Above And Beyond

Need a watch to tell the time? There is a plethora of ladies’ watches that does that – and a lot more.

- Ong Chin Huat

Whether it’s the random fluttering of a butterfly’s wings in the Lady Arpels Papillon Automate watch, the artistic rendering of a panther’s head using the intricate and highly skilled flamed gold technique in Ronde Louis Cartier XL or, the precious J12XS with black hightech ceramic and brilliant-cut diamonds or even the cartoonish depiction of Mademoiselle Coco Chanel in her trademark tweed braided suit printed on the sapphire glass plate and fastened onto a lacquered white dial with both her elegant arms becoming the hour and minute hands in Chanel’s Mademoiselle J12 watch, ladies’ watches have certainly come a long way.

Back in those days, tiny dials marked by even tinier batons with dainty straps were all the rage. One must wonder how anyone, even with 20/20 vision could tell the time on those microscopic-sized time pieces, but just like cassette tapes and Walkmans, horology has moved on literally to bigger and better things.

Today just about anything goes, and watch brands are only limited by their imagination when they design or create a new model. No doubt, some purists might argue that the principle purpose of a watch is to tell time and indeed it would be hard to argue otherwise. But with the advent of the smartphone, telling time is no longer constricted to glancing at your wrist as with a mere flick or shake of this ubiquitous necessity.