What Women Want: Men's Watches

Many luxury watch companies have started to re-think how they produce women's watches. In the past couple of years, style and fashion trends have changed, and women have opted for larger watches, causing the popularity and sales of smaller sized women's watches to fall. Many luxury watch brands have either started to market their men's watches to women, or are adding female touches like extra design detail and precious stones to already popular men's watches. Take Rolex for example, they have just released a new Rolex Datejust with pastel-shaded dial in a 36mm man size, with or without diamonds. Kate Hudson has been spotted wearing it. Patek Philippe is another company that has remodeled a popular man's watch, in this case the Nautilus, to have a slightly softer shape, hoping to appeal to women. Some watch brands may have thought that they would lose market share by not creating lines and collections just for women, but these days, it seems as though they're the hot brands. Take Panerai for example. This Italian watch company has been around since 1860 and has never veered far from the four or five basic models of watches it produces. Panerai watches are simple in design, most known for the oversized faces, no fancy stuff like diamonds found anywhere. Panerai has always only made men's watches, but watch (notice the play on words); women are going to start snatching these up, especially because Panerai watches are now more available in the U.S. than ever before and have recently come out with less expensive versions. IWC is another watch brand that since its founding in 1868, has always just produced men's watches. Although masculine in design, many IWC collections, specifically the Big Pilots and the Ingenieur lines, have retained a loyal following, including women who like strong looking men's watches. Another new trend among luxury watches, this one perhaps more dictated by consumers' tighter purse strings than anything else, is the drop off in demand for watches that have lots of "bling." Naturally, the more diamonds or other precious stones that a watch has, the more expensive it is. The price of metals has a lot to do with how brands need to price their watches, so if the price of stainless steel has gone up, then the price of an all stainless steel watch has to reflect that. Right now, the price of gold has sky-rocketed, to the point where "gold buyers" have popped up on every street corner it seems. Hence, another trend which is commonly found in men's watches, but which women have gravitated to, is those larger, sportier watches that come with black rubber straps. Personally, I love this look on a woman, which is why classic men's sport's watches like the Bvlgari Diagono have never and will never go out of style. In fact, this black rubber look has become so hot that the use of hi-tech materials such as ceramics, titanium, carbon fiber and PVD coating are rising in popularity. Although so common now, Hublot was the first company to produce a black rubber strap as seen in a luxury watch. Although by no means inexpensive, the Big Bang by Hublot has been a coveted watch by those who can afford it for years. The Big Bang comes in both a men's and women's version. So, it's really quite simple to answer the age-old question: what do women want? When it comes to watches, the answer is: a man's watch. If you're a man, be prepared to hand yours over.