For the better part of the past 30 years, wristwatch silhouettes have followed the same basic contours. Which is to say they’ve predominantly been round — perhaps no surprise, given the sweeping motion of a watch’s hands. Recently, however, rising in interest in "shaped styles," a term denoting any watch that’s not round, has challenged the status quo and introduced some unexpected designs into the marketplace.
The most high-profile example (by far) is the new Cubitus collection from Patek Philippe. On Oct. 17, the Geneva-based watchmaker held a party for 600 people in Munich, where it unveiled the new model, a 45mm square-cased style featuring rounded corners and a dial design strongly reminiscent of the brand’s bestselling Nautilus.
Models from Patek Philippe's new Cubitus collection
At a press event preceding the launch, Thierry Stern, Patek Philippe’s president, acknowledged that introducing a square model was somewhat risky.
“As we know, 85% of watches around the world that have been sold are round,” he said. “I enjoy the challenge. I always wanted to have a square shape. I always wanted to design one because I like it. And I looked through the museum, through different brands, but I never found something that I wanted to wear.
“At Patek Philippe,” Stern continued, “we sometimes have to prove that we are not only known for the past, but we are known for taking risks. And that we are also able to surprise people with something they didn't wait for. And nobody was waiting for the square one.”
Perhaps not, but there’s no denying that shaped styles are having a moment. From the soaring popularity of vintage timepieces in funky cases (think the 1964 Rolex King Midas) to the spate of new shaped styles that have hit the market this year, the round-faced sameness of the past decade in particular — when simple, steel sport watches ruled at retail — appears to be dissipating in favor of shapely pieces that appeal to more individualized tastes.
In May, for example, the microbrand Toledano & Chan introduced its asymmetric B/1 watch, a steel timepiece inspired by Brutalist architecture (specifically, the Met Breuer) and the bold design-forward aesthetics of 1950s and 60s models like the triangular, geometric creations of midcentury Patek Philippe designer Gilbert Albert.
Toledano & Chan's new asymmetric B/1 watch
Top and above: Audemars Piguet's new [Re]Master02
Just two weeks later, Audemars Piguet unveiled its own ode to Brutalism: the [Re]Master02, a redesigned version of a 1960 timepiece from the AP archives in a 41 mm asymmetric sand gold case.
Piaget, too, dipped into its archives for the launch on Oct. 31 of the Andy Warhol “Clou de Paris,” a remake of the watchmaker’s iconic cushion-shaped Black Tie watch of the early 1970s, a favorite of Warhol’s, this time featuring a beguiling blue meteorite dial encircled by a white gold case with a textured Clou de Paris finish (see below).
Makers of shaped watches no doubt owe a debt of gratitude to Cartier, whose mastery of shaped designs — think the rectangular Tank, oval-shaped Baignoire and bent-out-of-shape Crash, among scores of other shaped pieces — stems from its history as a jeweler, says Pierre Rainero, the brand’s image, style, and heritage director.
Piaget's new remake of its Andy Warhol “Clou de Paris” watch
“And a jeweler, by essence, understands how an object can be worn on the body,” he says. “The idea is to design something to be worn on a wrist like a jewel should be worn, meaning in an elegant way.”
By all accounts, that sense of elegance has become newly important to watch collectors, and is helping to fuel the shaped watch revival. The tide began to turn in the spring of 2022, when secondary prices for steel sport watches began to decline, encouraging buyers to slowly turn their attention elsewhere. Dress watches — which tend to be smaller and more slender and to come on straps as opposed to bracelets — were a major beneficiary of that trend.
As it happens, many dressy styles, especially vintage examples, are shaped, whether they’re rectangles, tonneaus, or wholly original silhouettes like the misshapen circle that frames the Mirage watch by Sylvain Berneron, a French industrial designer based in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, who introduced his eponymous brand last year and is now fielding far more orders than he can fulfill.
Bernaron Mirage watch by Sylvain Berneron
“I’m not the only one who anticipated the saturation of steel sport watches that would inevitably explode into something else,” Berneron tells Gem + Jewel. “The entire watch market has been remarkably uncreative over the past decade — it has been a decade of reissues and doubling down on heritage and dusty books when, on the opposite side, the watch industry has proven in the ’70s and ’80s that it can display a tremendous amount of creativity.”
What his remarks highlight is a growing sense among watch lovers that the industry is on the cusp of a new era in watch culture, or at least a return to an earlier era — one that prioritizes aesthetics over performance, and daring silhouettes over basic (and maybe slightly boring?) ones.
