Watches in Pairs Are Popular Among Couples in Asia

Watch manufacturers and collectors are each having fun with a little bit of matchy-matchy motion proper now as his-and-her appears in timepieces are turning up all over the place.

Piaget plans to rejoice the approaching Chinese language New Yr with a particular assortment of eight excessive jewellery and métiers d’artwork watches — 4 masculine and 4 female — scheduled to be launched in December, with costs on request. The designs nod to the dragon and the phoenix, conventional Chinese language symbols for female and male. (And, 2024 additionally occurs to be the Yr of the Dragon.)

In October, Ulysse Nardin launched a pair of matching watches with aventurine dials: the shimmering face of a 39-millimeter Diver Starry Night superimposed a mother-of-pearl dial layer on an aventurine one ($14,700), whereas the complementary, extra masculine 42-millimeter Marine Torpilleur Moonphase Aventurine nodded to the watchmaker’s historical past in marine chronometers ($13,600).

And the limited-edition Montblanc 1858 Iced Sea Automatic Date Coffret is a trio of 41-millimeter watches — in blue, inexperienced and grey dials, adorned with laser engravings of mountains from the Mont Blanc massif. The watchmaker mentioned the items are sometimes bought by {couples} ($11,900).

In August, Bulgari unveiled a particular pair of metal designs from its Bulgari Bulgari assortment solely for mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, in honor of the QiXi Pageant, typically described because the Chinese language equal of Valentine’s Day. With matching lacquered inexperienced dials, the boys’s 41-millimeter model featured a date show (39,900 renminbi, or $5,465), whereas the 33-millimeter female model had a rose gold bezel and diamond indexes (49,500 renminbi or $6,800).

Why is Asia talked about typically in these descriptions?

Within the 18th century, European watchmakers typically made matching timepieces for noble and rich Chinese language. “Chinese language prospects sometimes most popular to purchase watches in pairs due to their perception within the significance of symmetry, primarily based on the opposing however complementary ideas of yin and yang,” Peter Friess, curator of the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva, wrote in an electronic mail.

The museum owns a number of watch pairs, together with one which was displayed in June at its “Watch Artwork” exhibition in Tokyo. The pair of pearl-set, heart-shape pocket watches play music and have enamel photos of Venus and Cupid.

The Swiss watchmaker Bovet additionally created watch pairs for the Chinese language market, starting within the 1800s. And the pattern continues to be fashionable, Bovet’s present proprietor, Pascal Raffy, wrote in an electronic mail, with {couples} shopping for pairs at retail “very often.” Among the many hottest Bovet pairs, he wrote, are its 19Thirty (beginning at $29,000) and Miss Audrey (beginning at $31,000) fashions.

Antoine Pin, managing director of Bulgari’s watch division, famous that younger {couples} in China typically prefer to match. “You see this with very trendy objects, like sweaters or sneakers,” he mentioned. “Clearly it’s above the normal method of taking a look at issues.”

It does make a press release, mentioned Kathryn Smerling, a household therapist in New York Metropolis. “It’s an announcement to the world,” she mentioned. “It says: ‘We’re a pair. We’re collectively — and actually collectively.’”

That sentiment infuses how Justin and Linsey Lunny regard their watch decisions. The couple, who reside within the English county of Surrey, have lengthy been watch lovers: Mrs. Lunny wore Flik Flak and Swatch watches rising up, whereas Mr. Lunny’s horological curiosity was handed down from his maternal grandfather, who liked horology. (“I keep in mind so vividly going into his form of little den and all I might hear was 40 or 50 timepieces ticking away,” Mr. Lunny recalled.)

The Lunnys have bought three units of matching watches within the 21 years they’ve been a pair. “We’ve got gone via loads in our lives, collectively,” mentioned Mrs. Lunny, the founding father of Hidden Energy, a psychological well being platform for younger folks in Britain. “The watches are a illustration of a degree in our lives — it’s about reminiscence and an achievement, what we’ve been via, the place we’ve come from. Hopefully we will move the watches on to the youngsters with these recollections.”

Mr. Lunny purchased the primary pair in 2012 for Christmas. The Rolex Daytona fashions each have been 40 millimeters — hers, in rose gold with a golden mild pink dial that Rolex calls Sundust; his, in metal with a black dial. The acquisition adopted a very troublesome two years of non-public {and professional} trauma for the couple. “It was type of a ‘We’ve made it,’” Mrs. Lunny recalled. “It was our little method of remembering that we’d come out of it higher off.”

In 2017, Mr. and Mrs. Lunny had bought their firms: Mr. Lunny’s was a 10-year-old on-line fintech funds enterprise; Mrs. Lunny’s, a 12-year-old nurseries and preschools enterprise. To mark the events, they acquired a pair of restricted version Patek Philippe Nautilus chronographs, Ref. 5976/1G, produced for the mannequin’s fortieth anniversary.

However Mr. Lunny’s watch was stolen whereas they have been on trip, they usually later determined to promote Mrs. Lunny’s. “We um’ed and ah’ed about what we do with my one,” she mentioned. “I mentioned I couldn’t hold it when he didn’t have his.”

The couple’s newest pair buy got here in 2021 for his or her fifteenth marriage ceremony anniversary. Whereas the Lunnys’ earlier watch purchases had been deliberate, this one was not — and whereas it appears arduous to imagine, they every purchased an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak watch in rose gold for the opposite. “We each needed to get the opposite rose gold, which was very weird,” Mrs. Lunny mentioned.

There have been some variations, although: His 41 millimeter had a brown dial and matching alligator strap, whereas her 37 millimeter had a white dial and diamond bezel.

The couple mentioned they’d “100%” purchase extra matching watches sooner or later, and Mr. Lunny added that they like coordinating their timepieces, particularly when attending occasions collectively.

“Watches are so private,” mentioned Mr. Lunny, who in 2019 based Everrati, an automotive firm that restores extremely prized previous automotive fashions and turns them into electrical automobiles. “You might purchase an identical automotive, however you’re unlikely to go and drive it on the similar time.”

Cody and Mojdeh Cutter, who reside in New York Metropolis, even have matching watches — of their case, Rolex Datejust fashions. His black dial model is 36 millimeters, whereas her pink dial one is 31 millimeters.

The watches have been a present from Mrs. Cutter’s father for his or her marriage ceremony, which happened over a video name throughout December 2020 pandemic restrictions.

“It’s the one tangible memento we have now to characterize that second in time,” mentioned Mrs. Cutter, who’s head of partnerships and occasions on the Swiss Institute, a nonprofit up to date artwork group. “We by no means had a celebration however we have now these actually, actually particular presents to all the time keep in mind our Zoom marriage ceremony.”

Mr. Cutter, a photographer, mentioned he wears his watch day by day. And whereas the couple doesn’t actually coordinate, “it’s all the time such a pleasing shock after we stroll out the door and simply occur to note that we’re each sporting them,” he mentioned. “It’s a pleasant little second between my spouse and I.”