A Return to Smaller Sized Watches

Much like the world of fashion, trends in the watch industry continue to evolve. It is fairly easy for someone who is observing the watch industry and collecting space to deduce that over the last 10-15 years, collectors and brands have focused heavily on their steel sports watches. Rolex Submariners and Omega Speedmasters are easily some of the most worn watches today. Collectors yearn after Audemars Piguet Royal Oaks and Patek Philippe Nautilus models. But in addiction to the steel sports watch craze, many brands were releasing watches that were on the larger side. 45-50mm watches became the norm 15 years ago, and smaller watches felt out of place.

What has been observed is some sort of regression to the mean - that is to say collectors realized how unpractical and in some cases, unattractive, a 50mm watch was. Sure, there are some uses for larger watches especially if you are wearing something like a Rolex Deepsea on a diving expedition. But there has been a regression to watches in the 38-40mm size categories. If one is to go back to the 1960’s and 1970’s, watch sizes were regularly smaller than 40mm. In fact, many collectors crave watches like oversize vintage Universal Geneve chronographs (uni-compax and tri-compax) which pushed their case sizes to 36mm and 38mm.

Now it is hard to point to a catalyst over the last 2-3 years that have pushed collectors, but it seems like collectors are opening up to smaller case sizes much more than they were before. One could point to the vintage watch market, maybe stemming from all of the excitement about Paul Newman’s Paul Newman that sold at auction. Watch brands have spent more time designing and stretching their ‘Heritage’ line of watches. With the reissue of many famous heritage models, brands are keeping case sizes the same as they were when the watches originally were released because the proportions of many of those watches would be thrown off by larger cases.

Now of course watch case sizes have to do with more than just the diameter of the watches. Thickness and the length of the lugs of the watch can all play a part in the size of a watch. Many brands are not using the same movements they did when their heritage watches were first released, but keeping the lug design fairly similar. So what one gets is a case that feels modern, with a modern (sometimes thicker) movement which can make the watch feel hefty, modern, but still be around the 38mm size.

This trend goes beyond just modern watches. Vintage watch enthusiasts who are used to wearing smaller watches are also feeling okay wearing a 34mm watch. Now not all 34mm watches are created equal. As the general collecting community gets more educated, high quality watches are standing on the shoulders of the market. A lot of the times, these watches have exciting histories, or developed in fewer quantities with interesting complications.

This is an exciting trend in the watch community. Feeling comfortable in ones skin is important, especially when building a watch collection. Size of a watch is only one factor, and there is so much one can enjoy beyond just the diameter.

Enjoy!