From Kendall Jenner to Elle Fanning, why bangle watches are back in fashion

Could Kendall Jenner and Elle Fanning have helped propel the bangle watch back into fashion? Jenner has been wearing Cartier’s Baignoire for several years, including at last month’s Venice Film Festival, while Fanning paired hers with a succession of looks at Cannes last year.

Part jewel, part timepiece, the Baignoire watch places its distinctive oval-shaped dial on a rigid bracelet rather than a conventional strap and buckle. After more than a decade dominated by sports watches, its resurgence reflects a broader appetite for watches that behave more like jewellery.

Cartier reintroduced the Baignoire in 2023 to considerable fanfare. Its instantly recognisable bathtub-shaped case first appeared as the Ovale Cintré in 1958, before officially taking the Baignoire name in 1973. The revived design retains the signature curves and sapphire-set winding crown, and is a prime example of Cartier approaching watchmaking through a jeweller’s eye.

Show caption: First introduced under the Baignoire name in 1973, Cartier’s…

Since its return, the Baignoire has appeared with playful polka dots and classic pavé diamonds. The latest version features the Clou de Paris motif, a pyramidal hobnail pattern that has been part of Cartier’s design vocabulary since the 1920s, including a diamond-encrusted interpretation.

The idea itself is far from new. During the 1960s and 1970s, watchmakers regularly created bangle and cuff watches. Piaget produced examples with ornamental stone dials and finely textured gold bracelets, while in Denmark, Georg Jensen introduced its own silver interpretation in 1969, designed by pioneering Swedish silversmith Vivianna Torun. Her fluid, minimalist design has remained part of the house’s offering ever since. It is currently available with a diamond bezel. Today, a new generation of watchmakers is revisiting the form.

Combining the skills of its French jewellery workshops and Swiss watchmaking, Van Cleef & Arpels introduced the Toi et Moi secret watch in 2024, distinguished by the house’s Perlée gold beading. Versions followed in 2025, featuring diamonds and turquoise with yellow gold, and rose gold with jasper stones.

Show caption: The Toi et Moi secret watch combines the French maison’s jew…

For 2026, Bvlgari has updated its Serpenti Aeterna, the sleek open bangle that last year opened a new chapter for its iconic snake motif. It is now offered in rose gold set with 122 multicoloured gemstones, including rubellite, tsavorite, tanzanite, Paraiba tourmaline and peridot.

Chaumet offers the illusion of an open bangle with its Joséphine Aigrette watch. Introduced in 2021, the watch has a distinctive pear-shaped case that now comes in a two-tone version with rose gold and steel, designed to sit naturally alongside the house’s Joséphine jewellery.

Chanel, meanwhile, has been revisiting the Première, launched in 1987. Rejecting the masculine codes that dominated traditional watchmaking at the time, its octagonal case referenced the stopper of the N°5 perfume bottle, itself inspired by the geometry of Paris’s Place Vendôme.

Show caption: Drawing inspiration from the braided trims of Gabrielle Chan…

The latest interpretation is the Première Galon, which looks instead to Gabrielle Chanel’s tailoring. Its rigid bracelet resembles the twisted braid once used to trim Chanel suits, rendered in white or yellow gold, either polished or set with diamonds. A detail once used to define pockets and give structure to clothing has become the architecture of a watch.

Gucci is having even more fun with the idea. Its Play watch revives a concept introduced in the mid-1980s: an ultra-slim bangle watch supplied with six interchangeable coloured ceramic bezels, allowing the wearer to change the watch to suit an outfit.

The house has also revisited bamboo, famously introduced on Gucci handbags in 1947 in response to postwar shortages of traditional materials. Bamboo imported from Japan was heated and bent into the curved handles that became a house signature. The technique was translated into watch bracelets with the Bamboo collection in 2017, refreshed again this year. Not strictly a bangle, its upper section sits rigidly across the wrist, secured underneath by a bracelet fastening.

Show caption: Gucci revisits its playful 1980s watch design with six inter…

Perhaps no house, however, has explored the territory between watchmaking and jewellery as consistently as Piaget. In 1963, Piaget began using colourful ornamental stone dials, including lapis lazuli, turquoise, malachite, opal and tiger’s eye. The decision proved remarkably prescient, preceding the Swiss watchmaker’s expansion into jewellery.

Solid gold cuffs became another signature during the 1960s and 1970s, when Piaget became known as the House of Gold for its intricately woven bracelets and hand-engraved cuffs. Among its most recognisable finishes is the Décor Palace technique, which reappears on the Sixtie.

The latest high jewellery interpretation of the Sixtie revisits the glamour of the 1970s cuff watch through a softly contoured trapezoidal form, an opal centre and diamond-set detailing. Other new versions employ engraved textures, including snakeskin-like finishes, paired with either opal or enamel dials.

Together, these watches point to a wider shift in how brands are approaching women’s watchmaking. The bangle watch sits somewhere between accessory and horology, appealing to clients who want a timepiece that can become part of their jewellery wardrobe.

The aesthetic is particularly compelling for eveningwear, where a conventional sports watch can feel incongruous when paired with a silk gown. With their smaller dials and sculptural bracelets, bangle watches offer an elegant alternative – and one that can easily be stacked alongside other jewellery.

At a time when consumers seeking pure functionality can turn to a smartwatch – or dispense with a watch altogether – making a mechanical or quartz timepiece desirable as an object in its own right becomes increasingly important.

Turning the watch into jewellery may be one answer. Whether the current bangle revival proves enduring remains to be seen, but for now, watchmakers are firmly embracing the wrist as much as the watch.