The evolution of watch design

Thanks to technological advances like the invention of the mainspring in the 1520s, European watchmakers succeeded in miniaturizing the components of a clumsy clock movement to create miniature portable clocks. This huge technological breakthrough has effectively taken time from the public domain – in the form of clocks and sundials – to the private rooms of the wealthiest members of society. Equipped with the latest technology, these mini clocks would essentially become the first portable devices in the history of watch design and a favorite among European royalty and aristocracy.

As a style icon and avant-garde of her time, Queen Marie-Antoinette of France wanted a pocket watch that would eclipse any other creation on Earth. What queens want, queens get, and the leading watchmaker of the time, Abraham Louis Breguet, was commissioned in 1783 to work his magic. His most famous creation – known as pocket watch no. 160 – housed a minute repeater, perpetual calendar, equation of time, power reserve indicator and even a thermometer in its miniature movement. Unfortunately, the Queen lost her head in 1793 and Breguet died four years before the watch was finished by his son in 1827.

Meanwhile, in Geneva, a certain Madame Goscinska would become Patek Philippe’s first official client, buying three watches from the brand in 1839. Enamelling was the brand’s strong point, and the miniature scenes that appealed to women won. in popularity around the world, including Queen Victoria, who fell in love with a powder blue pocket watch adorned with a floral pattern of rose-cut diamonds in 1851, which she wore as a pendant.

When Countess Koscowicz of Hungary, another avant-garde leisure lady, commissioned a watch from Patek Philippe in 1868, the fashion to wear watches on the wrist rather than on the body began to spread.

Resolutely anchored in the feminine field and shunned by men because trinkets, wristwatches, bracelets-watches are adorned with the most glamor, with jewelry models coming out of the workshops of big houses like Cartier or Van Cleef & Arpels. Watches were jewelry and vice versa, and a proliferation of styles matched the zeitgeist, with whimsical geometry and elegantly styled branding designs produced during the Art Deco period.

After World War II, a wave of optimism swept through the United States and Europe, and women were able to indulge in luxury again. The glamor of the Hollywood era sparked a nostalgia for fine jewelry watches, with the return of secret watches, ideal companions for the obligatory aperitif.

The Swinging Sixties have injected their furrow into the evolution of watch design, and Piaget’s irreverent combinations of daring natural stone dials, yellow gold mesh bracelets and diamonds captivated the zeitgeist of the decade. Perfectly.

Electronic quartz technology in the early 1970s opened the door to unprecedented precision and more economical watches, but seriously dented the Swiss market for traditional mechanical watches. Some of the most consolidated brands bravely resisted the invasion and defended their market share with bold proposals that are still in vogue today, such as the iconic Royal Oak watch by Audemars PIguet or the Nautilus model by Patek Philippe. . With their masculine profiles, these iconic ladies’ watches spoke to empowered women who value functionality, readability and reliability and made a powerful statement.

Powerful dress women of the 1980s needed a watch to live up to their status and the showier attitude prevailed throughout the 2000s. The recession of 2008 marked a return to more watch designs. binding on women, and today the lines between men’s watches and watches are blurring, confirming a trend for unisex watches that appeal to both sexes.