BUOYANT HEAVYWEIGHTS

The ubiquitous use of titanium and carbon fibre does not satisfy a growing number of watch lovers; the indisputable rise of quiet design vexes them. The recent release of hefty and heavy timepieces, especially in the dive watch segment, proves that some just like it big

- DAVID CHOKRON AND ASHOK SOMAN

With decreasing diameters being all the rage, it might be easy to forget there is another sort of watch consumer out there: the very special kind who seems to be swimming against the tide and loving it. Their idea of comfort is not to care about comfort at all. Their notion of relevance is that a watch should be large. Their conception of an everyday-wear timepiece is that it does not matter if it gives them tennis elbow or any other sort of joint pain. They like it big, heavy and obvious. Take that, all of you quiet luxury advocates, classics lovers and stealth wealth proponents. And remember it takes different strokes to move the world.

Not for nothing, the incremental shrinkage of wristwatches goes quite against what one very important market wants. Can you guess which one it is? Well, yes obviously it is Singapore...ok it is actually the United States, which is now back on its throne as the most important market for Swiss watchmakers. With China and Hong Kong offering tepid desire, relative to the formerly insatiable appetite of the 2010s, the purveyors of luxury may well be looking diversify their way out of a growth dilemma.

This might be why there is no such thing anymore as a reigning trend in watches. Ours is a time of niches, micro-segments and of said diversity. One of those is defined by the appreciation of a heavyweight timepiece one whose price recommends itself to its owner by way of its load. This has long been the attraction of platinum, whose density makes it 40% heavier than 18K gold. As watchmaking keeps enjoying tremendous success in its top 0.1% price points, massive watches with eye-watering sticker prices keep emerging. They contradict the zeitgeist, which celebrates the overinflated technical nature of titanium and praises carbon fibre as a material of the future even though it has been around for decades.