Finally, Women Are Breaking Up One of Luxury's Stuffiest Boys' Clubs

Dimepiece founder Brynn Wallner hosts a roundtable of leaders in the watch world to unpack the ascendant power of the female collector.

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THE LUXURY WATCH market was hit by a perfect storm in 2020: Supply was low, demand was high, hype was rampant, and lots of people were stuck home with money to burn. Record-breaking auction results and skyrocketing prices on the secondary market-fed by the rise of watch-oriented social media-caused a horological frenzy in which everyone and their brother fancied themselves collectors, speculators, and experts.

It's also the year I launched Dimepiece, my femme-forward watch platform. I'd spent the previous year newly fascinated by timepieces after a brief stint working at Sotheby'sbut not seeing myself, a rookie to horology, at all represented.

I arrived just in time. Because that wild year also inspired a new set of women to kick open the door to this historically male-dominated arenaand those who have been here the whole time are enjoying the cultural (and financial) shift.

According to Deloitte's 2023 Swiss Watch Industry Study, "the untapped potential of the female watch buyer is significant." Women are making more money (in this economy?!) and making more luxury watch purchases than ever before.

Deeming women-fully half the human population-as an "untapped" growth market seems somewhere between obvious and oblivious, but also leaves out the other half of the equation: Women are only just now becoming leaders and voices in the watch world. This is a centuries-old industry built on a love of the old ways. Plus, it's dominated by Switzerland. In one canton in that tiny, beautiful country, women weren't even allowed to vote in local elections until 1991. Nineteen ninety-one!

To capture the spirit of this exciting moment and to understand how the watch world can build off of this female-powered momentum, I sat down with three women who've become major players in horology.