ABOUT THE SIZE OF IT
Brands are finally challenging the supremacy of supersize watches – a shift that has won the approval of Salonqp’s James Gurney. In horology, he writes, good things come in small packages
Good things come in small packages, with the heritage brands challenging the supersize norm. It’s time to dial it down
You’d be forgiven for not noticing, but watches have shrunk in the past few years. Watch design evolves more slowly than high street fashion or technology, and shifts in scale, materials, functions and colours tend to be gradual. Even amid a discernible trend, brands will still be making models in the previous year’s coveted metals and sizes.
Here’s the headline statistic: average watch diameters have come down from 42mm and above to 40mm or smaller. A reduction of 2mm might not sound like much, but the end result is a watch that’s around 15% smaller. This development has even piqued the interest of Breitling and Panerai, brands long associated with 50mm-plus models. Not long ago, Panerai’s move towards smaller cases caused quite a stir, when it launched its 42mm Luminor Due. Purists complained that this was a step too small for a brand whose history is uncompromisingly macho, but the thinking behind it is hard to fault, given how much more wearable the new size is.
It was a similar story with Breitling’s new Navitimer collections, which form the core of the brand’s relaunch this year. These doff a cap to the brand’s archive aviator models, and there are still 45mm-plus versions if you can’t stomach the idea of downsizing. Now, however, we can also choose more considered iterations, such as those at 41mm and 38mm. That last size might seem uncomfortably small to a generation accustomed to sheer heft, but it’s worth remembering that this was the norm until the 1980s. And, with all the retro reissues appearing on the market, it’s a size we’ll be seeing more of in the years to come.
Hublot is a brand with a reputation for acting quickly on design trends, and if it’s still better known for big, bold designs such as the Techframe Ferrari or the Fifa World Cup smartwatch, the Classic Fusion covers all the bases, with sizes ranging from 33mm to 45mm. Within the collection, there’s another must-have: the “UltraThin”, a term that generally means anything up to 10mm in height. Tiny numbers make more of a difference than you might imagine, and the slimmest – under 4mm – can feel oddly slight if you’re used to something more substantial.
That said, Bulgari’s Octo Finissimo is a masterclass in how to design to smaller dimensions (it’s a scarcely credible 40mm by 5.15mm). Its simple dial is balanced by a complex case and a sandblasted steel finish that earmarks it as a future classic. If such svelte engineering doesn’t convince you that dialling down is the way forward, nothing will – but, in this case, small is unquestionably beautiful.
“WATCH SIZES HAVE FALLEN BY 15%. THEY’RE LESS MACHO, BUT FAR MORE WEARABLE”