Horological Meandering

Hi All,

Having seen a trend in recent times, by almost everyone from Rolex to whoever, to go bigger in watch size.... has resulted in some pretty oversize models being produced.

I feel very confident that this trend will reverse over the next year or so.

I have a reasonably large wrist of 7.5 inches or 190 mm and for many years wore a Rolex at 36 mm.

It was fine, a little small, but wore very well.

I have a titanium at 43, a chorno at 43 and a Daytona also getting up there but find that when a watch get above around the 39 mm mark it becomes big for me.

Given also that the expected major market was and is Asia, and wrists there are not so large, I think there will be a trend back from the 42 mm plus sizes... back down to around 38 to 40.

What do you think?

Kindest regards,

Jack

This message has been edited by justpen on 2009-07-30 07:05:36

People have been saying this for quite some time, and it's not going to happen IMO.  I think watches may have hit their limit in terms of size, but they will stay up here IMO.

Cheers,
Anthony

They are continuing to move towards larger watches, and will be increasing the size of certain existing models, as they have done the past few years.

Craig

I think that the future of watch making is more into the unique design elements of the watch and how it works.
A unique movement need a bigger case, and also a bigger watch has a better visibility of how unique the watch look.

And plus, now a days watch has becoming more of a statement to the owner, so automatically some people prefer large watch, again for a better visibility.

because his clients told him they wanted to back off on the sizes a bit.

Another factor is the price of material e.g. gold and platinum; even a 2mm diameter drop and the proportional drop in other dimensions yields cubic savings in material.

Unless there is a functional reason for large sizes, there is no evolutionary or ergonomic reason to be large for the sake of being large during tough economic times.  The watches will not contract to the small sizes of past post-world war dimensions but they need not stay above 42mm diameter after the fad has passed.   There are no Schwarzeneggers and Stallones driving size inflation these days.

 

Regards,

MTF

Of course, size does matter when it comes to watches.

If the size of the wrist watches continue to grow, I would rather wear a pocket watch.

Regards

Ling

if the watch is not functionally required for such large size.

stefan

people get bored to wear these big watches every day.
A smaller watch (38-40mm) and a suit looks so much better than a 44mm and a suit.
As MTF said, we will not go back to where it all started with,
but 40 mm is what I see as a more common size, for the time to come.
GEO

and 7mm thickness are upper bound for me because of thin bezel and thin  lug design, the double tourbillon really looked ugly for me ; For Panerai - 47mm is the historic size and anything below that seem odd; for Rolex- addition of 2mm in DSSD without corresponding change in size of clasp also make the bracelet odd; it really boiled down to design.

For me dress watch=36-39mm

Sport watch=40-47mm

cf  I have a small 6.5" wrist but I own and wear a PAM 232 and have a 47mm vintage Longines chrono and a 55mm Laco Big pilot yr 2000 re-edition

I think we will see a range from 38mm up. The number of large watches above 45mm will decrease, but the variety of sizes will remain, which is a good thing as it gives the consumer greater choice. It is very unlikely we will go back below 38mm. As others have said, proportion is the key.

 

Andrew

...nature works on the grass being greener caper, that will not change. Most large watches at the moment are new and because of that they still hold thier show-off potential, a decade down the line the world will be awash with half-battered large lumps looking half sorry for themselves...there could be big problems for wristlet watch manafacturers at this point dependant on which way folk will view things. Already people have spoken about deciding to not wear a newly aquired large watch outside thier cuff when going to meet friends who have recently been made redundant, they don't look modest and 'some' cultures will not like that. I was in somebodys office not long back and they dodged behind a door and mouthed to thier secretary to declare them to be out...i later asked why and laughed at the gentlemens response 'the knot in his tie is bigger than his head, his watch is bigger than the back of his hand and he drives a blacked out 4 wheel drive around the city...how many guess's do you want". Possibly a bad case of stereotyping but like i said at the start...'thats what humans do' and that wont be changing anytime soon. One social commentator got it just about spot on when he pronounced 'when the chavs wear large watches it's time to make a move....thats how it works'.

 

I sold my blacked out 4 wheel drive LoooL

S

Hi Andrew,

I agree that 38 will be the general minimum and I see the max at 42-43 for Chronos and some complications.

The days of 32 to 36 are dead and gone. In reality they were only fashionable, and surfaced, to keep in line with the emerging Quartz's diminishing size.

I also agree with MTF, Geo and especially Catherine.

Forgetting about fads, ( and we all, at some time, have dressed uncomfortably for the sake of fashion) there is comfort level for human endurance.

Everything lasting is made to fit our comfort level, be it the height door knob, a kitchen bench or a bar stool.

Whenever a product appears that defies this level, it is always only a matter of time before it fades into unpopularity.

My prediction is that if you want to buy a big watch, do it now.

Very soon they will all be condemned to the attic to live with the old bell-bottom jeans, and old Quartz watches with moldy straps and leaking batteries.

Kindest regards,

Jack

Ps thanks for your words on the 5817.

No message body

Yes, when the novelty wears off... it is always back to practicality.

Kindest

Jack

Watches were originally larger because of the movement, then as the technology enabled reduction of the movement, of course it became popular to have a smaller watch.
Today's fashion tends to be not so much original as reinterpretations of the past. Large watches are made popular by the fashionistas, celebrities, etc, and the public wants them. The manufacturers, of course, oblige. Larger watches for men have a certain testosterone element to them. Bigger is better. Women like the large size because it liberates them from the confined fashion of the past. A large watch says that you are modern.
That being said, we are already past the curve.
Fashion is also fickle. As soon as a stellar smaller watch gets the limelight and embraced by celebrity icons, the public will start to switch gears.
Watches cannot get larger at this point, but I think a rebellious fashionista bunch can easily jumpstart the return to a smaller watch.
Bogey wasn't wearing a huge pilot at the time, he had an elegant Curvex.
What Clooney & the James Bond du jour wears, sad to say, influences people. This message has been edited by mrsnak on 2009-07-30 17:50:09

I remember reading a few years back, a couple interviews with men's clothing designers who loved how an elegant pocket watch in a vest pocket made such a great statement. They were hoping that this might once again be popular. Never stopped the eccentrics from wearing them, but getting to the mainstream takes work.
Granted, pocket watches in the day were the current technology, but now that fashion blurs all that, how great it would be to see them come back as an accepted very hip clothing option.
The cool thing about real fashion is that individuals, not the masses, create the cool stuff. If I wore the proper clothing often enough, I'd easily be wearing one.
It's all about you and your identity.
My profession (and the fact I work at home) allows more casual clothing, so a vest to properly wear a pocket watch would only appear on rare occasions.
Still love to get mine out when I can!

where it's more acceptable now to wear 42-44mm watch without feeling big. Big is maybe reserved for those with >44mm
I believe things in our world will recycle themselves (look at sunglasses/glasses now), we may see 36-40 mm in fashion again in the future. Thin watches may also come back as opposed to those humongous monsters on our wrists. I limit myself to 42mm the most now. I prefer 38-42mm though I am big in nature. Dress watches with huge diameter to cope with fashion trend just turn me off.

watches cannot get much larger and could get somewhat smaller, though I agree that men's watches will probably never dip below 35 mm again. 

Here's the problem with the current trend.  Some guys -- a substantial fraction of the market -- actually look great in ROOs and Panerais.  Some guys look terrible in them because, for example, the lugs stick out beyond their wrists.  Today, the guys in the latter category are willing to put up with the ungainly appearance because big watches are de rigeur, and hardly anyone says:  "hey, that watch is just too big for your wrist."  But THAT will surely change because, in fact, watches with lugs that extend beyond the countours of a wrist do look very odd.  And the average wrist size will not be getting bigger anytime soon. 

So, what will the major watch manufacturers do when the guys whose wrists are too small for 44 mm watches stop buying them because they realize they look bad wearing them?  Of course, the guys with bigger wrists will keep buying those watches.  But there are only so many such people in the market, and scale economies are important here.  And which brands will step in to provide high-end 36-38 mm watches that actually don't look too big for guys with thin-to-medium wrists?  Some brands will, and those watches will sell well. 

The market dynamics in the luxury watch industry are very strange, but they are not so strange that they can prevent the serious course correction demanded by simple wrist physiology.

Lug to lug (top end to bottom end) can make a huge difference as well.  The Richard Lange is a great watch but also has very long (through proportionate, but still long) lugs, which look a bit odd on narrow wrists, for which I think 36-38mm and 44-46mm (lug to lug) is about right.  For the bigger guys, 40mm watches can still work, but even in my lifting days 40mm was a departure from "classic", for me anyway.      

The limit is the wrist size, and we can see it with, for example, the so called Panerai Egiziano, which is literally unwearable with its 60 mm.

So, a reasonnable size has to be respected, for us to wear the watch.

I think it will alsodepend on the category of the watch.

An elegant and dressy watch will stay around 37 / 39 mm, whilme a sport watch willl more be around 42 / 44...

Bigger or smaller than this in the future?

Don't think so.

Best,

Nicolas

Hi Nicolas,

We are close in our thinking... I reckon 38 - 43... you say 37 to 44.

But another thing also relevant is that young guys these days do not do the same type of physical work, that due to lack of machinery etc, previous generations had to do, .

Many Workplace Health and Safety Laws are in place in various countries which limit the weight of packages manually lifted.

as an example, Cement used to come in 50 KG bags.... now many countries limit the bag weight to 15 or 20 KG.

Bottom line is man is shrinking.

Our lifestyle of evolution which created the Arnies and Sylvesters has changed.

Man reached his physical perfection in the 1960s and will never be as masculine, big boned or big wristed again.

And this can already be seen with a quick look at the physical change in the youth of today.

Interesting stuff.

kindest regards,

Jack

About the physical work on the consequences on the human wrist.

And about the Arnies and the Slys, too.

Can't we also consider that our mentalities did change, too, from extremely big watches to more wearable ones?

Less to be seen, more to be worn?

Best,

Nicolas

I do agree that workplace safety rules have changed, but let's face it, not for most of the world. True also, that more of us are sitting in front of a computer than ever before, but the bulk of the world's work is still manual labor. I don't see that changing much anytime soon.

If anything, we are larger and healthier (in developed countries) than ever. We are certainly more obese than ever. We need those large watches for those large wrists! ;-)

I don't see this changing. Sports has even evolved into creating super-athletes.

We may one day in the far future be sedentary blobs with giant brains, but no time soon. Our brains don't seem to be developing much these days.

bored with the larger sizes, they will start buying smaller ones and the trend will be reversed?

Scale is a valuable tool in the designer's toolbox, and it has been demonstrated time and again that adjusting scale works when you want to sell watches.  Watches will get small again.  Really small.   Then, of course, they'll get big again.  It's fashion, not human factors science.


Jeff