If we look back at the history of watch design, especially to those years during which wristwatches edged out pocket watches in the early part of the 20th century, watches were dominated by a singular, uniform style. The case shape would be round, the dial white and the numerals pronounced, whether they were Arabic or Roman. Only the hands offered much room for expression: sometimes straight, others sword-shaped or skeletonized, and every now and again in the Breguet style, peepholes eyed the time as a cuckoo might another bird’s nest.

This classic, dressy form, as it might now be known, was not born of chance. The mechanical calibres inside those watches were typically round, and so the logical housing for them was circular too. It no doubt helped that this utilitarian solution created a 360-degree palette onto which the clockwise nature of time could be tidily relayed. 

It may have been subconscious, but it won’t have hurt that roundness had a universality to it – a genderlessness, even – and that the soft, mellow visual and haptic story it told, was somehow pleasing. From the iris to the world itself, nature encourages us to sink into the boundaryless possibilities of annular forms.

In the century and more since those first wristwatches were popularised, many makers have experimented with shape and form, driven partly, we can assume, by commercial imperative, but also by a pressing creative motivation to present something novel, a watch design with a silhouette the eye will recognise with only the merest of passing glances. Cartier is the example nonpareil: introducing styles such as the Santos, Baignoire, Tank and Tortue as early as the 1900s, the house set a template for artistic interpretation in watch design that continues to bring the Parisian house much attention (and many pretenders to its throne). 

More than any other facet, shape and form have come to dictate our appreciation of watches. Speaking some years ago about his approach when creating the Hermès Galop d’Hermès, the protean designer Ini Archibong explained that his process began by inviting others to identify watches by their silhouettes alone. On the wall, he hung Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak, Panerai’s Luminor, Rolex’s Submariner, TAG Heuer’s Monaco, among others. Were they each recognisable by their outline alone? But of course.

Into the 21st century, the rise of independent watchmakers, together with the emergence of the mechanical watch as a vehicle for self-expression and self-indulgence, have heralded a maverick approach to case and movement design. So, while those icons of the past remain, the landscape is now also pockmarked by amorphous silhouettes such as those from MB&F’s collection of Horological Machines or Fiona Kruger’s skull-shaped watches. 

But none has ever convinced us to bypass roundness for more than a fleeting moment, any more than the works of Richard Linklater have dislodged that of Michael Bay at the box office. If anything, while they amuse and distract – and make perfect gifts for influencers – these disruptive forms have really only served to cast the perpetual merits of a classic round watch into sharp relief. 

That’s why classic, often dressy watches are still very much here. Not just here: everywhere. The rules of style and luxury may have become less mannered and certainly more casual. And yet the conventional, conservative round watch is no more alien now that it was in the straightened times of a hundred years ago. The mistake would be to believe that this makes it dull, or worse, a canvas too rigid to de-codify.

All of which brings us neatly to Vacheron Constantin’s latest riff on its Patrimony: among the roundest of the round watches, and a classic so pure it might have written the prologue to a volume on the genre authored by Patek Philippe’s Calatrava. Introduced in 2004 as a nod to the legacy of Vacheron’s mid-century ultra-thin dress watches, in its 20 years it has outlasted the always-oscillating whims of watch design fashion, treading serenely by as watches first expanded and then shrank in size, and as hype-watch culture burned bright and brazen.

Even when it becomes a platform for grandes complications, Patrimony is a lesson in simplicity. The watch symbolizes Dieter Rams’ maxim of “less, but better” with ease, even while its design origins pre-date the German’s Ten Principles of Good Design. At Watches and Wonders in the spring, a pair of hand-wound 39mm models that distilled the form down to two hands, 12 pencil-thin indices and a perimeter trail of dot minute markers – no date – became two show standouts. The company had issued barely a whisper, yet the echo resonated far beyond Vacheron’s booth. 

And now, a new take on the Patrimony, a version of the self-winding model co-created in collaboration with the French product and industrial design agency Ora-ïto, founded by the designer who goes by the same name (real name Ito Morabito). Morabito – also known for his work with Nike, Steiner, the French transport system and Renault, for whom he created the buzzy electric restored Renault 17 coupé, has personally been the face of Vacheron’s “One of Not Many” campaign for five years. If there’s one thing that’s remarkable about this particular collaboration, it’s that it has taken this long for the two to fuse their creative talents together in a single wristwatch. 

In Ora ïto’s Patrimony, the round silhouette is untouched – as it should be. Also present and correct: those elemental hour and minute markers, and the two straight-sided, pinnacled hands. Unmistakably, it is a Vacheron Constantin Patrimony. Materially, the case offers 40mm of yellow gold, 8.55mm of measured but not overwrought slenderness, and a calfskin leather strap. 

To that familiar base Ora ïto has then added a gold-toned dial with grooved concentric circles that emanate in equal steps from the centre to the edge, a date wheel coloured to match the dial with numerals in the same burgundy hue as the strap (something that alarmingly few brands heed when criss-crossing the colour spectrum). The only other flourish is staggered, muscular padding in the strap, reminiscent of the sports seats in 1970s American muscle cars. 

It's a watch that toys with us. Is it a dress watch? Or something more informal, even everyday? And what of the balance between design and mechanics? Behind the ripples of the dial Vacheron has installed its calibre 2450 Q6, a delicious assembly of delicately finished parts that together with the rest of the watch have been deemed worthy of the exacting Geneva Seal quality standard.

If this watch is all of these things – and knowingly so – it’s a stance that means the Ora ïto Patrimony conforms to contemporary design mores.
 

“We are in a multi-trend, multi-style phase,” confirms Tom Ravenscroft, editor of Dezeen. “Right now, we’re in a place where numerous styles are existing at the same time, and relatively comfortably with each other. There is a clear, maximalist, over-the-top vibe, but also a very minimalist sentiment. (Design trends are) formal and informal, playful and then serious.”

In watchmaking, this fluidity of style and influences becomes increasingly prevalent, particularly among fashion-forward, creatively ambitious brands. Bulgari’s mirrored dial Octo Finissimo made in collaboration with Pritzker-winning Japanese architect Kazuyo Sejima arranged the playful and the serious in parallel, as did Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar “Cactus Jack” Limited Edition, which brought brown ceramic and Travis Scott’s dial doodles in sync with one of high-end traditional watchmaking’s most revered complicated mechanical movements. Not forgetting Hublot’s own colourful synthesis with a maverick influence: last year, it launched sapphire-cased, rainbow-drenched timepieces made together with Japanese contemporary artist Takashi Murakami.

Language once used to define the base forms of these watches is no longer sufficient: classic, dressy, formal. Such language, these days, registers as cold and impersonal. It’s not that watches cannot be any of these things: these days, they’ve just been deconstructed and then some. 

But bold collaborations are not always required to lift classic, dressier styles out of their previous confinement. “It’s not a dress watch, it’s a watch,” says watch aficionado Justin Hast of the Patrimony line, succinctly enveloping a liberal sentiment found not just in watchmaking but in many forms of creative expression today. “What’s changed is that you can now wear a more formal watch in precious metal with Converse and chinos. You don’t have to be wearing a double-breasted Anderson & Sheppard suit to pull it off.”

What hasn’t changed is that to deliver a simple watch – something less, but better – remains complex. Not exactly removing an egg from an omelette-complex, but nonetheless any process of addition by subtraction continues to present a design challenge. 

Ora Ito’s take on the maxim is ‘Simplexity’, a construct overlaid on this latest iteration of the Patrimony. “This new Patrimony model combines two universes,” says Vacheron Constantin’s style and heritage director Christian Selmoni. “On one side, our maison with nearly 270 years’ experience and heritage. And on the other, Ora-ïto’s concept, which combines two seemingly contradictory notions: simplicity and complexity. Simplexity is the art of proposing a simple response to a complex problem, of giving a simple appearance to an object involving invisible complexity.”

Selmoni continues: “Even though the watch may appear simple in design, behind its aesthetic, every detail has been meticulously thought out. Sometimes achieving simplicity is the hardest of tasks. Minimalism doesn’t echo with simplicity.”

For Sarah Douglas, an advisor to brands and cultural institutions including the Steve Jobs archive, Ito’s design nous is as authentically-applied to watches as any other object because of his consistent standards. “He approaches each of his designs with legitimacy,” she says, “whether it is an object, a piece of furniture, a mode of transport, or a building. That makes for distinctive artistic collaborations.”

It seems likely the results will appeal to a contemporary audience, even set against the recent tide of sports watches, the dominant stylistic force in watch design across the past 15 years. “Recently, we’ve seen casual and sporty watches dominate our clients’ wish lists, with more traditional dress watches being somewhat forgotten,” confirms Beth Hannaway, Harrods director of buying for fine jewellery and watches. “But we’re now seeing elegance slowly making a comeback. Today’s dress watches aren’t always so classic, with much more variety in colour and style. But increasingly, a dress watch is becoming one of the most wearable watches in a collection because it’s adaptable (when it comes to) personal style, and (a given) situation.”

Contrary to popular belief, the cyclical nature of style and fashion dictates that even in the relatively intransigent watch sector, forms do come and go. The classic dress watch has proved its immunity to this rhythm. “A dress watch is all about timeless, classic elegance, something that never goes out of fashion,” says Selmoni. “There may be more of a focus on technical, sporty watches offering something for the thrill seekers out there, but dress watches aren’t a trend. They won’t be disappearing anytime soon.”