From Rolex’s emoji watch to Christopher Ward’s Desk Diver, brands are finding a sense of fun with surprising results

You’d be forgiven for wondering if something other than coffee is being drunk in the boardrooms of some of the watch world’s major players. Two years ago, Rolex shocked everyone by turning its iconic Day-Date – the timepiece known as the ‘president’s watch’ – into an emoji watch.

Instead of days in the aperture at 12 o’clock, there were inspirational words such as ‘love’, ‘happy’ and ‘gratitude’. In place of numbers, the date window showed one of 31 emojis. The dial was a colourful jigsaw, the hour markers baguette sapphires in boiled-sweet colours. And Rolex wasn’t alone. TAG Heuer took its Carrera, a watch named after the high-risk Pan-American race, and gave it a Barbie-pink dial, which Ryan Gosling duly rocked on the similarly pink carpet during the Barbie press tour.

Not wanting to be left out, the brand that always brings the fun, Oris, turned its ProPilot green and stuck Kermit’s face on the date window for the first day of the month. Frederique Constant, arguably one of the most buttoned-up brands, teamed up with enfant amusant Romaric André and gave its elegant Slimline Moonphase the seconde/seconde treatment. Frederique Constant wanted to communicate its watches were hand-assembled, which resulted in a dial that looked as though it had been assembled by the hand of someone three sheets to the wind. Indices were all askew and the numerals around the moonphase, the moonphase itself, and the brand’s logo looked as though they were drawn by a child.

Oris’s green ProPilot with Kermit’s face in the date wheel

If you’re looking at something 30 times a day, shouldn’t it make you smile?

Even Chanel, a company associated with a certain style of Parisian insouciant coolness decided to use their first in-house, watch-sized automaton movement to animate a cartoon version of Mlle swinging her hips and sniping with her scissors. The message is clear – fun is back on the watchmaking menu. “The watch market has been on a journey over the last five years as a younger and more trend-hungry type of collector has entered the market,” says Christy Davis, co-founder of Subdial, the analysis-based, pre-owned watch retailer. “It’s become less like the art market and more like the trainer one.

Trends appear more quickly and interesting stories are being created or unearthed around periods of watch design that have hitherto been ignored. Collectors are no longer limited to vintage Rolexes – there are pockets of collectability popping up everywhere, and at a much wider range of value points. It’s now possible to buy a £1-2k watch and expect it to hold its value in a way that never used to be possible.”

Christopher Ward has been the latest brand to succumb to Romaric André’s cheerful charms, turning its C65 Aquitaine into a tool for office survival. The Desk Diver – the name itself a wry side-eye to those who wear diving watches to sit at their desks – is designed to help you apportion the working day. On the periphery of the dial is a ring with daily office activities listed on it, such as ‘doomscrolling’, ‘meeting’ and – vital this – ‘power nap’.

The watch also has a Post-it note above the 6 o’clock point, while once a month the date window displays a ‘coin’ emoji to signify the wearer’s been paid. “Office life is actually way more dense, diverse and multifaceted than a bezel can express. So, we had to go for some ‘office life’ clichés that we could leverage and twist,” says Romaric. “I’m not good at telling other people what to do so the point was not a motivational ‘Quit your 9-5 and chase your dream’ watch.

TAG Heuer’s Barbie pink Carrera

The message is clear fun is back on the watchmaking menu

But neither could it be a ‘Whoa, we had so much fun during the last corporate seminar!’ piece. Office life can make you feel like you’re brain-washed, but it can also empower you. I wanted to encapsulate those two vibes in the watch.” As for what is driving this emergence of fun watches, André thinks they’ve always been there but that the language has changed.

He points to collectors who have everything from super-complicated traditional timepieces through ones he terms “conversation-starters”. “That being said,” he says, “we may be in a place where brands are now OK again to loosen up about what their ‘DNA’ is. Because the emotion and bond you have with a brand also has something to do with its ability to surprise you.” The question now is whether brands will continue to find outlets for experimentation or will revert back to the safety of vintage reissues, experimenting only with the odd dial colour change to match the seasons.

The signs are positive. Bell & Ross’s new BR-X5 Iridescent – with its shimmering rainbow-hued dial – is a sophisticated take on playful, while Richard Mille’s new RM 65-01, designed to celebrate the launch of McLaren’s W1 supercar, is a Fisher Price toy in haute horlogerie form. The rising interest in the independent scene may well be the driver here. If people are turning away from the traditional to names more willing to experiment, then the industry grandes dames might just have to follow suit. After all, if you’re looking at something 30 times a day, shouldn’t it be something that makes you smile?

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