So many great posts! In case anyone was wondering, this is the particular watch that the dealer suggested. I found it striking, regardless of any concerns with size.

 

Many women, including my wife, wear watches of this size...what used to be considered a man's size watch and "too large" for women to wear. In her case she regularly wears a 36 mm vintage Rolex DateJust, at least when I'm not fixing it...and other watches of a similar size in the mid-30 mm range.

Your desire for these watches, larger than what would be considered traditional women's watches, confirms what the dealer is saying in way. All watch sizes have increased, and the norm for both men and women has shifted larger.

The traditional standards would dictate a much smaller watch for a woman, like this Omega:



It's one a recently serviced, and the diameter is 17 mm without the crown, and the movement is smaller than a finger nail:



I have a smaller ladies vintage watch I'm picking away at for my wife as a gift - tonneau shaped and 28 mm X 17 mm, and I'm concerned that she might not be able to read it.

All sizes have shifted upwards, and again I don't see them going back down to where they once were. I service very few of these smaller ladies watches, and the vintage watches I do service for women are typically men's watches when they were made.

Cheers, Al

 

I get what you're saying but my main point was if size were the driving criteria there would be no men wanting the Nina Rindt.

Women do wear much larger watches than they used to but as far as I can tell a majority still wears 27mm-32mm watches, which are still much smaller than 35mm. Maybe it's a generational thing, I'm talking women aged 30 to 50ish, and there's one exception in that those women do wear big sports watches.
Maybe also it varies from one continent to another (scale in the US always seems very different, whether you're talking about a building or a hamburger).
In any event as far as I'm concerned, sizes run the whole gamut (but somehow I'm more comfortable with a 37mm chronograph or a 21mm ladies' watch than a 35 mm seamaster).

 

Once again, the sales guy said "most men" according to the OP, not all men. It's clear there is a small, but dedicated group of collectors who prefer smaller watches - that isn't in dispute. Vintage collectors are a self selecting group of mostly smaller watch lovers...it is the nature of the beast and not related to the general public. So of course vintage collectors like smaller watches...because vintage watches are smaller - no big surprise there.

Exactly my point, and I assume the sales guy.

It could very well be a generational thing, but my wife is 50, and wears the aforementioned DateJust, a Nomos Tetra that is the same size as the one that adam78 wears, but with different colours:



And this vintage Seamaster:



She also has a smaller 29 mm Sinn, but doesn't wear it much anymore.

And for the record, we are not located in the US (thank that fictional space dude in the sky)...so how big or small things are there is irrelevant to me...

Cheers, Al

 

My mother had one almost exactly like that. I don't see it becoming fashionable again soon even apart from its size.

 

Actually, very tiny women's watches have made a sort of a come back... How long it will stick is another matter but two years ago Hermes and other luxury fashion jewelers (like Dior IIRC) created models like this one (about 10mm width):

 

Nice to hear, since I got my wife an 18ct gold Baume & Mercier that is about that size many moons ago. Maybe my daughter will eventually be interested in it.

 

Yes, "one off" examples of small ladies watches by various brands aside, I think this sort of watch is not coming back in fashion any time soon. JLC still makes watches using the Cal. 101, but that doesn't mean these are going to be common. That's why in thread after thread like this one value will be given as "scrap value" only...which is a shame...

https://omegaforums.net/threads/vintage-lady-gold-watch-any-info-appreciated.46966/

I have many tiny ladies Bulova watches that use Bulova manufacture movements (these are not cheap movements so 17 jewel or better) - you can buy a whole bag of them for $5.

 

I think the design concept for those was often more of a bracelet with a small attached ornament that happened to tell time rather than of a wrist watch. As with other conventional jewelry styles of the 50s and 60s, I may well not live long enough to see its return.

 

Fashions come and go all th

You're probably right but making predictions is always a risky proposition.

How many times have I seen in discussions between military watch collectors accounts that Rolex submariners issued to the British military were being destroyed routinely in field locations (including with the advent of the quartz era) because no one wanted to be bothered filling out the paperwork to return them ? They weren't even thought to be worth scrap. Surely no one would have imagined they might be fashionable, let alone valued at about £50-100k a piece.
Ten years ago even, you could buy almost virtually by the load and for £75 a piece British-issued Valjoux equipped chronographs (the so-called 6BB asymetrical chronographs made by Hamilton /CWC / Precista anf Newmark) -- now they're worth over £1500 a piece and counting, and they're not even by far the most valuable.
So who's to predict what's scrap and what's destined to become fashionable?
Not even those who bought them when they were cheap ever imagined they would be fashionable, they just bought them because they liked them.

 

Not for me - I have nothing invested either way. Also, I am not making predictions really for the long term...hence "any time soon"...

 

If we use my Fitbit wearing 17 year old daughter as an example, little ladies watches are making a come back. I kept trying to get her interested in my vintage watch collection by offering her 33mm Omegas. She said she didn't like "chunky" watches. When I bought her a traditional ladies cocktail size '60s Omega she loved it and so did all of her friends. Regarding men's watch sizes, my collection looks something like this. '40s 30mm, '50s 33mm, '60s 35mm, '70s 42mm, '80s back to 30mm, then they kept getting bigger until now. They are coming back down and may get back down to a classic 33mm. I never try to guess what the next generation will like. Most of them don't even wear watches.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Great picture... I have a small wrist but I wear what I like and not what I'm told...

 

Fashions come and go. It's hard to know what will be preferable in the future, though it will probably be something 20 to 30 years old.
One thing that doesn't change it's the drive to make a buck. I suspect the salesman knew he was selling a product driven by discretionary spending. He was trying to appeal to your sense of "keeping up with the Joneses".

 

I don't know....

 

The real point is that a dealer has no business badmouthing somebody's watch to try and sell them something bigger.

Another interesting point is that vintage lovers may be a minority in appreciating smaller watches, but their tastes and demands have literally created a global million dollar business, so they are trend setters in many ways -- not just odd balls.

 

But I'd be willing to bet they will all carry a 21st century "pocket watch"

 

Smart men have style...

...Non-smart ones end up as watch-salesmen ...

 

If he had said the watch was a piece of crap, I could understand calling what was done badmouthing (which is never a good thing from a sales tactic point of view) but calling what the OP relayed as such seems over the top to me. It doesn't seem that the OP was particularly offended by the interaction, and I have had personally much worse at watch stores with sales guys saying things and acting negatively to a watch I was wearing while looking at their stock.

The sales guy did just state facts in trying to make a sale after all...

 

He's right in that most men are wearing watches larger than 35mm.