“The call to label everything as unisex is actually a veil for a much larger problem at hand,” says Malaika Crawford, style editor at online watch magazine and retailer Hodinkee. The auction house reports the number of bids on watches placed by women in 2022 was 46 per cent up on five years ago, with the number of female bidders increasing by more than 75 per cent.įemale voices in the watch industry are growing louder, as well - via social media and specialist and mainstream outlets. Sotheby’s has similarly seen an uptick in women participating in its watch sales, due in part to its online-only auctions featuring more women’s watches and marketing efforts to position Rolex Daytonas in the same space as Birkin bags, for example. Women are much more sensitive to creativity in watch design Women now account for 66 per cent of The RealReal’s watch business. For example, women who shop for pre-owned luxury goods at fashion consignment retailers, such as US-based The RealReal, can find high-end watches alongside the Hermès bags and vintage Gucci loafers. The secondary market, meanwhile, is growing twice as fast as the primary market and is projected by Deloitte to be worth more than half the primary market by 2030.įemale consumers are helping feed this growth. Jewellery-rooted brands such as Piaget and Van Cleef & Arpels have unveiled gem-set watch necklaces, while Jaeger-LeCoultre has released its Reverso Secret Necklace, equipped with a manually wound movement. Secret watches - timepieces “secretly” embedded in jewellery - are one trend. Traditional women’s watches are also being revitalised. “The idea was not to simply copy and paste, but to go further.” “We wanted a model with the same aspirations but designed for a woman’s wrist,” says Cécile Guenat, Richard Mille’s creative and development director. Richard Mille’s RM 07-04, created in fashion-forward colours in collaboration with sportswomen such as Ukrainian high jumper Yuliya Levchenko, is the brand’s first edition of women’s sports watches. In the past six months, both have debuted timepieces with high-end movements labelled as for women. Other names, such as Richard Mille and Patek Philippe, have taken this into account. Last year, the brand released its Traditionnelle perpetual calendar ultra-thin watch, recognising an increasing desire by women for grand complications and mechanical timepieces. “Women are much more sensitive to creativity in watch design versus functionality,” says Sandrine Donguy, director of product marketing and innovation at Vacheron Constantin. Hublot, usually known for its hulking watch sizes, has released a 32mm Spirit of Big Bang timepiece with a self-winding movement - paying homage to the original 44mm Big Bang released in 2004, while also “accommodating demand from the female clientele who today make up 28 per cent of ”, according to chief executive Ricardo Guadalupe.Ĭreating watches aimed at women often leads to more innovation, too. “We are sometimes scared to label watches by gender,” says Edouard Meylan, chief executive of independent watchmaker H Moser & Cie, citing the risk of a backlash against brands that market themselves specifically to men or women.įor many consumers, a smaller watch has practical appeal. In 2021, Richemont-owned Watchfinder became the first UK-based pre-owned watch seller to remove gender labels from its website. Women have long worn men’s watches, and the reverse is now also true, with celebrities such as rappers Tyler, the Creator and Bad Bunny opting for vintage pieces originally made for women. So what is a woman’s watch in 2023? To even define a piece by gender has become somewhat taboo, with certain groups championing the trend towards unisex labelling, where no one, regardless of gender identity, can be told what they “should” wear. It estimated that this figure would climb to $26.7bn by 2027. In a report published in May 2021, Allied Market Research found that sales of watches priced above $1,200 to women were worth $23.7bn in 2019, or 54.4 per cent of the wider market. “It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach.”Ī recent study suggests that, in terms of total value, women’s watch purchasing has already overtaken men’s. “We have to talk to women differently because women select and purchase watches differently than men,” she says. She puts this shift down to a female-focused strategy in marketing and products. Ginny Wright, chief executive of Audemars Piguet Americas, says the proportion of women self-purchasing its watches rose from 16 per cent in 2021 to 23 per cent in 2022, and is projected to reach 30 per cent by 2025, with the company targeting 40 per cent by 2030.
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