Tiffany & Co. riffs on the past for a Jazz Age–inspired watch.
By Stephen Watson
Entering the Tiffany store on Fifth Avenue feels like walking into a peaceful sanctuary. Its serene environment offers a welcome respite from the Midtown craziness of tourists, shoppers, and pop-up protests targeting the store’s infamous next-door resident-in-chief, Donald Trump. Its graceful combination of elegance and history is breathtaking, immediately bringing to mind Holly Golightly’s famous line: “It calms me down right away, the quietness and the proud look of it—nothing very bad could happen to you there, not with those kind men in their nice suits, and that lovely smell of silver and alligator wallets.”
Imagine all the positive accumulated karma earned over the years from joyful engagements, marriages, and tokens of love sold in the store’s 180-year-old history.
To honor this anniversary, Tiffany has looked back to the roaring ’20s to introduce the Tiffany Square, an elegant timepiece designed, engineered, and manufactured in Switzerland. The 180-piece limited edition features a rare square-shaped, manually wound movement with a 42-hour power reserve, which signals the store’s return to in-house caliber manufacturing. The watch’s art deco styling harks back to a significant design period for Tiffany, capturing all the style and sophistication of the legendary Jazz Age.
“I have to say it was love at first sight. We reviewed a series of timepieces belonging to our 20th-century heritage, and certain pieces immediately caught our attention,” says Nicola Andreatta, vice president and general manager of Tiffany & Co. Swiss Watches Sagl. “One of them was the original Square Watch, which in my opinion had all the qualities to be considered the quintessential Tiffany watch for a man.”
The new yellow-gold Square Watch replicates the same 27 mm case size, and the watch retains its original proportions, a size that might be considered small by today’s standards but somehow feels completely modern.
“The Jazz Age refers to a glittering moment in time when America came alive through jazz music, unbridled optimism, innovation, and glamour,” says Andreatta. “It is this explosion of creative energy and social change that defined the American spirit, and it continues to inspire.”
Tiffany Square Watch, $17,000; tiffany.com