Why do we wear large watches if we have small wrists?

One thing has bothered me ever since I fell down the rabbit hole of watch collecting a few years ago. Why are modern watches so huge? Why do men wear watches the size of a small plate around their wrists? Why don't they notice that their watches are practically dangling from their wrists? This is a problem that watch enthusiasts all over the world are becoming aware of. However, I believe this is a more pressing issue in India.
Let's face it: most Indian wrists are on the smaller side of the spectrum, measuring around 6.75 inches or less. Smaller, more compact watches with case diameters ranging from 36mm to 40mm simply work better. I mean, this is a country where generations of men have looked good wearing HMT watches that were never larger than 37mm. Then why wear a 45mm monstrosity with overhanging lugs, especially when you've spent a lot of money on an expensive watch?
One of the most significant changes in the watch market over the last decade has been the growing popularity of vintage and pre-owned watches. Previously the domain of a small number of dedicated collectors, the market is now flourishing. McKinsey estimated in 2021 that pre-owned watch sales had reached $18 billion in 2019, with the market expected to grow to more than $30 billion by 2025. This has been reflected in shifting tastes for wristwatch sizes, with buyers, particularly men, realising that bigger doesn't always equal better.
This also demonstrates the durability of mechanical watches. A mechanical watch can last for decades, sometimes even a century, if properly serviced and cared for. While a Rolex Submariner made in 1962 cannot compete with one made in 2022 in terms of materials used or robustness, a watch designed to withstand the elements 60 years ago can still do so today. And they keep time and look better on the wrist than larger, modern watches.
But first, some background information. When did watches become so ridiculously large? If you look through past catalogues of most major watch brands, you'll notice that watch sizes remained consistent up until the 1990s. This meant 32-37mm for dress watches and 36-39mm for most sports watches, with only dive watches exceeding 40mm on a regular basis. Larger watch cases made sense for dive watches and sports watches in general, given their profoundly tool-like qualities. They serve a purpose in harsh outdoor environments where dial legibility and water resistance are paramount.
However, the curious case of the expanding watch case kept getting curiouser over the 1990s and the early 2000s, till it suddenly seemed that, more often than not, dress watches for men were coming in at 41mm, while dive watches regularly hit the 45-48mm mark. Watch enthusiasts often jokingly call this the “Panerai effect”, with the luxury manufacture’s iconic and increasingly super-sized Luminor dive watches rocking up on the beefy wrists of dudes like Sylvester Stallone (he once wore a 60mm Panerai L’Egiziano PAM341). But it wouldn’t be fair to single out Panerai. This was also a time when Arnold Schwarzenegger was wearing giant Audemars Piguet Offshores or Tom Cruise was wearing a huge U-Boat watch.
Posted in Default Category on June 14 2022 at 07:53 AM

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