The Watch Learns to Share a Wrist

Renato Cipullo has spent five decades designing jewelry under his eponymous brand. The Naples-born Cipullo is also a watch collector, which is why his own wrists are divided. The bracelets, a stack he has worn since the 1970s, go on one arm. The watch goes on the other. "As a watch collector, I prefer to not risk damage," he told Crown & Caliber, "and because that's simply my personal style."

For many, the wrists are not so neatly divided. As the watch and bracelet stack increasingly share a single arm, how they should coexist has become a debate among the people who make, sell and collect both. When the jewelry industry convened at the Wynn Las Vegas at the end of May for the Couture show, much of the fine jewelry on the tables was designed with stacking in mind. Next door at the Venetian Resort Las Vegas, JCK opened its first hall dedicated to watches, Timepieces at Luxury, bringing horology into the jewelry trade's biggest gathering. Several forces are fueling the moment: a growing sense that a watch is itself a piece of jewelry, a record run in gold that has buyers collecting both, and a social media feed that never runs short of wrist shots, rolls and stacking possibilities.

"About ten years ago, women were wearing big men's Rolexes and built their jewelry around that," said Emily Wheeler, the jewelry designer behind Emily P. Wheeler. While the idea of combining accessories on the wrist isn’t new, the idea of curating a specific stack has never been so deliberate. "I now see a slight shift where a lot of my clients are wearing daintier watches now that almost imitate jewelry and function more as part of the stack. They are less of a big centerpiece."

For some, a watch no longer carries the wrist. "Wearing a watch on its own is predictable," said Randi Molofsky, who runs the jewelry public relations agency For Future Reference and compiles its vintage collection. Her clients "want to curate something that has direction and gets noticed." Jennie Yoon, founder and CEO of the Los Angeles-based jewelry house Kinn, framed it as fact: "most people aren't choosing between wearing a watch or jewelry anymore. They're wearing both." Designer Claudia Kronfeld of Claudia Mae went further. "I think watches ARE jewelry," she said.

Jewelry brands are listening, crafting pieces for customers who have stopped treating the watch wrist as untouchable. For Hiba Husayni, whose label ZAHN-Z is built around silhouette, a watch on the wrist reads as "almost like another architectural volume," a fixed shape with its own thickness and weight that the jewelry has to account for. The spacing and the contrast between the pieces, she said, can become part of the design rather than an afterthought.

Watch houses have accepted the stack, up to a point. Stéphanie Sivrière, creative director of Piaget, is an enthusiast. "I'm all for stackability," she said. "You should be able to wear your watch just the way you want it." Her endorsement keeps the watch at the center: bracelets tend to disappear beside a case, she noted, while "a statement ring, a signet ring, a cigar ring or a vintage engagement ring in yellow gold will always stand out and reinforce the watch." 

Alex Schmiedt of Vacheron Constantin drew the line more firmly. He claims no rules about how a watch should be worn, with one exception. "I nevertheless believe the watch should be the main actor," he said, "and the stack should support its look but not compete with it."

Then there is the question every stacked wrist eventually answers: what happens when metal meets metal. Schmiedt did not minimize it. "Scratching is a real issue," he said. "A gold watch case can scratch easily, and that is probably not the memorable scratches you want to keep on your watch." Sivrière added a warning about the jewelry side of the equation: some gemstones, she said, "are way too fragile, like emeralds, to even support this game."

David Farrugia, co-founder of Uniform Object with his wife Katie, solved a problem without intentionally setting out to. "I haven't really designed anything for the sole purpose of being stacked with a watch," he said, adding, “however, our new Carbon bracelets are a godsend for watch collectors." The bracelets grew out of a taste for contrast, big stones on a band of black Italian rubber, and the rubber happens to sit easily against a watch.

When it comes to vintage, Molofsky leaves the watches she finds alone because "original details are what gives vintage its vibe." Tyler Moradof, principal of the estate jewelry house YAFA, advises against polishing vintage watches: it removes a thin layer of metal and, with it, originality and value. 

Others welcome the marks that everyday wear and stacking leave behind. "There's beauty in things that are well worn, including the patina," Yoon said. "Those details don't diminish a piece's value, they tell the story of where it's been and who it's belonged to." Husayni was more matter-of-fact. Some of her clients, she said, take the view that "if you stack, you accept scratches," and she calls contact "part of the language of wear."

Value is no small part of why the conversation has sharpened. "The conversation surrounding jewelry as an appreciating asset is growing," Moradof said, and his clients increasingly pursue hard-to-find vintage pieces from Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels and Graff. Molofsky has watched the high-low mix of a few years ago give way to what she called "an all-fine moment," with gold's rise pushing customers to double down on substantial pieces. The buyer is changing shape, too: Moradof pointed to women seeking out traditionally men's watch models, while men, who have long worn a watch as their only adornment, are adding bracelets. "Bracelets tend to be the next step for them in their jewelry journey," Farrugia said.

The entry point is widening as well. Alissa Matkovich, an online and private jewelry retailer who guides clients as they build collections, said the typical customer was for years a seasoned collector, while she now sees "a noticeable increase in first-time buyers seeking guidance on how to begin their collecting journey."

If the group splits on entry point, hierarchy and scratches, it is unanimous on how a wrist goes wrong. "Trying to do it because you feel you have to because everyone else is doing it," Schmiedt said. Sivrière said an inauthentic stack announces itself: "if someone was trying to show off the branded logos or prove something, you can instantly tell." The example nearly everyone reached for was the same. "I cringe at the Cartier Love bracelet stack and always have," Wheeler said. "That look is over and was always more about status than anything else." Farrugia was briefer: "Please, no more Cartier Love bracelet stacks."

Which returns the question to Cipullo, who has a closer relationship to that bracelet than anyone else in the conversation. His older brother, Aldo Cipullo, designed the Love bracelet for Cartier in 1969, and Renato is the keeper of his archive. His counsel, from inside the legacy of one of the most recognizable bracelets in the world, is restraint: a complementary mix that feels natural, pieces chosen for genuine attachment, and, when in doubt, the watch on its own wrist.

Whether the shared wrist is a lasting change or a long moment depends on whom you ask. Sivrière is certain. "It's here to stay, definitely," she said, noting that Piaget has shaped even its high watchmaking like jewelry for decades. Vacheron’s Schmiedt is not. "The stacking is fashion," he said, "and I don't think it will match the timelessness" of a classic watch, which he expects to be on wrists long after the trend has cycled out. Even Wheeler suspects the wheel will keep turning. "Some day the Cartier Love bracelet stack will feel nostalgic and become cool again," she said.

In the meantime, the advice from the people who construct these wrists adhere to a single truth. "Don't be afraid of individuality and choosing pieces that you truly like," Cipullo said. The wrist, however crowded, should look like its owner.