeve if need be. It’s going out on a fashion limb that doesn’t feel as if it’s going to snap and leave you tumbling.

“I think a lot of guys are nervous to try new styles, for fear of looking silly,” Mr. Moore said. “Maybe the leather cuff is a way of playing around with my image that is still kind of safe.”

But a starter bracelet does not stay single for long. Kirk Bray, a founder of Billykirk, a men’s accessories line that sells leather cuffs at fashionable outlets like Opening Ceremony, said that men often “start off with a few, and eventually they’re filling up a good four or five inches on each wrist.”

In more extreme cases, men seem to be taking their cues from 9-year-old girls, or the Olsen twins. Kristian Laliberte, the New York editor of Refinery29, a fashion Web site, combines so many cloth and leather cuffs with metal bracelets by Cartier and Tiffany that his forearms suggest a very stylish gladiator. It is “sort of like an adult version of why kids collect Silly Bandz,” said Mr. Laliberte, who recently featured his own decorated arms on the site.