When Yoni Ben-Yehuda, the head of watches at the luxury retailer Material Good, woke in New York on April 14, the first morning of Watches and Wonders Geneva, he was surprised by the number of phone messages he had from clients. And most of them, he said, were about one introduction at the annual watch fair: an 18-karat gold Audemars Piguet timepiece with a case and bracelet links shaped like pebbles.
The response to the Établisseurs Galets design was just one example of how unusual watch shapes are becoming stylish as today’s buyers “want something bold and different from the norm,” Mr. Ben-Yehuda said.
Nostalgia for the “crazy, cool cases” of the 1960s and 1970s has been driving the trend, according to Maximilian Büsser, the founder and creative director of MB&F.
In June, Mr. Büsser’s brand introduced an elongated 49.3 millimeter by 43.6 millimeter titanium case for its HM12 watch. The futuristic looking case — which features four subdials, including a flying tourbillon at 12 o’clock — doubles as the head of a 38-centimeter (15-inch) robot, called The Guardian, designed as a desktop display by L’Epée.
Watch brands have “revisited over all these last 20, 30 years their archives,” Mr. Büsser said. “They probably didn’t dare come out with the crazier versions, and now they are. And suddenly they’re seeing that it’s working.”
And “in a sea of round, classic 38-millimeter watches,” he added, “these pieces stand out.”
One such shaped watch appeared at the Met Gala in May. Rami Malek had a 1992 platinum Cartier Crash — a version of the Dalí-esque shape first introduced in 1967 — peeking from under the cuff of his tailored black Saint Laurent coat with faux fur collar.
“Because the watch itself is such a statement piece you need to let it sit against a black canvas,” so the watch stands out, said Shane C. Kurup, the men’s style editor of Country & Town House magazine.
Offering a Choice
Mr. Kurup has some unusually shaped watches in his own collection, including a 1960s egg-shape steel Duxot watch with a dark blue dial and bracelet, which he bought from an eBay seller. “It was a bit odd,” he said, “and I like things that are a bit off-kilter.”
He speculated that men, in particular, are seeking unusual timepieces because the watch world in general has become so generic. “Every other guy has got a Rolex Submariner or an Omega Speedmaster on his wrist,” he said, so “one way to be able to express your sense of personal style or your personality is by wearing an unusual watch that’s a bit different. And shape watches do that because it’s always a talking point.”
This year Cartier has reimagined five watch models for men and women “to propose a choice for our clients,” said Pierre Rainero, the house’s director of image, style and heritage. (He was referring to the Crash, Tortue, Roadster, Cloche and Baignoire designs.)
A limited edition of the Crash, for example, will have skeletonized movement “designed specifically for this watch,” Mr. Rainero said, noting that it “took years to make.” Just 150 of the 45.34 millimeter by 25.18 millimeter platinum timepieces are scheduled for release in September (price on application).
Mr. Rainero said such designs may be modified “according to the movement we put into the watch.” For example, the Roadster, a 2002 model whose bulging case was inspired by dashboard speedometers, is to be reintroduced in October with a significantly different shape and automatic movements made in-house. (The original Roadster models used automatic or quartz movements manufactured by the Swiss maker ETA.)
The new Roadster case will be “more elongated; it’s more flattish, more thin,” he said, and will be offered with steel, gold or two-tone cases in two sizes, priced from $9,300 to $57,000.
Cartier also plans “to build a range of very distinctive shapes” in the next few years, Mr. Rainero said, including variations of the bell-shape Cloche de Cartier to whet collectors’ interest.
More Distinctive
It makes business sense to have unusual watch cases among a brand’s offerings, said Stéphanie Sivrière, Piaget’s director of jewelry, high jewelry and watchmaking, such as the reimagined 29-millimeter quartz Sixtie, which has a blue quartz-stone dial and an 18-karat pink gold case that is wider at the top than the bottom ($17,300).
After all, she said, “when we are more creative and more different, you are more distinctive.”
An unusual case also can become something of a brand signature, too. For example, Federico Ziviani, chief executive of Gerald Charles, uses the distinctive design of the Maestro case — with an undulating edge at 6 o’clock — for the company’s sales counters, display cabinets and more.
And some markets are particularly attracted to oddly shaped watches. Like Japan, as “they love design,” he said, a few days after the company introduced an 80-piece limited edition of its new 41 millimeter by 39 millimeter steel Maestro 2.0 ultrathin watch with a jade dial.
The younger generation of watch collectors is especially “looking for more unusual shapes,” he said, and “is influencing the more traditional collector by bringing some different perspective on not looking at different shape as something odd but looking at it as something of creative value.”
‘What Was I Thinking?’
Overall, watches with unusually shaped cases “are fun,” said Rob Kellner, a collector in Manchester, England, who also has tallied more than 1.3 million views on his own YouTube watch channel, “Rob the American.”
He referred to the Hautlence Sphere Series 4, a titanium piece whose 45-millimeter wide case resembles the shape of a TV screen ($86,900). As a member of the Manchester chapter of the watch enthusiast organization RedBar, Mr. Kellner said he would wear the design “to a watch meet, where you want all the other watch guys to see it.”
But he added a note of caution. A watch with an unusual shape would have “to stand the test of time,” he said, noting that later on he would not want to look at his own wrist “and go, ‘what was I thinking?’”
Other collectors do not seem to be worried. The prices of such styles have soared at auctions this year and “subsequently could motivate makers and brands to introduce new models with unusual designs,” said Paul Boutros, deputy chairman and head of watches of the Americas at Phillips New York.
In June, for example, the auction house sold an asymmetric Vianney Halter 18-karat pink gold perpetual calendar Antiqua watch from the 2000s for $584,200, more than doubling its high $200,000 sale estimate.
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