Insights E19 - Wrist-Presence & The Inelegance of Tool Watches

Evolutionary theory suggests that we are drawn to certain people and not others based on hardwired aesthetic judgements wrought over some five-million years. Allen suggests that similar hardwired aesthetics are at play when we judge "wrist presence," and goes on to suggest that tool watches categorically fail to achieve this elusive quality. A deep dive into Cartier and Rolex in the early 20th Century shows how very different impulses in creating the wrist watch, the former elegant, the latter not so much.