Watchonista Presents A Long, Hard Look At The Origins Of Erotic Watches

Watch nerds are known to get excited over what seems like the most marginal details. Things like, underline dials, dots over 90, transitional references, meters first, and so on. To those on the outside looking in, these details are nothing to fret over, much less fetishize.

With that in mind, we’re examining a genre of watches that undoubtedly qualify as niche but commands the fascination of collectors and laymen alike. We’re speaking, of course, about erotic watches.

Celebrity watch collecting is a competitive landscape, with each star trying to out-flex the rest with their latest Rainbow Daytona or Jacob & Co. giant. One enthusiastic participant in this arms race (wrist race?) is October’s very own, Drake.
 

Drake’s RM69 – suggestive though it may be – is quite tame compared to the original erotic watches that came long before it. Because, while Richard Mille is known for his avant-garde designs and technical prowess, erotic watches actually got their start some 270 years ago.
 

In the 17th century, watchmakers first began adorning risqué scenes inside the back covers of pocket watches through engravings or miniature paintings. Not to be outdone, other watchmakers began integrating their minute repeater movements so that the automata could act out these encounters in more lifelike detail. Unlike the RM, these watches preferred to show rather than tell.
 

Now that we’ve touched on the “what” and the “how,” let’s turn our attention to the “who,” the “where,” and, most importantly, the “why.” Erotic watches were primarily sold in France and England, although for two different reasons. In France, erotic watches came onto the scene during the reign of Louis XV. The preceding French monarchs adhered to strict codes of morality that included, as all moral codes do, conservative attitudes toward sex. Louis XV, on the other hand, was open with his sexuality and encouraged others to do the same. So erotic watches were seen as playful and indulgent little celebrations of the sensual and the sensational.
 

In England, by contrast, those strict moral codes stuck, and erotic watches were used to poke fun at the rules and the rulers of the day. In fact, the subjects chosen for these graphic scenes were often kings, priests, nuns, and whoever else was in charge of enforcing social mores. So these were satirical pieces, but they also served as party tricks and even pickup lines.
 

For example, after a few ales, an aristocratic libertine might fancy pulling out his naughty pocket watch and revealing the contents to a potential evening companion. Her reaction to such a piece would help him gauge whether they’d soon be behaving scandalously in the powder room. A bold strategy for sure, but with a life expectancy somewhere around 40, one needed to be direct. 
 

In recent years, Ulysse Nardin is the brand that has been the most prolific arbiter of the genre with its Hourstriker Erotica series and the Classic Voyeur collection discreetly unveiled at SIHH 2018.
 

And independent watchmaker Svend Andersen has created more than a few examples, even going so far as to produce a Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky themed piece. How’s that for social commentary?