Inside the trend towards smaller watches for men

All hands point to a new era away from the chunky cases that have dominated the industry for years

The Cartier Tank Must comes in at a trim 32.6mm. Photo: Cartier

Gabrielle Chanel adapted the comfort and uniformity of a man’s suit for women. Yves Saint Laurent gave women the tuxedo and women have been relaxed about wearing watches theoretically designed for men for decades. Yet the notion of a man wearing anything slimmer and sleeker than a bulky 44mm sports watch might elicit bewilderment in some quarters. Nevertheless, not every man can pull off a chunky Hublot or Breitling Navitimer, so smaller dress watches are making a return.

Cartier’s chic new Tank Normale is 32.6mm, Girard Perregaux’s Laureato is scaled down to 34mm and Hermes’s colourful new 36mm Cut model is attracting men, as well as women. This shrinkage coincides with a trend among brands including Zenith, Audemars Piguet and Girard Perregaux to abandon classifying their watches as ladies’ or men’s.

“I happen to be a firm supporter of small watches on men, especially because it allows for a degree of fluidity in terms of ‘gendered’ watches,” says Stephen Doig, men’s style editor at The Telegraph. “Some of the chicest watches in history have been relatively small in proportions – the Cartier Tank, the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso. I happen to have my eye on a beautiful Cartier Must de Tank that’s rather dinky. They are so much more refined and debonair.”

Austin Butler at the Cannes Film Festival in one of his collection of Cartier Tanks. Reuters

In the Middle East, Frederic Watrelot, watch specialist at Sotheby’s Dubai, has noticed a reduction in the size of watches being collected, with vintage 1970s and 1980s – and even older timepieces – attracting interest. “Patek Philippes, for example, or Audemars Piguets that might be 34, 35 or 36mm dress watches, may have been laughed at five years ago, but nowadays people are wearing them,” he says.

“We are seeing people buying watches from the 1980s and 1990s that are a bit smaller in volume and maybe a bit more bling, such as the vintage Santos Cartier in full gold with screws, and the Cartier Cougars, but one that I’ve seen local people wear and is extremely fashionable is the Cartier Crash.”

They are in good company. US basketball Olympic gold medallist LeBron James wore the coveted Crash watches to a pre-Games event and actor Timothee Chalamet slipped a diamond-encrusted version on his wrist for the Golden Globes, although his go-to watch is 23mm Cartier Panthere. Actors Paul Mescal and Austin Butler each have a wardrobe of discreet classic Cartier Tanks to wear with a tuxedo, while Saltburn actor Barry Keoghan similarly dials down the dimensions with Omega’s 34mm Seamaster Aqua Terra with pavé diamonds. Even more sparkly has been musician The Weeknd’s appearance in Cannes wearing a 32mm bejewelled Piaget Limelight Gala.

Barry Keoghan dials down the dimensions with Omega’s 34mm Seamaster Aqua Terra with pavé diamonds at the 81st Annual Golden Globe Awards. Getty Images

However, it is not only the red carpet leading this trend. Football star Neymar wears a 28mm Rolex Lady-DateJust and Lionel Messi has a Patek Philippe Aquanaut Luce Rainbow, a colourful sapphire baguette-set ladies’ watch, while rapper Bad Bunny collects, and wears, vintage gem-set ladies' watches, which might be considered an extreme style move.

Colour, however, is being borrowed from the female wardrobe, with Ryan Gosling wearing the pink 36mm Tag Heuer Carrera Date for the Barbie publicity tour last year. Currently, a 34mm Audemars Piguet Royal Oak in vivid pink is attracting lots of attention. Similarly, the Tangente 38 special edition from Nomos is available in 31 different colour combinations that were thrilling collectors at Geneva’s Watches & Wonders earlier this year.

The line between men’s and women’s watches is becoming less defined. You can thank a reinvigorated market for vintage watches – which tend to be smaller – for that. As with fashion and jewellery more broadly, it demonstrates that men are having more fun expressing their individuality by going small.