Engineering & Tech Gifts for 2025
Know a hard-to-buy-for Engineer, maker, or techie? Need a gift for... yourself? Read on for eight gift options that your tech-person will love and actually use!
Techie types (e.g. engineers) can be quite particular about the things they use, often making them difficult gifting targets. While I can’t guarantee the things listed here will satisfy the tech aficionado in your life, I can recommend everything on this list.
Maybe that special and/or obligatory person in your life will enjoy these devices as much as I have. So, without further ado, here are eight tech-adjacent gifts that your engineering friends will likely enjoy:
Knipex 87-100 adjustable wrench/pliers
For the individual engineer, it may hard to justify buying the little–dare I say cute–pliers/wrench seen above on the right. On the other hand, they are very well made, and fit in nicely among the tools that live in my office (as opposed to those that live in my garage). Don’t expect to change a tire with these, but they’re quite appropriate for the odd tightening/loosening job for nuts, bolts, or whatever else.
Screwdrivers are simple implements, and as such, they might seem like devices that shouldn’t cost a lot of money. But if you’re using them over and over for critical tasks, a good set can be an excellent investment. At ~$25/set, these seven screwdrivers are not cheap, but their premium operation lives up to their premium price. They are truly a pleasure to use. One of the coolest features is that the red tops rotate, allowing you to press down while still turning the screwdriver.
JARLINK 30x light-up jewelers loupe
If you need to view small things like circuit boards, this loupe is a great tool. It has 3 LED lights, along with 3 UV lights for illumination (though I rarely use the UV mode). The batteries are a bit of a pain to change and are not rechargeable, but if you remember to turn it off and don’t use it constantly they last for quite a while.
Maybe I’ll do some sort of battery/USB upgrade in the future, but I need to finish a few things before taking on yet another project!
Neatfi desk lamp/magnifying glass
Taking a different view on illumination/magnification, this device has served me quite well for over a year. While the magnification is nice at times, what is really like is that the light doesn’t pop off its stand like other similar, less expensive desk lamps. It costs a bit more than some other swing-arm lamps, but the quality (+magnification) is well worth it in my opinion.
Recommended by my friend Pocket83,1 this class of tool appears to be most commonly used for surgical procedures, likely having to do with clamping down blood vessels and/or holding sutures. That being said, if you need to clamp small things like wires and the like these could be very helpful.
If you’re an actual surgeon, dentist, veterinarian, PA, or even amateur suture master,2 I assume and hope you have better sources for them. To their credit, these hemostats are made impressively well for their sub-$10 price.
I love these pens. I mean four colors in one, how awesome is that? OK, maybe love is a bit of an exaggeration. They’re not that well built, but they’re not that expensive either. Seems like I had one or two growing up, and now that I actually earn a living I can sometimes afford ~$6 for 4 of these pens.
OLIGHT 150 lumen rechargeable keychain flashlight
One more light product: At a size comparable to the portion of your pinky past the second knuckle, this flashlight easily fits on a keyring and shines way brighter than you’d expect (150 lumens) thanks to advanced COB LED technology and its rechargeable battery. Build quality is very good, but on the down side it uses Micro USB for charging.
And if you’re thinking “my phone has a flashlight,” this one is better. At least it’s better than my iPhone 15, especially with regards to how far it shines.
If USB-C is important to you, I don’t have much experience with this flashlight (bought one as a gift IIRC), but it claims USB-C charging, an incredible 650 lumen light output, and better battery capacity. I’m less sure about its actual construction, and it appears slightly larger, but it might represent an upgrade for some at least.
This book features beautiful pictures of electrical components with explanations. I got to interview author Windell Oskay on the Create/Invent Podcast some time ago and did a review of the book on Embeddedcomputing.com. This looks like a great tome for the tech-minded coffee table owner’s home, or something that would be a great fit for any sort of tech/engineering company’s lobby.
I Predict Your Engineering Gift Target Will Love It!
Except as noted, I’ve used all of these products, and can recommend each one. What’s appropriate for the engineering/tech person in your life will vary, but I’m personally quite happy with all these doodads.
If you’re looking to get me a gift, well I already have pretty much all of what’s listed here, but if you buy one for someone else I get a small percentage of the proceeds at no cost to you3. So I say that counts, even if I’m not going to send you a thank you card since I won’t know who you are… Plus, I’m generally pretty slack about that anyway.
Or you can leave a comment on this post. This could mean even more given Amazon’s payment structure. I will probably even reply back.
All the best, and happy holidays! -JC
Thanks for reading! I hope you will follow along as I post weekly-ish about engineering, technology, making, and projects. Fair warning: I am a native Florida man, and may get a little off-topic in the footnotes. Maybe I even had an alligator or two as pets growing up. Perhaps they are alive today and could be used to test earth-wormhole pet friendliness.
Any Amazon links are affiliate
Addendum/Footnotes:
Pocket83 didn’t recommend this tool in particular, but this class of tool.
If you are an amateur suture master, I would love to know more.
No cost to you individually, as in the price doesn’t change. OTOH, one might argue that this sort of advertising pushes everyone’s prices up in the aggregate. Like if you were to take a penny from the tray at 7-eleven a couple of million times.