Now, this bold red carpet look is spreading. With jewelry designers making watches designed to be worn as necklaces, rings, belts and more. Rachael Taylor explains more about this emerging obsession with timekeeping.
Taylor Swift on the red carpet at this year's Grammy Awards wore a black diamond choker by Lorraine Schwartz. The choker had a vintage Concord watch dial. So she captured a trend that has been brewing for months: the watch necklace.
Swift's watch challenge wasn't the first such stylistic suggestion we've seen. Last summer, Rihanna wore a Jacob & Co Brilliant Flying Tourbillon watch. It was adorned with more than 30 carats of diamonds. She wore it as a choker at the Louis Vuitton SS24 show in Paris.
The watch, which is worth $670,000, was customized for the star with a very long strap made of good quality leather after she came to the brand with the idea.
American YouTuber Emma Chamberlain followed suit a few months later at the Miu Miu SS24 show. The watch she wore around her neck was less fancy than the diamond designs of Jacob & Co or Lorraine Schwartz. But the choice was inspiring.
It was a Cartier Baignoire with a dial. The elegant oval-shaped watch went viral after its release at Watches and Wonders 2023. Chamberlain used it as an accessory in a demure Miu Miu outfit. A Prince of Wales-style plaid jacket, but also a plaid button-down shirt and tartan glasses. With her hair in two long braids, this was geek chic at its most stylish.
«Blurring the boundaries between watches and jewellery is a great way to open up this product category to a whole new demographic of people. The one who may not be used to wearing watches.» As Eddie Goziker, president of luxury watch retailer Wrist Aficionado, says.
«Men's watches have always had a great historical emphasis on utility. But these days they are arguably used more often as a fashion statement. Also as a way for fashion lovers to communicate.
The model is wearing a Cartier La Panthère de Cartier watch in gold, black lacquer, chavorites and diamonds. Also a Cartier Tank Française watch in gold, a Cartier Tank Américaine watch in rose gold and diamonds. But also a Cartier Santos Dumont Micro-Rotor watch in steel.
Swift, Rihanna and Chamberlain were certainly hoping to propose. As did actress and provocative Julia Fox when she attended a New York Fashion Week event hosted by jewelry brand Pandora in September, wearing an open-back mini-suit and bandana top adorned with more than 25 vintage watches.
Goziker, however, believes that this trend could be passed on to the masses. And all indications are that she's right. Fox's outfit isn't likely to be repeated anytime soon. But the idea of a watch necklace has already entered the minds of some major brands. Victoire de Castellane created a long necklace with a watch pendant with a hardstone dial as part of her Gem Dior collection. She describes the designs as «non-figurative», adding that «the spirit of this collection is modern... organised disruption».
At this year's Watches and Wonders exhibition in Geneva, Chanel presented many watch jewellery pieces as part of the Couture O'Clock collection.
The secret watches were hidden inside precious pendants on long chains. They were disguised as haute couture tools such as dressmaker's models, thimbles and safety pins.
Chanel also took inspiration from the straps of her handbags to create a design in leather and gold. But with a watch-key charm, it can be worn as a belt as well as a necklace.
Tiffany & Co. also inspired a similar concept as part of its HardWear collection. It involves a watch that can be mounted on a long gold chain and worn as a bracelet, necklace or belt.
Piaget blurred the line between jewellery and watch with three new haute horlogerie creations launched this year at Watches and Wonders, which were inspired by the 1969 Swinging Sautoir designs.
Swinging Sautoir Piaget.
The watch cases were incorporated into elaborate gold and turquoise necklaces, with the dials removed so that they could be worn on the wrist and as traditional dress watches.
Swinging Sautoir Piaget.
Vacheron Constantin presented a similar concept with the Grand Lady Kala convertible creation. It allowed the transfer of a diamond dial from a necklace with pearl fringes to a diamond watch bracelet. But both could be worn without the dial, which was replaced by an all-diamond rhombus taking its place.
Dina Kamal, a jewellery designer known for her minimalist chic designs, recently took on a special commission to design a piece of jewellery based on a Patek Philippe watch. It belonged to her client's father and she wanted to honour his memory, but in her own style.
«I wanted it to look like a ceremonial medal,» says Kamal. So she placed the watch case in the centre of a layered gold disc pendant covered in diamonds and suspended on a handmade chain. «The discs reflect the idea of the labyrinth and time.» Kamal points out that the watch itself has been completely left in its actual form. It can therefore be safely removed at any time. Therefore, the value of the Patek Philippe watch is not compromised.
But this idea of designing new creations around luxury watches has been adopted by many jewellers lately. Patcharavipa has created a collection of cocktail rings with vintage Rolex watches in place of a central gemstone. While Jade Trau launched a capsule of six updated 1970s Rolex Cellini watches, embellished with diamonds and new case shapes.
«A watch at this stage is just a form of jewellery, as most of us don't look at our watches to see the time,» says Trau.
«I think nowadays the crossover between jewellery and watches is between their synergy. But both are an accessory used to adorn ourselves, make us look beautiful and enhance our personal sense of style. The watches that celebrities wear as chokers are simply beautiful jewelry, with their respective qualities.
Source: katerinaperez.com/
