Just one day after we declared tiny timepieces the biggest watch trend of 2023, Timothée Chalamet decided to do us a solid and really hammer the point home. On Friday, the Wonka star popped up on the sidelines of the Lakers-Pacers game in Vegas wearing a petite 23mm Cartier Panthère.
One of Hollywood’s biggest, brightest stars wearing a teensy Cartier represents a wild turnaround from the ‘90s and ‘00s, when guys like Sly Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger reigned supreme in ginormous Panerais and oversized Audemars Piguets. Tastes have shifted significantly over the past decade—though Rolex may have upsized the Submariner to 41mm, many maisons are returning to an era of more manageable case sizes, and the watch cognoscenti have been all too happy to wax poetic about the delight of 36-39mm diameters from one corner of the internet to another.
This greater trend contains within it a micro-trend: Men purposefully adopting watches designed for women. These timepieces generally feature case sizes in the ~20-30mm range and ample use of precious metal, diamonds, and other luxurious touches. That’s the category Chalamet’s charming Panthère falls into.
The panther is part and parcel of Cartier lore: The elegant feline has been featured in the company’s jewelry since 1914, and coalesced into a full horological collection in 1983 as the Panthère de Cartier. It quickly became the go-to piece of wrist candy to the likes of Madonna, Gwenyth Paltrow, and even Princess Diana—but it was also adopted by decade’s most stylish men, including Pierce Brosnan, Charlie Sheen and Keith Richards. In the ‘80s, of course, smaller watches were still firmly “in,” and the Panthère fit the part. Chalemet’s, in steel with a matching bracelet, the classic Cartier Roman-numeral dial, and a blue spinel crown, is an excellent everyday version.
As recently as a few years ago, you’d be hard pressed to find a man’s man sporting a watch from a collection described by Cartier as “a staple for a woman who never goes unnoticed.” That being said, the maison also describes the Panthère as “wild, feline, and free”—and that certainly seems to match Chalamet’s energy. Indeed, if the Harkonnen-slaying, throne-inheriting Paul Atreides can pull one off, then take note, fellow watch nerds: Small watches are back—but tiny watches are back with a vengeance.
