There often is a subtle difference between the way men and women collect things.
Many men tend to take a systematic approach, choosing pieces that mesh with the rest of their possessions, be they stamps, cars or watches. A woman, however, may have a hundred pairs of shoes, but whether or not they amount to a collection may be debatable.
Serious collectors, male and female, are motivated by connoisseurship and an instinct for resale value, which may be the only established metric for judging a collection.
There are other factors, of course, including taste, impulse, budget and opportunity (waiting lists are a reality) — just enough variables to make building a coherent collection a fairly daunting task. So here is a brief guide to building a feminine watch collection, organized by function, with some somewhat subjective, but not arbitrary, examples.
You could easily choose your own categories: Supermodel Staples, Complicated Showpieces, Minimalist Moments and so on. But this is a start.
Everyday
This is the watch you grab without having to think about it, which has a classic design, robust construction and an accessible price. It looks good with anything, is comfortable to wear and can be relied upon for basic, time-only functions. It can be the hardest to choose, because it has to be everything and go anywhere, and you will wear it a lot. You might need more than one. Brands making great midrange women’s lines include Mido, Tissot, Hamilton, Frederique Constant, Tudor, Longines and Breitling, to name a few.
Mido Baroncelli Signature Lady Colours Mido has one of the best quality/price ratios out there, and the 30-millimeter Baroncelli is a solid, affordable choice. It comes with five straps in different colors, so you can match the watch to your outfit or your nail polish. It contains a robust, automatic mechanical movement made by ETA, a reputable Swiss name that is one of Mido’s sibling brands in the Swatch Group. The mother-of-pearl dial adds a touch of high watchmaking without elevating the price. ($1,140)
Bulgari Bulgari This model has been a staple of the flamboyant Roman jeweler and watchmaker for 50 years. It doesn’t exude the glamour of the hallmark Serpenti design or the glitz of the gem-laden Diva’s Dream, but it’s a well-made classic. The new versions — a 38-millimeter automatic and a 26-millimeter quartz — are both 18-karat gold, so there isn’t a huge gap in price. ($13,000 for automatic; $8,150 for quartz)
Sporty and Chic
Playing the sports watch field takes energy and endurance. Options range from impossibly complex chronographs, which combine time display with stopwatches, to multifunction electronic smartwatches — and everything in between. A good balanced choice is the sport/chic watch, the equivalent of what on the men’s side is called sport/dress: not purely dressy, but not in specialized territory, like yacht timers or tachymeters, which estimate a vehicle’s speed over a known distance. Unless you are scuba diving, mountain climbing or driving a racecar, there is no reason to load up on tech functions. The modern sport watch is, essentially, an elevated day watch.
Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore This is pure sport chic. The Royal Oak was designed by Gerald Genta, who also brought to life the Patek Philippe Nautilus and the IWC Ingenieur. The Royal Oak Offshore is normally a bulky watch, with iterations measuring 42 to 44 millimeters, but this 37-millimeter glam/sport model with diamonds brings the legend to smaller wrists. The pared-down design includes a scaled version of the signature tapisserie dial. ($57,900 in 18-karat pink gold)
TAG Heuer Connected Golden Bright Connected watches are characteristically large (about 45 millimeters) on the theory that they need space to display all the functions they offer. This 42-millimeter model is scaled for smaller wrists (and perhaps sharper eyes). Part of its appeal is that its time-only screen options resemble the dials of traditional Swiss mechanical watches. It has the usual array of functions and alerts, some proprietary to TAG, and is powered by Google Wear OS 3. ($2,300)
Jeweled
This is an investment category, so quality is important and maker’s mark is everything. You may be tempted with an array of eye-catching bling, such as classic diamond pavé dials, or mob wife flamboyance that has color and carats flashing from every surface. Beyond choosing a watch that fits the intended occasion (red carpet, charity ball, après-ski in Gstaad), it makes sense to evaluate a choice in terms of resale potential. The proven winners at auction are invariably signed by Van Cleef & Arpels, Cartier, Piaget, Bulgari, Boucheron and a few other makers.
Panthère de Cartier The status-conferring jeweled watch functions at a level that goes well beyond telling time. As one of the longest running maker of jeweled watches, Cartier has preserved a design history in its archives that is continually refreshed by its artisans. The latest model, shown here, is in 18-karat white gold, with diamonds, emeralds, onyx and lacquer. (Price on application)
Hublot Spirit of Big Bang Rainbow Every collection needs a hit of sheer bling, and Hublot can oblige. This statement watch may be small at 32 millimeters, but it is lavishly over the top, with a total of 493 gemstones, including pink, blue, yellow and orange sapphires, blue topaz, rubies and amethysts. The bezel alone is set with 58 tapered baguette-cut stones. The groovy alligator strap is multicolored — to match the gems — but it is interchangeable, in case you want to tone it down with something neutral. ($80,000 in gold; $72,600 in steel)
Complications
This is the category where you demonstrate your street cred as a collector. But it’s a danger zone that may require you to extend your credit limit or sell off the Spirit of Big Bang Rainbow (you see how this works?). Prestigious complications such as tourbillons and perpetual calendars don’t come cheap, and are best appreciated by those who know something about mechanical watchmaking. That said, there is no reason that a woman’s complicated watch should not have some style.
Vacheron Constantin Traditionnelle Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin The architecture of classic perpetual calendar dials includes either openings for abbreviated day and month indications or sub-dials with contrasting readouts. On this version, Vacheron streamlines the dial with a clean background of tinted mother-of-pearl, over which sub-dial hands and indexes are simply applied, with no ringed outlines. It works hard, but looks composed and tidy, like an accomplished woman. At 36.5 millimeters wide and 8.43 millimeters thick, it’s also highly wearable. ($88,000)
Patek Philippe Ladies’ World Time Ref. 7130R It doesn’t get more prestigious than a World Time, a brand specialty since 1939. The 24-city world timer is made by few watch companies, but for Patek it is a signature complication, though made in very limited quantities. This one is next generation, but retains the signature guilloché center surrounded by a city ring. ($57,957 in 18-karat rose gold with a diamond bezel)
Men’s Watches to Love
Historically, men have been the buyers and collectors of high-end watches, a habit that has kept the industry alive. So picture a high-end watch retailer with a loyal clientele of repeat male buyers. He has an allocation of three pieces from a new 10-piece series from Rolex/Patek/Laurent Ferrier/F.P. Journe. Who will get those watches? A newbie female customer? Don’t hold your breath. Alas, the men’s category is where the most interesting watches are, so they are worth fighting for. There are two categories ripe for pilfering:
The vintage remake Many men are happy to wear a vintage piece no matter how damaged the dial or inferior the movement, because in collecting, authenticity is everything. For collectors who prefer a more polished look, there are modern remakes. Aesthetically, a modern reissue is typically true to the original design, but made with better materials and improved movements. Best of all, most are sized according to an earlier era when men’s watches were smaller. A great example is the Chopard L.U.C 1860, a 36.5-millimeter steel dress watch, originally introduced in 1997, the year Chopard renewed its commitment to in-house watchmaking. (The 1860 refers to Chopard’s founding year.) The pristine dial has all the hallmarks of a man’s elegant dress watch with high-watchmaking finishes: a guilloché center, snailed small-seconds counter and satin-brushed chapter ring, the circle around the dial perimeter with demarcations for each minute/second. ($23,200)
The iconic steel sports watch Over the past decade, the steel chronograph watch has taken its place as one of the most sought-after watch genres in the world, the most celebrated example of which is the Rolex Cosmograph Daytona. If you are averse to long waiting lists at retail and high prices on the secondary market, however, there are many other options. The Zenith Chronomaster Sport, for example, hails from the same era as the Daytona — the 1960s — and is powered by the high-frequency El Primero, a famous movement introduced in 1969 and still made in upgraded versions. The newest Chronomaster Sport, at 38 millimeters, retains the original model’s tricolor sub-dials, but it is a fashionable green color everywhere else, including the ceramic bezel. ($10,800)
