A ladies’ timepiece used to be a bit of an afterthought for many watchmakers. Going by the releases and design trends this year at Watches and Wonders, the world’s biggest horological showcase, that is surely no longer. Pursuits of beauty, poetry and (surprise!) usefulness are making the ladies’ category perhaps the most exciting it’s ever been. In this series of Vogue Watch Reports, we curate 2025’s most noteworthy releases from Geneva. Here, a cheeky answer to the question of ‘what comes after the bracelet?’ Why, watches with bangles, of course!
Bracelets have gotten some major love this year, but their distant relative, the bangle, is no slouch either. Since Cartier’s yellow gold bangle Baignoire hit a goldmine of popularity last year, this style has been on the rise.
The Parisian jeweller-watchmaker, in fact, seems to have been surprised by its own success—the bangle-style watch was on a waitlist, with very limited sizes. This year, it’s amping up the Baignoire on a bangle with a version that’s dotted with diamonds informally nicknamed ‘polkadot’.
Chanel, meanwhile, is upping the jewelled aspect of its octagonal cocktail watch with the Première Galon. The new designs are now cased in solid 18-carat gold, with twisted gold bracelets to match—‘galon’ is French for braid, and takes its reference from the braided trims of Chanel’s tweed suits.
And at Bvlgari, the Roman house has given its snake icon the Serpenti its first major reimagining this decade. Enter the Serpenti Aeterna, which abstracts the snake form into geometric arrowhead shapes and which curls around the wrist as a hinged bangle.
Vogue Singapore’s June 2025 ‘Gold’ issue is available on newsstands and online.
