As I’ve talked about previously, square-shaped timepieces have always held a special place in my heart (and on my wrist). Perhaps it comes from my childhood fixation with Andy Warhol and his well-known love for Cartier Tanks (that he notoriously refused to wind), but square watches have remained the ideal dress watch in my mind.
The latest square watch to truly grab my attention doesn’t come from Cartier, or Jaeger-LeCoultre, or TAG Heuer. Instead, it comes from that world-famous purveyor of robin’s-egg-blue boxes and fine jewelry, Tiffany & Co.
Appropriately titled, the Tiffany Square Watch was released back at the end of August to commemorate the jeweler’s 180th anniversary. It’s a supremely classic timepiece, coming in at 27 mm by 35.8 mm and with a case made out of 18k rose gold. The creamy dial is seamlessly augmented by the honey-colored cathedral hands and gold poudré Arabic numerals. At six o’clock we have a small seconds subdial that is surrounded by a railway-inspired track. This same minute track circles (or squares, if you’re being cheeky) the edges of the dial and gives off a funky art deco style that works really well with both the size and the shape of the timepiece. Tiffany says that the watch is directly inspired by one of the New York retailer’s square timepieces from the 1920s, but the company doesn’t provide a specific example.
However, the real highlight here is the new movement that Tiffany is introducing. This square movement marks the first time in a long time that the New York jeweler has produced an in-house caliber. This is an exciting step for the monolithic retailer that revived its watch division in 2015 with the release of the CT60 collection, which used Sellita movements. Introducing a limited-edition timepiece with an in-house caliber is a great way to endear yourself to watch enthusiasts and draw attention to your brand. You can view the manual-winding TCO.1874M caliber through the open caseback.
The horological history of Tiffany & Co goes all the way back to 1847, just 10 years after Charles Lewis Tiffany first opened the doors to his shop on Lower Broadway in Manhattan. Six years later, he installed a statue of Atlas holding a clock above the entrance of the store. It was one of the first public clocks in the city and quickly gained a reputation for accuracy. In 1868, the first American stopwatch was assembled in the Tiffany workshop and finally, in 1876, the brand made the move to Geneva, where it opened a four-story facility on the Place Cornavin. Over the next century, Tiffany continued to produce timepieces — included the iconic folding purse watch — but eventually slowed its production in the mid-1990’s. This new timepiece marks a major step forward in reclaiming the brand’s significant horological history.
The Tiffany Square Watch is limited to 180 pieces and is priced at $17,000.
