Despite the sudden media attention, the Clubhouse-inspired chatter and the label of there being a “new movement” on the horizon, the truth remains that women have been interested in and have also (gasp!) collected watches for ages. The first known wristwatches were created for women, not for men, with a handful of those women being royals.
In 1810, Caroline Murat, then Queen of Naples and sister to Napoleon I, commissioned Abraham-Louis Breguet to create for her a watch to be worn on a bracelet, adding to her already vast collection of 34 clocks and watches from Breguet. A few decades later in 1868, a wristwatch was created for Countess Koscowicz of Hungary by Polish watchmaking pioneer Antoni Patek (of Patek Philippe fame). It wasn’t until the late 19th century that men began wearing wristwatches, and at that time, only for reasons related to being in the military. Yet somewhere in the last 140 years, the tide shifted and the focus on women in the watch collecting world started to wane. But that does not mean women enthusiasts went away; it simply means their recognition did.
The goal with
