jewelry watches that are ever smaller and more refined – L’Express

In an interview with L’Express, Camille Grandmaison, from the Besançon Time Museum, points out: it took human beings millennia to be able to precisely measure time. The first tools appeared around 1500 BC with sundials, well before the arrival of the mechanical clock at the end of the 12th century and the pocket watch in 1510. Five centuries later, the world inherited a form of universality of wristwatches on wrists, which was not necessarily synonymous with uniformity. Quite the contrary. The apparent contradictions of watchmaking trends actually coexist in harmony. For some, a return to sobriety in the display of hours and a revival of women’s mini-watches. Others favor work on the dials, this small metal disk where creative diversity is concentrated. As much as time, the watch remains a marker of style.

Jewelry watches are making a real comeback on the women’s watch market. No doubt thanks to a certain quest for discreet elegance, unless it is in counterpoint to the excessive diameters long in vogue among men. This trend is reminiscent of the Roaring Twenties and the 1940s and 1950s, where reading the time seemed secondary, difficult to decipher on the tiny dials then fashionable. Precisely, our century, where time is displayed everywhere, proves compatible with a return to these mini-watches.

The choice is vast, between inherently feminine models, designed by houses whose primary business is couture – Première Mini by Chanel, Mini D by Dior –, or manufacturing references. Thus, Audemars Piguet unveils a contemporary reinterpretation of its 20 mm Mini Royal Oak, launched in 1997. While Cartier opts for a complete line of miniature versions (from 24 to 28 mm) of its main iconic models: mini variations of the Louis Cartier Tank, American Tank, Baignoire, Panthère, including the Tortue watch inspired by a 1922 creation.

These feminine timepieces are generally equipped with quartz movements. However, a few jewelry watches house Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Caliber 101, created in 1929, which still holds the record for the smallest shaped mechanical movement. In 2022, Bvlgari took up the gauntlet of miniaturization by developing the Piccolissimo mechanical micro-caliber, the most compact round motor on the market. Because femininity can also rhyme with technicality, to the delight of all those who appreciate traditional watchmaking.