Women are stealing our complications!
According to some brands, women have finally taken an interest in complications. Are women on the way to making these mechanical toys that were until now reserved for men their own? Watchmakers believe so and want to convince us too.
Women have always liked wearing men’s watches. Sometimes they wear watches they inherited from their late fathers. On other occasions, they wear their husbands’ watches, thus reminding them that not keeping their watch in its place entails risks. And yet, there has never been equality in watchmaking. Until now, ladies’ watches were only smaller-sized versions of men’s watches with only some slightly different design or jewelling to demarcate them. Besides, aren’t diamonds and precious stones a girl’s best friends? Moreover, as women hate useless constraints, their watches were quartz watches, which only need to have their batteries changed every two to five years.
This has however not always been the case. For more than two centuries, women have indirectly inspired great watchmakers. Indeed, it was customary to produce a unique piece for special clients.
At the time, master watchmakers saw it as a challenge to make watches thinner and narrower to make them more elegant. This usually resulted in either some technical achievement or a very creative piece. Elena Stefanova, Art historian and watchmaking production manager explains: the history of complicated watchmaking owes a lot to women. Incidentally, Stefanova gave a memorable conference on the matter during a congress of the “Société Suisse de Chronométrie”.
As its name hints, this 43-mm watch is a ladies’ watch. The tourbillon model sports contemporary aesthetics and its “all-black” look is a contrast with the pink gold. It is a digest of Haute Horlogerie demands and has been produced by a niche brand.
All of a sudden, it seems that women are crazy about refined watchmaking mechanics. In some languages like French, “complication” is a feminine noun. Maybe females are reclaiming it now? In spite of this being a recent trend we can already see it in this year’s collections. All brands have complications specially designed and developed for women. Sometimes, it is even women who create the complications. Such is the case at Cartier, where Carole Forestier-Kasapi, the master caliber producer, oversees each development.
Such a sudden craze smells fishy and my naughty mind thinks of different factors that might have brought it about: what if behind this trend was the Asian market, which has many more female clients with thinner wrists than us?
Let’s bid farewell to large sizes and return to good old classicism that sometimes has neo-vintage hues. Precious stones are not a problem: Asian men do wear them. And seeing as these models have to be sold in Switzerland too, we can as well pretend that they have been specially designed for you, ladies. It is very likely that you have been spellbound once more.