How Analog Watches Became the Culture's Favorite Accessory
If you think you’ve been seeing watches everywhere lately, you’re not imagining it. Watches — of the analog variety, with hands and non-digital mechanisms that tell time — have surfaced in the past few years as the culture’s favorite accessory, stealing the show on red carpets, the NBA tunnel, and your social media feed. No one needs a watch in 2024, but they’re seemingly more popular now than ever.
So, how did we get here? The year 2020 not only shifted the paradigm for how we live everyday life — it had another, unexpected outcome: For the first time since the smartphone, luxury watches began to captivate the public imagination. Pandemic-induced restrictions led the wealthy to spend their disposable income not on experiences, but on tangible items like art, real estate, and, yes, watches. So many people invested in luxury timepieces, in fact, that both the Swiss industry and auction houses dramatically broke records — which turned into mainstream news headlines impacting our collective subconscious.
Although we all weren’t bidding on watches at auction, many of us became intrigued by these little wrist machines breaking historical records and becoming more competitive assets than Fortune 500 stocks. And even if we didn’t have disposable income to invest in them, some of us were lucky enough to have disposable hours to look into them.
“The pandemic allowed people the time to do their research and learn about watches,” says Ming Liu, a journalist who has been covering the luxury watch industry for over a decade. “It is a product that does need a bit of time to understand, but once you start learning about it and deep-diving into it, it becomes a rabbit hole.”
I, myself, am a prime example of someone who fell deeply down the rabbit hole. On the day New York City shut down for the pandemic, I was let go from my job at Sotheby’s. I was on the editorial team, and part of my job was to help create content for the watches department, where I’d publish stories on the “GOAT” timepieces. I also had the privilege of actually seeing some of them in real life, before they were sold off to bidders. Immediately, I caught what Liu refers to as the “horological bug”: Once you see watches, you can’t unsee them, and before you know it, you can’t ride the subway or watch a TV show without obsessing over who’s wearing what.
Fast-forward to the summer of 2020 when I started my Instagram account Dimepiece, highlighting women and watches, which I observed was an under-represented sliver of the subculture. The algorithm led me to other horologically-oriented social media accounts, of which there were many, and I realized that here was a vibrant, passionate, obsessive community. Of course, there was a nerdy undertone to lots of the content I scrolled through online, but this soon started to shift as more people like myself caught the bug.
“In the past few years, we’ve witnessed a dramatic shift in how watches are perceived and worn,” says Perri Dash, co-host of the popular watch and culture podcast Wrist Check. “They’ve become integral to fashion narratives, especially in high-visibility spaces like the NBA tunnel, which has turned into a cultural hotspot where athletes showcase their flair for style. In these moments, watches are often the centerpiece, bringing attention to the level of exclusivity or craftsmanship an athlete wants to project,” he continues. “In the same vein, red carpet events have seen a surge in stars opting for watches to complement their outfits, treating them with the same weight as jewelry or couture pieces.”
Hardcore collectors and purists may write off the celebrity of it all as shallow — especially in the age of blatant sponsored watch placement in said NBA tunnels and red carpets — but the truth is that the average consumer does not know much about these small but complicated mechanical objects. A watch is harder to figure out than a pair of shoes, so, armed with little knowledge, the celebrity is an effective starting point toward learning more.
“Watches allow people to express their individuality in an interesting way,” says Yoni Ben-Yehuda, head of watches at Material Good. He explains that they can be potent signifiers of how one wants to be perceived by aligning with a certain brand or a watch’s preconceived-of “vibe.” Those in the spotlight know this better than anyone. “People see a celebrity, an athlete, a leader wearing a certain watch and are able to deduce things — true or not — about that person,” he says, effectively rendering the celebrity watch-wearer into a “cultural reference and anchor point” for this elusive category. (And vice versa: If people think they know something about a popular figure, it helps them understand the watch better.)
“When it comes to watches, my thing has always been to try and dumb them down, and make them less stuffy, less intimidating, and ultimately more accessible,” says Mike Christensen, lifestyle director at British GQ. “I’ve found the easiest way to do that is by giving GQ’s audience a reference point that they understand,” he explains, echoing Ben-Yehuda. “Truth be told, we have prioritized this kind of watch content because it’s our highest performing articles,” continues Christensen, who always backs up the celeb stuff with insight from authorities in the industry. He also goes as far to suggest that, in tandem with the rise of watch-specific coverage on social media, “there are definitely more people in the world aspiring to own an AP Royal Oak than there are people wanting to own a Prada jacket.”
Why is this? Why aspire for a watch at all? On the other side of the pond, GQ’s watch editor, Cam Wolf, believes a watch is an item with built-in cultural and sartorial longevity. “Watches are not totally trend-proof,” states Wolf. “But they’re about as close as you can get. Especially relative to the speed the fashion industry moves, types of watches move in and out of favor so much less. Wearing a Rolex Daytona isn’t going to date an outfit like super-baggy pants or a Loewe sneaker, so it makes sense that powerful people might want to push their money more toward watches.”
For many, not just A-listers, a watch’s appeal lies in its “ability to signify taste, achievement, and an understanding of the finer details that mass-produced items often lack,” says Dash, expanding on this idea of longevity. “Watches carry with them a sense of permanence in a fast-paced, disposable world, making them ideal pieces for those who value quality over quantity.”
And that makes them all the more exciting to write about and obsess over, whether you’re an editor or just someone newly interested. “Watches are an oxymoron in our world, specifically in style today,” muses Wolf. “How is it that watches are thriving as a hobby while TikTok is simultaneously inundated with hauls of the most cheaply produced clothing that’s ever existed? Watches seem to be the one category that nearly everyone agrees should be treated as an investment and an heirloom. In an increasingly tech-dominated world, somehow people are more interested than ever in these painstakingly made and inefficient mechanical objects. I think that’s a really wonderful thing.”
