Fashion wants to be recognised in its own present. A cut, colour or material says: this is what people wear now. A watch begins with a different task. It should display the hours, preferably as reliably tomorrow as it does today. Yet watches have never been neutral instruments alone. We wear or display them, making them part of clothing, appearance and social identity.
The watch and chatelaine pictured here, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was made around 1875 to 1878. Gold, platinum, enamel and diamonds turn the timekeeper into jewellery. It was not designed to disappear discreetly. It formed a visible part of its wearer's appearance.
Every Watch Carries the Taste of Its Time
Cases, dials, hands and straps change. Some decades favour small, restrained watches; others prefer large cases or technical-looking dials. Even a design described as “timeless” arose from a particular idea of what counts as clear, elegant or modern.
That does not make fashion superficial. Design helps us place objects and express ourselves through them. The difficulty begins when an object loses its value merely because another style has become current.
Outdated Can Become Distinctive
An old watch need not look as though it has just been purchased. Scratches, an aged surface or a design nobody would choose today may belong to its identity. What first appears outdated can later be exactly what makes the object unmistakable.
This is where a repairable watch differs from short-lived fashion. It can be combined differently, passed on and rediscovered. A different strap changes its appearance; a service restores its reliability. The movement itself need not disappear.
Not Timeless, but Rich in Time
Perhaps “timeless” is not the finest compliment for a watch. Timeless suggests that time has left no trace. More interesting is an object in which several times meet: the era of its design, the years of its use and the present in which somebody chooses to wear it again.
Fashion asks: what fits now? An old watch adds another question: what may remain? The two do not contradict each other. Personal style may begin where we can choose without discarding everything that came before.