The Teeny-Tiny Watch Trend Is Now the Mainstream Aesthetic

For the September issue of GQ, I wrote about the raging debate in the watch world between teeny-tiny watches and their outsized counterparts.

The watch world has been abuzz with a raging debate in recent years: teeny-tiny watches versus their outsized counterparts. A loud contingent has refused to cage their epic 45-mm wristwear, but the tug-of-war has decidedly gone toward teensy pieces.

This trend took another critical hit this weekend at the Annual Academy Museum Gala, where Paul Mescal and Dwyane Wade showed up with some revealing weaponry of choice. Wade wore the Tiffany & Co. Eternity watch, a 28-mm ladies watch that's smaller than a half-dollar coin, while October’s GQ cover star Mescal chose the diminutive watch of 2024: a bite-sized version of the Cartier Tank.

While watches have been trending smaller, with some adventurous dressers like Timothée Chamalet and Bad Bunny sporting ladies’ watches, it's now fully breaking into the mainstream. To explain this in Pokémon terms, since that's what we're all familiar with, right?: You gave your trend a Paul Mescal Stone. What? Your trend is evolving! Congratulations, it's now the mainstream aesthetic!

Mescal's tiny Tank was one of the conversation pieces at this year’s Watches & Wonders, the industry's biggest tradeshow. The shrunken Tank replicates its larger counterpart in every way, providing all of the iconic Cartier details in smaller packaging. Much smaller: The TTT (teeny-tiny Tank) measures in at an adorable 24 by 16.5 mm.

The TTT was Cartier’s follow-up to 2023's smash-hit Bagnoire Bangle, a product the Parisian jeweler still can't keep in stock. I bring the Bangle up because it demonstrates how quickly trends can move. While many male collectors acknowledged the beauty of the Bangle upon its release, few dared to actually wear it. Even those who did, like the super stylish Mark Cho, wore it as a bracelet and hid it under suit sleeves. Now, just a year later, celebrities are proudly wearing equally small watches on the red carpet.

It wasn't just Mescal riding the delightfully small ripples of the tiny watch trend. Wade showed up to the same event with an equally pint-sized piece. Wade takes his wristwear seriously—so much so that his stylist Jason Bolden told me he hems his client's suit sleeves a touch shorter to set the stage for his watches. That makes Wade's fashion statement last night ring that much louder.

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