A Stitch in Time: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Fashion Watches

With July’s Haute Couture shows officially behind us, it must be noted that timepieces are having more impact on the runways of Paris and the world.  During the Louis Vuitton Spring-Summer ready-to-wear presentations, for example, the Maison debuted the LV I (Monterey) on chain belts.

At Milan Fashion Week, models rolled up their cuffs to show off their watches during the Ralph Lauren runway show. And Off-White has just announced its debut range of watches, influenced by the industrial designs of the brand’s late founder Virgil Abloh.

Which is not to say fashion has never played a part in watches. In fact, the first designer collaborations date back to the 1920s. And who could forget the logomania craze of the late 1990s and early Aughts? Still, the increasing importance of watches on the catwalk suggests that something new and exciting is happening at the intersection of couture and horology.

To better understand the current mood, let’s look back at some pivotal moments in fashion watch history.

Fashion and luxury goods manufacturers originally branched out into watchmaking as extensions of their collections. For example, in 1928, Hermès, a leather goods purveyor, introduced its first timepiece – the Ermeto purse watch produced by Movado – as an accessory.

Meanwhile, in the 1930s, British luxury brand Dunhill introduced several models co-signed by their manufacturer, Tavannes Watch. Around the same time, American watchmakers Elgin went the opposite direction with the Lady Elgin Parisienne Collection.
 

In 1925, Elgin was already one of the largest watch companies in the world. But the company wanted to make its timepieces more glamorous. So, they gave prominent French fashion designer Lucien Lelong carte blanche to create a timepiece for the 1925 Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts Exhibition in Paris. This event attracted 16 million people and heralded the start of the Art Deco movement.

And Lelong’s creation came to epitomize the Art Deco aesthetic in watchmaking. Known as the “Lady & Tiger,” the case of this 14-karat solid white gold timepiece features an amber colored tiger above the dial and a cloisonné lady below.
 

The model proved so successful that Elgin put it into regular production. Elgin also contracted other prominent French couturiers such as Lanvin, Louise Boulanger, Callot Soeurs, Agnes, Premet, and Jenny to elevate their watches.

While most of these Maisons have faded into obscurity (except for Lanvin, who will reappear in this story), the Lady & Tiger remains one of the holy grails for folks who collect Art Deco watches.

Christian Dior was a fashion trailblazer in many ways. He revolutionized traditional silhouettes with his wasp-waisted, post-WWII New Look collection. He was one of the first couturiers to add accessories and a perfume to his business model. And Dior and his business partner Jacques Rouet pioneered the fashion licensing model in the 1950s by licensing the Dior name to stockings, ties, and, yes, watches.

And the House of Dior was one of the first to embrace the concept of watches as fashion accessories. In 1968, the Christian Dior Collection by Bulova consisted of nine watches, each with a dial signed by both brands.
 

The original lineup was high-end, Bulova’s best manual-wind time-only movements cased in 14K gold and sterling silver. As our colleague Tanya Dukes wrote here in 2023, prices for the watches in the collection “ranged from $165 to $550, which means that even the most expensive of these models were more accessibly priced than one of the fashion house’s dresses and thus served as an entry point into the rarefied world of Dior for a fraction of the cost. Unsurprisingly, the watches sold out almost immediately.”

In1969, 20 new models were added to the catalog. As time went on, the designs looked less like Dior and more like Carnaby Street-style mod (one famous example is a black and white clamper-style cuff).
 

The partnership lasted for a decade. The designs, which were approved by Dior’s creative director Marc Bohan, were popular enough that they were duped by other brands.

In 2001, Dior established the in-house Les Ateliers Horlogers Dior SA in La Chaux-de-Fonds. Arguably, its most recognizable line is the La D de Dior (2003), created by the French jewelry designer Victoire de Castellane.

During the tail end of mid-century design, fashion designers and watchmakers were obsessed with the space race. Brands such as Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, Longines, and Cartier released asymmetric and flying saucer-shaped cases. Meanwhile, Paco Rabanne and André Courreges created futuristic fashions out of plastic and shiny fabrics.

And standing at the very corner of modern fashion and horology was French couturier Pierre Cardin’s Espace collection, which was introduced at the peak of the designer’s influence.
 

Launched in 1971, the Espace line was an out-of-this-world unisex wristwatch made from unconventional “luxury” materials such as stainless steel and plastic. These watches were fitted with very good mechanical movements provided by Jaeger-LeCoultre. The result was high fashion at an egalitarian price.

However, just as many businesses can’t resist going public for that sweet, sweet IPO money, only to end up being sold at Sam’s Club a decade later, licensing is a quick way to make money, and sadly, Cardin would go on to dilute his brand’s name by licensing it to just about any product imaginable.

There are many interesting collaborations from the 1970s and 1980s. In my own collection, I have examples of unisex mechanical collaborations between Von Furstenberg x Hamilton, Bill Blass x Vantage (a Hamilton subsidiary), Longchamp x Bulova, and Lanvin x Favre-Leuba.
 

Citizen has produced design-forward timepieces for Courrèges, Diane von Furstenberg, Givenchy, and later Pierre Cardin. Many designers, like Comme des Garçons x G-SHOCK, have one-off collaborations. Other licensed goods are quite nice, but the connection to the fashion houses isn’t lasting or strong enough to warrant more than a passing mention here.

In fact, most licensed watches are linked to their maisons in name only. I also have a not-so-fine one-jeweled watch signed Schiaparelli. When it broke, I was able to source donor parts from a watch signed Pierre Chevelle. Because they are the same watch.

Remember the movie Lost in Translation? Bill Murray’s movie star character was in Tokyo to film a commercial. In the pre-YouTube days, to avoid looking like “sell-outs,” A-listers would often accept lucrative, quick-turnaround endorsement jobs overseas that Western audiences would never see them in.

In a similar spirit, Citizen began manufacturing and releasing Yves Saint Laurent-signed watches exclusively for the Japanese market (previously, the Maison had made high-end, gold-cased models with ETA movements).
 

With this new agreement, YSL handled the design, while Citizen hand-produced the watches. The original catalog consisted of two-hand, manual-winding, dress watches. Later, designs used slim, elegant quartz calibres – all in keeping with YSL's sophisticated signature.

The most memorable model from this partnership, which began in the 1970s and lasted through the 1990s, is the Heart Shaped Watch.
 

Produced in several variations over the years, some on bangle bracelets or with leather straps, others with the letters Y-V-E-S-S-A-I-N-T-L-A-U-R-E-N-T in place of the hour markers. It is, simply, a watch that serves as an extension of your wardrobe.

These watches have been recently rediscovered by young collectors looking for affordable alternatives to asymmetric watches like the Cartier Crash.

You may be familiar with the film House of Gucci, which told the behind-the-scenes story of the Florence-based luxury retailer. But Gucci’s foray into watchmaking was just as dramatic.

Gucci was established in 1921 but didn’t start producing ready-to-wear clothing until the mid-1960s. Then, in 1972, Belgian-born, California-based businessman Severin Wunderman met one of the sons of the Italian company's founder, Aldo Gucci, and obtained the license to produce Gucci watches. Wunderman had no background in watchmaking, but he had a vision, so he founded Severin Montres in Irvine (California), a company that bought finished watches from a producer in Bienne (Switzerland).
 

Severin developed the collection independently of Gucci. His first line, the Model 2000, was presented in New York in 1975. Gucci watches were an instant and enduring hit – it would seem their turnover went from approximately $3 million in their first year to $70 million three years later and $115 million in 1988. And while Wunderman’s output was not tied to Gucci’s collections, the fashion end was soon influenced by the watches. In fact, watchmaking became an important source of profits for the brand, with approximately 18% of its profits in 1988 being attributed to these sales.
 

Wunderman and Gucci parted ways in 1996, each having shaped the other in ways that still impact the industry today. In fact, the Maison just relaunched one of its most iconic ‘80s timepieces, the Gucci 1100L bangle watch with interchangeable bezels, as the Gucci Play.

First things first: Coco Chanel had nothing to do with the design of the Première – the Maison’s first wristwatch.

The collaborations noted above proved that there was an appetite for fashion watches. And that buyers had no problem purchasing timepieces that weren’t crafted from precious metals and had quartz-powered calibres. Well, through sales of its iconic fragrances and cosmetics, Chanel also realized that affordable accessories were a gateway to higher-end purchases.
 

What made the Première so revolutionary is that Chanel decided not to take the licensing route. In fact, when the Maison launched its watchmaking division in 1987, it was one of the first high-fashion houses to do so. Moreover, its first timepiece, the elongated, octagon-shaped Première, wasn’t designed by the label’s creative chief, Karl Lagerfeld, but rather by Jacques Hélleu, who was the Artistic Director for Chanel perfume, beauty products, watches, and jewelry from 1965 to 2007.

This is why the look of the Première wasn’t contingent on any seasonal collection but rather on signatures from accessories such as the glass stopper of a No.5 perfume bottle and the chain-and-leather strap of the 2.55 handbag.
 

The Première remains a core part of Chanel’s watchmaking efforts, but the brand has also used it as a launchpad for more complex and luxurious watches. For instance, with the J12, it ventured into the world of high-tech ceramics. In 2006, the brand added a tourbillon to the catalog. In 2008, they collaborated with Audemars Piguet on the 12 Calibre 3125. Then, in 2016, Chanel introduced its first in-house movement, the Calibre 1.