MARKET UPDATE
A watchful eye Luxury buying markets may have slowed down a little in recent months, but big things are happening in the world of watches, noted in new releases from some of the biggest names in the business. Josh Sims takes us on a timely market update
70 luxe-magazine.co.uk
With jewellery shops closed and trade shows cancelled, the watch world has been greatly diminished over recent months. It would be too much to see this as being behind a key trend of 2021 - after all, watch designs are often years in development - but that there’s a distinct down-scaling in case sizes perhaps suggests a reappraisal of the watch as a more personal, more intimate object than the outsized ostentatiousness that has dominated much of the last decade. In a watch a matter of millimetres can make all the difference, and all those 45mm-plus models seem to be slinking away in favour of more modest proportions Rolex’s new take on its Explorer sees it drop to a positively dainty 36mm, for example. Panerai, the Italian Navy commando brand that prided itself on its serious proportions and in many respects drove the trend for thinking big, has downscaled its Submersible from 47mm to 42mm - much smaller, if not exactly small. Even IWC’s Big Pilot - a watch that referred to its heft in its very name - now drops from 46mm to 43mm. This shift is likely a response to the inexorable rise of interest in and demand for vintage watches - always much, much smaller than contemporary pieces - a market many makers have long tried to tap through the launch of archive re-issues. Few makers, however, have had the nerve to actually replicate those vintage proportions, until now. But it also has the benefit of making many ostensibly macho
MAY/JUN21
