Demise Of The Dress Watch: Is It Dead Or Dying?
7 min read
In many ways, the death of the dress watch is actually its apparent absence from the casual dressing scene. The said product has been strictly reserved for a specific wardrobe theme. Maybe it’s an attribute of the post-pandemic “vibe shift” that casual dressing is now so mainstream, and with it, it’s always some steel-cased sports watch that comes in handy.
Very rarely do we properly dress up other than when it’s a requisite. For the remaining scenarios, it’s always a t-shirt and joggers paired with some sort of a sneaker. I personally go a step ahead and keep a baseball hat as well.
For myself, it’s something inspired by someone I personally consider to be the best dressed. And that’s Mr. Roger Federer. Tbh, very few guys fit so well in a three-piece suit than the said. And of course, Daniel Craig.
So, when someone like Roger finds a plain tee and joggers ideal for the most part of the day, and for most occasions too, who are you and I to resist?
Also, in more ways than one, casual couture has already even penetrated the boardroom.
In all this, slowly and gradually, the subtle elegance of a dress watch is losing its footing to the all-versatile appeal of a sports watch. The latter, to favor the further demise, is perpetually being slimmed down to make a suitable pairing for a dressy outfit.
Is that the last nail in the coffin? Let’s learn (mourn) in detail.
Still In A Mental Lockdown
The apparent decline in requisites for formal attire, or what I call “the general detriment in sartorial standards,” has to do with the Covid lockdown. When dressing up became a rare occurrence and the same has persisted till now, to some extent, the subject of relevance comes in strongly regarding dress watches.
Also, as everyone endured the craving for travel and outdoorsy stuff for a straight period of two years, the time following it understandably boomed with the same. And, in realizing the said, we didn’t need to ditch the ever so comfy clothing we got so comfortable with.
As a pairing for such endeavors and ensembles, a dress watch would definitely be an unnecessary extravagance. The go anywhere do anything stuff usually thrives in such instances and it did, but, at the cost of the dress watch.
Today, the entire notion of a dress watch is very strictly reserved and restricted to a specific type of an attire which, thanks to Covid, is fighting for relevance in personal as well as professional setups.
Also, with Generation Z filling the seats at the tables of power (18 to 34 age bracket being the biggest for new-age entrepreneurs), and the idea of business casual gaining traction for real, the utility and style-restricted dress watch is struggling for survival.
The Ill-Defined Idea Of A Dress Watch
Precious metal only. Not water resistant. Dainty by contemporary standards. These are traits for what essentially made a dress watch in the past. In the modern realizations however, the exact definition of a dress watch has become somewhat lost in evolution.
Take for example the Patek Philippe Calatrava. A quick look through the current Calatrava catalog reveals a somewhat hybrid amalgam of very classically dressy (Ref. 5227/6119/6196) and visually sporty models (Ref. 6007/5226). There’s a clear distinction to observe in the said examples and that’s where the ambiguity of the definition exists.
It’s a challenging proposition now to know exactly where the dress watch ends and the sports watch begins. With the hype and demand-driven trends favoring the latter, a somewhat misrepresented category of dressy sports watches or sporty dress watches has birthed to create further chaos.
Also, when a watch is designed to be classy but is crafted in stainless-steel, has lume and offers swimmable water resistance, it’s a distant aside to the authentic conception of a dress watch. Maybe an addition of utility drives it away from the pure dress watch spirit.
And there’s a vice versa to the said as well. Does reduction of utility classify a sports watch to be a dress watch? Take the case of the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso. What was once a true sports watch is anything but now. In fact, it’s a legitimate contender in any list of classy dress watches today. The same is true for the Royal Oak “Jumbo” or the Vacheron Constantin Overseas as well. Sporty then, but not so much now.
In this class of misrepresented and misidentified products, we find many popular examples. The Rolex Datejust, the Day-Date, almost all Grand Seiko watches, and the Vacheron Constantin Historiques 222 being a few. You can call these watches casual, rather than dressy, as they don’t strictly fit the requisites of a black-tie formal accessory.
Still, a brand trying to stretch a dress model rather than trying to create an elegant sports watch yields a product of better dress appeal.
So, the definition is very much blurry now.
Creating A Successful Dress Watch Now
Okay. Let’s begin it this way. The Audemars Piguet Code 11.59, the Rolex Perpetual 1908, Omega De Ville, a non-Odysseus A. Lange & Söhne or the Zenith Elite. They all share a common catastrophe. That’s the failure to replicate the successes of their respective sports collection siblings. Although each is the product of a successful mass market brand, they struggle to compete with the in-house sport watch options from the same brand.
For all of its dominance with what are essentially sports models, Rolex has a long way to go in finding equal popularity and demand for the Perpetual 1908. It’s a perplexing realization that even with literally juggernaut-sized marketing budgets, such brands struggle to elevate these dress watch options to a level achieved by their sports collections.
Thus, owing to the above, it’s no co-incidence that there’s a strict absence of a true dress watch from many brands, TAG Heuer and Breitling included. There’s literal dearth in the number of new entrants from what essentially are mass-market mainstream watch brands. In regards to independents and microbrands, the very low-volume production numbers are insufficient to suffice the voids.
Hence, proper dress watches are rare in occurrence and consequently desire. No new dress watch creation, barring a scanty few, has lived up to the billing or the anticipation of past icons.
Or, could it be brands playing it too safe?
Does A Successful Dress Watch Have To Be An Icon?
It’s an undisputed proposition that the Patek Philippe Calatrava (introduced in 1932), the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso (launched in 1931), the IWC Portugieser (debuted in 1995), or the Cartier Tank (first introduced in 1917), do really well. Being part of established collections with decades worth of legitimacy makes it easy for their manufacturer brands to market them. There’s genuine leverage for success there.
Despite Patek Philippe introducing the Calatrava 6196P-001 at this year’s Watches and Wonders to hugely positive reception, the only large-scale line release that they’ve come up with in recent years is the Cubitus. Which again, is not a dress watch!
While the 6196P was a genuine headline release, it was made to fit into an existing collection, unlike the Cubitus which gets its own family name.
Now, the inverse.
One area where dress watches are undeniably dominant is the blossoming independent scene. From established watchmakers such as F.P. Journe, Grönefeld, Greubel Forsey, Roger W. Smith, Voutilainen and Philipe Dufour, to upstarts like Rexhep Rexhepi, Simone Brette, or J.N. Shapiro, this genre of makers can focus as well as thrive in the dress watch department while bigger brands usually struggle with the same.
For the former, although success comes at an understandably small-scale, but more consistently.
Here, the favorables include exclusivity and fine artisanal execution, both being distant asides to mass-market offerings. Also, the notion of a very conservative and sophisticated collector too comes into favor for the popularity of said examples. Here the demand of something bespoke from someone with a very cultivated taste yields a product that isn’t as standardised as the modern sports watch.
So, the said can only be realized on-demand by a small-scale artisan and not a mainstream manufacturer.
So, Is This The End?
With very nominal new entrants from mainstream brands and owing to production-restricted volumes from indies, the fate of the dress watch is all left in hands of only the long-running model lines from big brands.
As tastes and demands perpetually evolve, that’s definitely not going to be enough. Also, it’s hard to imagine a sub-39mm watch being hotly desirable in any near future.
So, the times ahead will definitely be a challenge.
