The relationships of women with mechanical watches have fascinated the Swiss watch industry for at least 20 years. During the Lockdowns of the Early Pandemie, however, the conversation was about what women want and how they evolve as collectors, in high gear.
A big reason for this was the obsession with social media, which lured dozens of newcomers to the Watch World during that period. “People had so much more time to be on social and to participate,” wrote Laetitia Hirschy, a co-founder of Watch Femme, a community focused on women in 2021 on the Social Audio app Clubhouse, in a text. “It gave us the opportunity to have conversations about the subject because we finally had the time.”
However, Watchmakers have certainly noticed the chance, although many brands are still catching up. In November he worked Femme with the Deloitte consultancy on one Swiss watch -industrial report Focused on the Women’s Watch market.
One of the conclusions: “Women are increasingly buying watches for themselves and mark a shift in market dynamics,” the report said. “However, women remain under -represented and insufficiently the target of the industry, which means that there is unused potential for growth.”
To find out more about women’s watch experiences, the Times asked six women around the world to share their highlights and lows during a series of video calls in February.
All women emphasized the importance of trying out pieces in a physical environment. A few noted about the waiting list phenomenon, although it has decreased in recent years, and how frustrating it can be to learn that a watch is not available. Perhaps the most interesting thread focused on the rise of collective groups, and their impact on how women shop for timepieces.
“This whole idea of community -based retail trade has real legs,” said Tanya Somera, a member of the Horology Club in Hong Kong. “It immediately exposes me to all these watches that I have never seen before.”
Mrs Somera, who was located in Singapore, but was interviewed during a business trip in Hong Kong, mentioned a pre-Valentine’s day meeting that she had attended the previous night when the members of the Horology Club brought forward a wide range of timepieces. “There was a Berneron, a Simon Brette, a G-shock, a Rolex. And because you are not there to buy a watch, you just expose yourself to all this training, and that is the seed of the idea.”
Karishma Karer
View journalist, Mumbai, India
Mrs. Karer, 43, a journalist who has written about the watch trade for more than 20 years, entered a multi-brand-watch retailer in Mumbai last year with a swivel-reverso-hours of the Swiss watchmaker Jaeger-Lecoultre.
“The sales manager looks at me and says:” Do you know what you are wearing? You are wearing a Jaeger-Lecoultre Reverso, “” Mrs. Karer remembered. “I was with a couple of friends who clearly know my background, and they just looked at me.”
Although the meeting with the male sales representative was disappointing, Mrs. Karer emphasized that it was a one -off experience. “I see a change in mind set, even in India,” she said. “For women it is no longer about” pink it and shrink. ” The irony today is that they are smoking and shrinking.
Regarding the sales employee who patronized her? “Sometimes the men like to pretend they know more than you,” said Mrs. Karer. “So I let him have his moment.”
Alena Diaz
Watchmaker, Seattle
To describe Mrs Diaz, 43, because mechanically sloping would be an understatement. “My mother has photos of me in my diapers who grab handful of tools next to my father in the garage,” she said. “That’s how the world makes sense to me.”
After having had a job at a watch repair workshop in Mesa, Ariz., Where she grew up, Mrs Diaz began to investigate watch schools. She was accepted by a program in Seattle and has stayed in the city since graduation in 2018.
To earn money while she was a student, Mrs. Diaz started specializing in “Seiko Mods”: she would buy Seiko -Pol watches online, usually from eBay, and adjust them. “I would take it apart and set up a new dial, or I could exchange the ring,” she said.
Unlike most buyers, Mrs Diaz is not discouraged by the prospect of buying a watch that is not functioning properly, or not at all, because, just like with the Tudor Prince Oysterdate from the 60s, which she bought on eBay in 2017, she could use her skills to use it.
However, most people must be careful when buying vintage watches, online or in the store, said Mrs. Diaz. “My father actually bought a watch without showing me,” she said. “When I opened it, it had the wrong movement. I see it a lot at work where people will exchange parts and sell it as an authentic and it is not.”
Sneh Diwan
Wedding planner of destination, Jersey City, NJ
Mrs. Diwan, 39, almost always wears the same watch when she works a wedding: a Rolex submarine date of 1999 that she received as a gift in 2016.
“It’s almost like it’s my uniform,” she said.
Her collection is heavy on sports models, but Mrs. Diwan recently surprised herself by buying a Tonneau-Shape Élégante watch from the high-end Swiss brand FP Journe. She bought the diamond set piece at the boutique of the brand in Manhattan, after a collecting friend had introduced her to the sales staff and she had waited about a year until the watch would become available.
“I had to fill in a wish list of models that I liked and wait to get that phone call,” said Mrs. Diwan.
She thought about another recent purchase, a Cartier tank Louis that she bought from a multi -fire retailer in Manhattan.
“After I had deposited a down payment, I thought I wouldn’t get it because the delivery was always pushed out,” said Mrs. Diwan. “But not because I am a woman. Watches have been blown up on social media and I think it is sometimes about who has more followers, maybe, or who can bend it a little more.”
Wynne Nowland
Chief Executive of an insurance brokerage company, Melville, NY
Mrs. Nowland, 63, was in the twenties, when she sold an insurance policy and earned a considerable committee. “I bought myself a Rolex,” she said.
“I actually wear it,” Mrs Nowland added, while she showed a two -tone thatjuus model on her wrist. But now, she said, it is what the industry calls a ‘Frankenwatch’, a second -hand watch with parts of different timepieces.
That is because Mrs. Nowland, who is transgender and male was assigned at birth, was switched in 2017 and realized that the original watch “no longer suited my atmosphere,” she said. “I had replaced the very masculine black dial with this pink dial and I put a diamond beak on it. Now it’s many more girls – I think it’s great.”
Mrs. Nowland was candid about how the physical experience had changed after her transition. “I think it’s a bit easier in general,” she said. “I often wonder if that’s because it’s a man-female thing or if I clocked?
“Clocked in the transgender community means when they see you and find out that you are trans,” she added. “If you are clocked, people sometimes treat you worse than they would normally do. That usually makes me even more tolerate. I will not tolerate it.”
Tanya Somera
Regional territory manager for a diamond jewelry brand, Singapore
When Mrs. Somera, 42, grew up in the Philippines, the company made her family ‘JeepNeys’, the colorful public transport vehicles with diesel engines that are omnipresent on the roads of the country. She explained her love for mechanical watches as a product of it: “I love things that move.”
At the age of 12, Mrs. Somera asked – and received – her first Swiss watch, a Tag Heuer Aquaracer. Since then, her experiences to buy watches, from insult to inspiring. “In the 90s and the beginning of 2000, when I lived in the US, you had very limited options when it came to what was available for women,” said Mrs. Somera. “It was actually diamonds, mother -of -pearl, pink.
“The shopping experience has not really evolved. At a certain point it is getting annoying.”
Mrs Somera pointed to the wrist watch she was wearing, a Quai des Bergues through the independent Swiss brand Czapek Geneva. “When I walk into a shop and see a seller that I wear a watch that is a bit unusual, they don’t immediately say:” Oh, that’s a nice watch, tell me more, “she said.” In contrast to a fashion store, where they “oh, I love your shoes.” That connection is still not there.
“That said, I bought this Czapek from a MultiBrand watch -Retailer in Hong Kong, with which I now have a good relationship. The sales employee who is there, she knows my taste. But I specifically did not attract a male seller in that store because I felt a little dismissed.”
Charity mhende
Brand and communication strategist, New York City
Mrs. Mhende, 32, developed a passion for watches during the Pandemie, but the real turning point came in October 2022, when the budding collector, born in Zimbabwe and raised near Birmingham, England, and now is located in New York City, the Watchtime Fair City attended. “Fortunately, the only panel I could sit with was a group of really various collectors who talk about watches and community,” she said.
Not only did Mrs Mhende’s new hobby inspired her to make a content platform, @pulseonthewrist, now on substest, Instagram and a website, it also sent her to a shopping. She bought her first serious watch, a vintage movado, from the RealReal, after she tried it in the Manhattan showroom in the company. Last year, during a visit to Japan, she had a revelation.
“I had already done the research that you should do; I had gone on all YouTubes and Tiktoks,” she said. “But nobody reported about shopping for women’s watches.”
“I was more successful in finding watches that I liked in women’s boutiques,” Mrs. Mhende added. “In addition to the pre-ownership of Chanel bags, they would have had Omega the villages or cartier tanks. I picked up my must the cartier there.”
“You may be interested in bags,” she said, “but then you are:” Match the shoes with the watch and the earrings and the Da-Da-Da. ” That holistic shopping experience helps.
