Ever wondered about secret watch trend? These fabulous horological inspirations prompted us to delve into its history.

The secret watch trend gained popularity during the 1930s- 1950s, with decorative features concealing the dial, and then transformed into highly jeweled versions during the 1960s and 1970s. Luxury houses such as Jaeger-LeCoultre, Graff, Bulgari, Piaget, Cartier, Harry Winston and Van Cleef & Arpels have, for years, been designing secret watches – petite versions giving way to slightly bigger and bolder versions.

In fact, Van Cleef and Arpels created a lot of secret watches in the twenties, thirties and even in the forties. “Back then it was considered very impolite for an elegant lady to look at the time whether she was at an Opera or a restaurant. So, we created a lot of secret watches; it was very discrete. The minutière had a retractable watch and a lipstick topped with a small watch – and while doing a quick touch-up, the ladies could discretely check the time,” says Catherine Cariou, Heritage Director, Van Cleef and Arpels.

Of late, secret watches have been riding a wave of creativity with jewelry houses and watchmakers reviving our love for jeweled concealed timepieces.

Often, secret watches have very ornate gem encrusted ‘covers’ embellished with hand-engraved gemstones, pavéd diamonds or colored precious stones. Nature, as always, is the biggest inspiration providing jewelers and horologers with ideas for secret watches. Snails, beetles, serpents, turtles, flowers such as hortensia, roses, and even geometric patterns figure as key motifs on secret timepieces.

Browse through our gallery to view the key inspirations for high-jewelry secret watches.

Smitha Sadanandan