As ideas of masculinity continue to shift, men are borrowing from women’s style too—turning to smaller cases, jewelry-like details, and watches once designed exclusively for women.

Harry Styles once said, “Clothes are there to have fun with and experiment with and play with. [...] Anytime you’re putting barriers up in your own life, you’re just limiting yourself.” That spirit is gradually reshaping the way men think about fashion. The formulas that inspire well-dressed, masculine style are no longer confined to the rugged designs we once imagined. More and more men are turning to softer shapes, finer lines, and accessories designed for women to refresh their own style.
There was a time when the watch industry drew a fairly clear line between men’s and women’s watches. Large, complicated dials were obvious statements of power on a man’s wrist, while women were assumed to belong in smaller watches, set with diamonds and as delicate as jewelry.
Then tastes changed, and smaller sizes were no longer seen as the exclusive territory of women. In recent years, a growing number of male stars—including G-Dragon, Timothée Chalamet, Justin Bieber, and Paul Mescal—have all worn watches with more feminine designs: smaller dials, more unusual jewelry-like forms, brighter colors, and diamond-set bezels. In doing so, they have helped open up a new trend in which the boundaries between men’s and women’s watches are becoming increasingly unnecessary.

G-Dragon is considered one of the K-pop artists at the forefront of breaking down gender barriers in fashion. As CHANEL’s first Asian brand ambassador, he has long had a habit of incorporating feminine-leaning accessories into his everyday style. He often pairs watches such as the Piaget Sixtie, Chanel Boy.Friend, and Rolex Lady-Datejust with gemstone rings, diamond bracelets, and spontaneously layered jewelry.

First is the Piaget Sixtie with its turquoise dial. Created in the 1960s, the Sixtie was conceived by Piaget in the spirit of a jewelry watch. Its trapezoidal case and sharp geometric lines have the solidity of strong shapes while still carrying the softness associated with fine jewelry.
G-Dragon extends the color story with jewelry rings in the same lagoon-like shade of blue, placing them alongside a sparkling diamond bracelet. The turquoise tones sit between flashes of gold and light reflected from the stones, making the Sixtie resemble a sunlit lake, revealing a new shade every time the wrist moves.

As a CHANEL ambassador, G-Dragon naturally could not overlook the diamond-set Boy.Friend.
The Chanel Boy.Friend is recognized by its octagonal case and broadly gender-neutral appearance. It has the strength of geometric form while retaining the softness expected of a piece of jewelry. G-Dragon does not leave the watch on its own, instead placing it among fine-jewelry bracelets made from materials including gold, diamonds, and metal.

G-Dragon also has a relatively small wrist. On one occasion, while flying by private jet to the United States, the fashion icon wore a Lady-Datejust with a gold case and diamond-set hour markers. The watch sat beside a gold chain and gold bracelet, allowing the metallic tones to flow continuously across his wrist.
The Lady-Datejust was the first watch Rolex developed specifically for women. Based on the Datejust introduced in 1945, it retained the fluted bezel and date window while reducing the entire structure to a diameter of 26 mm. With the proportions scaled down, the strength of the Datejust also becomes slightly softer.

Timothée Chalamet has a slender frame with proportions that seem almost made for fashion, along with a distinctly cinematic face. On his wrist, smaller watches create a more natural sense of balance than oversized cases. Alongside modestly sized men’s watches, designs made for women have also appeared in his looks on several occasions.
The Cartier Tank Mini and Baignoire are two examples. Both carry a distinctly French elegance, but each expresses its own kind of charm.
With the Tank Mini, Timothée wears two watches stacked at once, creating a highly individual visual effect when paired with a gold bracelet from Cartier’s LOVE collection.

The Baignoire, meanwhile, has elongated, soft, and distinctly feminine curves. That softness does not feel out of place, but instead blends naturally with Timothée Chalamet’s slightly androgynous, delicate, and free-spirited appearance.

Justin Bieber is already known for a somewhat rebellious, carefree style, so seeing him wear a women’s watch is not especially surprising. In an oversized streetwear look dominated almost entirely by white, Justin did not turn to familiar sporty watches such as the Submariner. Instead, he wore a discontinued Rolex Cellini.
Its 22 mm size, originally intended for women, makes the 18K gold case appear even smaller on a man’s wrist, while the matching bracelet extends the gold tone in one continuous line. The diamond-set bezel and hour markers sparkle against the slightly rough streetwear look. The more relaxed the streetwear becomes, the more refined the Cellini appears; the larger the clothes, the smaller the watch looks, and it is precisely that contrast that makes both stand out more clearly.

Irish actor Paul Mescal attended the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures gala in classic black-and-white eveningwear. A former football player, Mescal has a compact, athletic build with almost no excess body fat. On his wrist was a Cartier Tank Mini measuring 24 × 16.5 mm. The small case sits neatly on the wrist without overpowering the formalwear, instead adding a refined, slightly scholarly quality to the actor’s otherwise athletic appearance.

It should also be emphasized that styling women’s watches tends to work especially well on men with slimmer builds. Women’s watches often have shorter straps, so on a slender wrist, the proportions between the case, strap, and body are more likely to feel harmonious. For men who spend every day in the gym, with bulging arms and powerful wrists, however, a 24 mm Tank Mini may risk looking more like a piece of jewelry temporarily borrowed from a girlfriend.

Why G-Dragon, Timothée Chalamet, and Justin Bieber Are Wearing Women’s Watches

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