“A watch for Sylvester Stallone wouldn’t do for Audrey Hepburn,” says designer Bruno Bellamich, co-founder of the brand Bell & Ross. “Not because of some male or female fashion ideal, but simply because of the difference in wrist sizes of these two American stars.” Bellamich, however, is not taking into account the resistance that has accompanied all fashion revolutions.
Think of Coco Chanel, who used to borrow items from the male wardrobe and didn’t like small watches for women. Of course, in Coco Chanel’s day, men’s watches were of the size of women’s timepieces now. As for Stallone, these days he would have to content himself with a smaller model.
The extra-large timepieces that were fashionable in the 2000s have disappeared. The trend is no longer one of exaggerated masculinity, much less a caricature of it. When Julien Tornare was head of Zenith, the famous watch brand from Neuchâtel in western Switzerland, he used to say he wanted to abandon ostensibly “male” watch models.
“That kind of division has gone in the automobile industry,” he said, “and it will disappear in watchmaking too.” Now he is pursuing this strategy at TAG Heuer. Ricardo Guadalupe, who heads the Hublot brand, shares this view.
“Although we happen to have a higher proportion of male customers,” he declares, “we have stopped classifying watches by gender. We have different collections with a range of sizes, offering a diversity of choice.” As well as unisex watches.