Off The Cuff: Timepieces Made to Be Worn Anywhere but the Wrist
If you love watches, why limit yourself to just wearing them on your wrists?
By Rhonda Riche
Editor-At-Large
I don’t want to brag, but I have a bit of a knack for recognizing (and sometimes even predicting) watch trends. For instance, I was rocking a fob watch on my handbag for almost a year before the Royal Pop incited riots at shopping centers around the world.
Also, the Timex x Martin Margiela ring watch that sold out within seconds of being put online (and now sells for twice the price on StockX)? I’ve got one.
I even have a limited-edition pair of Crocs that let you pop in a G-SHOCK like a Jibbitz charm.
What I’m saying is that if you love watches the way I love watches, then it doesn’t make any sense to limit your horological real estate to just the wrist. Fortunately for us, brands are starting to recognize that many enthusiasts want to find other ways to express their passion for time.
Here’s a roundup of some recent wrist-free ways to tell the world that you love watches.
In The Pocket
Pocket watches are the most popular alternative to the wristwatch. They predate wristies and have never disappeared completely. After all, let us not forget that one of the most important watches ever sold at auction was the Patek Philippe Henry Graves Supercomplication Ref. 198.385, which received a hammer price of $24 million in 2014.
They are also having a moment right now with television shows such as Peaky Blinders and The House of Guinness, leading a new generation to these timepieces.
In fashion, there’s also a renewed interest in articles of clothing like vests, blazers, and Japanese denim (that little fifth pocket on your jeans was originally designed to hold a pocket watch) that make wearing a pocket watch more practical.
Our favorite modern-day pocket watch is the Slim d’Hermès Pocket Roaaaaar!.
Inspired by British designer Alice Shirley’s Roaaaaar! scarf, this new pocket uses wood marquetry instead of silk to depict a roaring lion. Hermès’ artisans miniaturized the design using slivers of ten wood species, including amaranth, burl, bubinga, tulipwood, and maple. The background features a chevron engraving filled in with translucent green and blue enamel.
Because pocket watch dials tend to have more real estate than their wristwatch cousins, they also make excellent canvases for showing off artisanal techniques. For instance, two additional pocket watches we love – the Asagimadara and Phoenix – come from the Japanese indie brand Minase.
Additionally, because pocket watches are generally bigger, they can also be packed with mechanical marvels. Take, for instance, one of the highlights of Audemars Piguet’s return to Watches and Wonders: the incredibly complicated 150th Heritage pocket watch.
A collection of ten watches, made in platinum and measuring 50mm by 23.4mm, with an 18k white gold dial, this timepiece features a modified calibre based on the one used in the Code 11.59 Ultra-Complication Universelle RD#4, retaining 22 of the 23 complications from that movement. Some of these complications are cleverly housed in the hinged caseback cover.
In a more traditional vein, late last year, Parmigiani Fleurier presented a pièce unique: the La Ravenale, a Lépine pocket watch with a minute repeater and a restored, historic, ultra-thin calibre.
Meanwhile, to underline the resurgence of the pocket watch, Studio Underdog and Christopher Ward teamed up to create a more modern take on it: The Alliance 02. Alas, it is already sold out.
Finally, still available (and accessibly priced) is the 350-piece, Art Deco-style 150th-anniversary Limited Edition Bulova Pocket Watch from the brand’s Archive Series.
Attachment Issues
While the Labubu fad has brought a lot of attention to bag charms, the concept of purse charms is not new: Back in the 1980s, Jane Birkin dressed up her Birkin bag with scarves and trinkets; Fendi popularized accessorizing its accessories with fuzzy monsters two decades ago; and before all that, folks attached lucky rabbit feet to their satchels.
What does this recurring trend signify? That as much as people want to flex their luxury goods, they also want to personalize their accessories. For instance, I previously mentioned that I have a 1950s-era fob watch hanging from the handles of my Bally laptop bag, which says, “I’m not only a watch gal, but I’m also a vintage gal.”
When I waited in line for the AP x Swatch collab, I struck up a conversation with the women in front of me. I found out they weren’t really into watches, but they were standing in line because they did see the Royal Pop as the ultimate luxury bag charm.
Somewhere in between my vintage fob and the Royal Pop is the Casio BABY-G+PLUS.
This interchangeable module can be worn on a strap or can be popped into a special heart-shaped silicone holder attached to a strap, which can then be looped onto your bag of choice.
Ring My Bell
Not only do finger watches predate the wristwatch, but they also predate the pocket watch. In 1561, a goldsmith named Pierre Woeiriot de Bouzey II published a book called the “Livre d’anneaux d’orfèvrerie de l’invention de Pierre Woeiriot Lorrain,” which depicted a mechanical watch set into a ring.
Ring watches have found themselves in and out of vogue over the centuries. And in the 20th century, Rolex made the solid gold Precision Ref. 8655, while Jaeger-LeCoultre took advantage of its teeny-tiny Calibre 101 to produce some of the most stunning jewelry watches of the Art Deco era.
In 2025, Bulova added a limited-edition Ring Watch to its Archive Series that was based on a 1923 Bulova Art Deco design, featuring a tubogas expansion shank for a more comfortable fit.
However, today’s hippest “digital” watches are nostalgic takes on Y2K styles.
Casio, for example, has just introduced a Casio Ring Watch collaboration with reggaeton superstar J Balvin that looks like a miniaturized version of Casio’s classic CRW001-1 wristwatch but dressed up with a rich gold brick pattern and J Balvin’s signature flower motif engraved on the caseback.
CHANEL always includes a ring watch in its haute horology collection. The theme of this year’s novelties is games, and the standout piece is the Première Coco Game Ring.
This playful limited edition operates under a heads-or-tails premise. On the “heads” side is a 0.90-carat baguette-cut diamond set in crystal sapphire glass. Flip it over to reveal the “tails” side – an octagonal dial set with 108 brilliant-cut diamonds and encircled by a blackened gold frame.
And when it comes to a more affordable but fun finger watch, we can’t leave out Fossil, particularly the Lips Watch Ring, which looks like a cross between the Rolling Stones logo and Solange Azagury-Partridge’s iconic Hot Lips ring.
Hanging Around
When a watch is suspended around the neck or attached to a brooch, it becomes a pendant watch. While they are considered a less formal way to wear a watch, most are inherently more glamorous than their wrist-worn counterparts.
Piaget is arguably the best-known maker of pendant watches. At Watches and Wonders 2026, Piaget unveiled the Swinging Pebbles collection, a revival of their iconic 1960s and 1970s pendant watches.
These sculptural sautoirs have been fashioned from slabs of semi-precious tiger’s eye, verdite, and pietersite and are suspended from rope-like, hand-twisted gold chains.
Pendant watches can be covered or open; however, if the chain they are suspended from is slightly longer than standard necklaces and features multiple layers or tassels, it is generally considered a sautoir.
Jaeger-LeCoultre is another notable maker of pendant watches. In April, in Geneva, it launched the Reverso Secret Necklace.
This high-jewelry piece with 1930s design codes reinterprets the iconic hidden watch – the Reverso – as a pendant hung from a chain of intricate diamond-set links and polished onyx beads.
For a more demure take on the pendant watch, Van Cleef & Arpels has introduced the Perlée secret pendant watch.
From the outside, it’s a simple white gold, diamond, and chalcedony necklace. But twist the stone, and it reveals a time-only, mother-of-pearl timepiece.
And finally, Bulova’s new limited-edition Art Deco Rubaiyat Pendant Necklace watch recalls an archival octagonal Rubaiyat design from 1919 and features a white enamel-like dial with an embossed image of the Goddess of Time on the caseback.
However, as an extra treat for modern enthusiasts, its chain can be adapted to be worn as a long necklace, wrapped as a wristlet, or removed entirely to be worn as a belt accessory.