It took a long and concerted effort but we finally got the watch industry to come around to the nerds’ way of thinking when it comes to how big their creations should be. Once again brands are making smaller timepieces, and they are once again cool and dominating the conversation. In fact, the pendulum appears to be swinging firmly in the opposite direction of the Panerai-fueled massive watches that dominated the ‘90s/early 2000s with teeny-tiny watches taking center stage.
These new releases are preciously small. Just take a look at the adorable 19mm mini Cartier Baignoire. Where timepieces such as those powered by Jaeger-LeCoultre’s diminutive Calibre 101 were once worn almost exclusively by women—Queen Elizabeth II and my distinctly less famous but equally tasteful grandmother among them—the tiny watch thing has taken hold among the more adventurous modern-day male celebrity. Timothée Chalamet wears tiny Cartier all day. The Armoury co-founder Mark Cho stacks his Baignoires like bracelets.
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This is to say nothing of the women for whom such small watches were ostensibly designed. Case in point: Simone Biles, the most decorated gymnast in history, has been snapped lately in an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Mini, which looks like a gift from her husband, Chicago Bears safety Jonathan Owens. Biles’s white-gold mini is part of a trio of shrunken ROs that take the classic Genta design down to 23mm. The model also comes in yellow and pink gold. The fun-size Royal manages to convert the brutalist aesthetic of the full-sized version into a much cutesier package.
With the exception of the quartz movement beating within—which is far from the first battery-powered caliber to have powered an RO, by the way—the Mini still looks exactly like its larger brethren: You’ve got the Mini Tapisserie dial, the applied hour markers, the octagonal bezel, and the integrated bracelet with folding clasp. (There’s no date window, but on a 23mm watch, this is probably a welcome choice.) All this to say: There’s no reason that a classic, larger timepiece can’t work just as well in a (significantly) smaller size—even one designed as a luxury product for men that was so big upon its release that it was quickly nicknamed “Jumbo.”
Biles is another signal that we’re no longer on the fringe of the Tiny Watch era—we’re fully in it. After so many years of absurdly large wrist saucers, the move back to distinctly wearable fare felt great. Now, it feels like the pendulum is swinging out of sensical territory and into that of a distinct trend.
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Michael Jordan’s IWC Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar TOP GUN Lake Tahoe
It certainly helps to be 6’6” like Michael Jordan if you’re gonna rock a 46.5mm pilot’s watch like the ref. IW503008 from IWC. This entry in the Big Pilot collection, housed in a blinding, white ceramic case of the type in which the Schaffahusen-based manufacturer specializes, is not for the faint of wrist. But for those who can pull it off, the IWC offers a host of compelling features: The perpetual calendar includes day, date, month, and year indicators joined by a futuristic take on the moon phase display as well as a seven-day power reserve indicator. Powered by an in-house, automatic movement from IWC, it’s effectively a $41,000 miniature wrist computer. (Well, miniature, might not be exactly the right word here.)
Gotham
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Aaron Judge’s Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar “John Mayer”
In another instance of a wildly tall dude making a large watch look tiny, Bronx Bomber Aaron Judge was spotted at the U.S. Open rocking one of the coolest new releases of the year: the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar “John Mayer.” Measuring 41mm in white gold, this stunning take on the QP features an embossed “crystal sky” dial in blue, which is created via a special process called “electroforming.” Powering it is the Calibre 5134, a 4.3mm-thick automatic movement that AP is retiring following the sale of this 200-piece limited edition. With its shimmering case and dial and sophisticated movement—plus its $200K+ price tag—this is a watch tailor-made for those with top-shelf taste and deep pockets.
