T
he tiny watch is back. Should you need proof, just take a look at the wrists of celebrities, musicians and influencers, male and female, and you’ll quickly notice that the days of chunky, weighed down timepieces are gone. Instead, the fashionable set are opting for something a bit more svelte, and usually vintage-inspired. Tom Heap, the head of department of watches at Sotheby’s London, says this preference for slimmer models was initially driven by younger watch collectors, who were looking to invest in smaller watches, particularly from brands such as Cartier. They’ve since become some of the most in-demand styles, sported by everyone from Dua Lipa to Zendaya. These sorts of watches have also become popular with men, with Tyler the Creator, Paul Mescal and Ryan Gosling frequently seen sporting small designer watches — sometimes up to two at one time and occasionally watches that might originally have been designed for women.
It was Cartier’s rarer vintage models like The Crash that really kicked off the trend. An asymmetrical watch, The Crash was produced by Cartier London in 1967. When it was first released, Heap said hardly anyone was buying it, but over the past decade it began making the rounds on celebrity wrists. Soon, the limited-release model became much, much more expensive. In 2022 alone, a first-release Crash (think of this like the first edition of a book) sold for a record $1.65 million at auction. Following this tide, other daintier models from the brand found their way onto fashionable wrists. Cartier’s Baignoire, a thin bracelet-like watch, is now a favourite of the model Sofia Richie-Grainge. The pre-owned watch specialists Watchfinder & Co reported a 16.38 per cent price uplift on Cartier’s Panthère, another delicate model, between 2023-2024 alone.
