Beyond time: the watch as jewelry
As a form of self-expression, the watch has left its usual home on the wrist to find new places to reside. What happens when celebrities turn watch-wearing conventions on their head (or throat, or ankle…)?
While old habits die hard, the belief that a watch is the only jewelry a man can wear has had its day. Just as a gentleman’s lapel cries out for a brooch, at the very least the bejeweled protection of some form of lucky charm, women are reclaiming the watch as my time, myself . It is a virtuous circle: the art of adornment thrives on reminiscence. In the sixteenth century, a process of miniaturization created timepieces small enough to wear on one’s person, opening up endless possibilities. Watches were hung around the neck, clipped to a belt, incorporated into rings, even dangled from the ear. Until, that is, the nascent wristwatch established a tenet in the early years of the twentieth century. Piaget dared flout the rules in the 1970s with necklaces that gave the time but that, more or less, was that. Women were on the frontline of a different battle, namely to be given recognition as watch wearers—and buyers—in their own right. And the choice that goes with it. /public-objects/c936492a-9057-414e-bcde-7168716befb6-5d0e106d-fb0d-45d0-aa49-269b060abffb-ANDREA%20(6)_V3_CMYK_SITE.webp Image sélectionnée Time on your hands Thanks to a drip-feed of mechanical movements, and parsimonious doses of complications, women’s watches have acquired both substance and status. Offer her the world (timer) and she will make it her own. Rihanna, a seasoned collector—from the Rolex King Midas to the Patek Philippe Nautilus Chronograph 5980—, in 2023 wore a Jacob & Co. watch complete with a rare flying tourbillon complication as a choker. Since then, horological highflyers have appeared on various parts of clothing, even the body. Sacrilege? Gregory Kissling, CEO of Breguet, a house founded 250 years ago, is unfazed: “Originality doesn’t undermine a legacy, it reveals it. We see it as a continuity of the Breguet spirit, which has always been to encourage freedom, inventiveness and an intimate connection with the creation.” At Bulgari, the message could not be clearer: “We refuse to be pigeonholed,” says Jonathan Brinbaum, managing director of the watches division. “How an individual chooses to wear their watch is never an act of transgression, only sincerity. (…) A watch worn as a choker, an anklet or a brooch isn’t gratuitous provocation. It is a way to express the emotion the watch inspires and prolong its language beyond conventions.” /public-objects/ddadf120-4423-4da6-ade0-6f756650ae6e-35d8aa6f-c203-4c32-9e3a-fec87e1bd06d-Cape-Cod-copyright-Joel-Von-Allmen-11.webp Image sélectionnée For watch stylist Sara Sandmeier, “a watch is a high-mech, high-style object” that she would happily wear “on a harness, a holster, cross-body, definitely to signify strength.” Her words echo those of Sophie Pelletier (Sophie Pelletier, Le Roman du bijou fin-de-siècle in Romantisme et Modernités. Paris: Honoré Champion, 2016), for whom jewelry is an instrument of female empowerment. Coco Chanel, instigator of a new order, immediately springs to mind. Like its brilliant founder, Chanel’s watchmaking division continues to challenge boundaries with creations that measure time as much as our capacity to reveal who we are: a thimble necklace, an enameled amulet, a sautoir that connects to a smartphone. Each an invitation to loosen up an object long set in its ways. For the watch world, blowing hot and cold could well be a breath of fresh air.